Dan Campbell is a wild man.
The Detroit Lions head coach, who in 2021 said he’d “love to literally just have a pet lion” at team practices, reiterated his position on the matter this week during an interview with Barstool Sports.
Even though he was on board with it, the NFL was not quite as excited about the prospect of a live lion roaming the sidelines in Detroit.
“[Team owner] Sheila [Hamp Ford], she had no problem with it, but the league apparently frowns on those types of things,” Campbell said during an episode of the Pardon My Take podcast.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to do it, but I would love to literally just have a pet lion. Just a legit pet lion on a chain, a big-a– chain, and he really is my pet,” Campbell said about the lion back in 2021.
Campbell was careful not to call out Commissioner Roger Goodell directly, but he did say the league is very much against teams having live mascots.
“I’m not gonna point out Roger on this,” Campbell said. “I’m just gonna say that the league frowns on that. Let’s just say that.”
“Believe me, though, we would take great care of it. It would be fed well, it would be petted, it would be manicured,” Campbell said.
“I might end up losing an arm because of it, but that would be even better because it would validate what, this is a freaking, this is a creature now. This is an animal. This thing, this is from the wild.”
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Even though Campbell won’t get his wish of a real lion at Ford Field, he still has a team full of wild men who are excited as the 2023 season approaches. The Lions took a big step forward in Campbell’s second season, going 9-8 and narrowly missing the playoffs last year.
The team has since added a lot of young talent in the 2023 draft and in free agency, the team is ready to compete for the NFC North title this fall. With Aaron Rodgers being gone, the division is wide open.
Detroit hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2016, but the Lions seem poised to be a contender this season following last year’s 9-8 finish.
