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Lions and Tigers fans pack downtown Detroit with playoff buzz in the air
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- Lions and Tigers fans pack downtown Detroit with playoff buzz in the air
On Sunday, it was hard to tell who was rooting for who in downtown Detroit .
With Old English Ds riding on a tide of Honolulu Blue , only one thing was for certain: The thousands of people outside of Comerica Park and Ford Field were all rooting for Detroit.
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It's not too unusual to have a Detroit Tigers home game on the same day as a Detroit Lions home game, but to have both teams starting games within an hour of each other while simultaneously putting together electric, playoff-hope-inducing seasons — that's a little less common in recent years. The big cats of the motor city are both trying to claw their way into the playoffs and on Sunday Detroit sports fans poured into the city early in the morning to help make it happen.
The Tigers, sitting at 2½ games back in the MLB wild-card playoff race (effectively 3½ with Minnesota Twins owning tiebreaker ) before their 12:10 matchup against the wild-card leading Baltimore Orioles , are taking on the final stretch of the regular season with a hopeful vengeance. The young team — and their fans — hope to roll into October with a shot at the World Series.
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For the team across the street at Ford Field, the season is early but the Lions ' playoff hopes are just as real. Coming off of a gritty overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams a week ago, the Lions aim to defeat Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a playoff rematch from January.
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Jeff Daigneau, 36 of South Lyon, was wearing an Aidan Hutchinson jersey outside of Ford Field. He was one of the first fans in line at the gate, four hours before kickoff.
"I love this season," Daigneau said. "I got high hopes, and I think we're going to go all the way."
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Jeff Daigneau, left, 36 of South Lyon, and Isaac Hester, 68 of Detroit, were hanging out before the starts of the Lions and Tigers games outside of Ford Field. Daigneau and Hester were two of thousands of Detroit fans who came downtown to see their teams play on Sunday.
He'll be rooting for the Tigers from Ford Field, he said.
"I wanted them to finish about .500, but now we're in the playoff race, and I think we're going to make it," Daigneau said.
Across the street from Daigneau and his friends, Tigers fans like Joe and Scott Grant, 24- and 26-year-old brothers from West Bloomfield, got ready to head into the ballpark. Scott won't be there for long, he said — him and his brother have tickets to the Lions game, too.
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Joe Grant, wearing a Tigers cap, said he was going to stick around for the whole Tigers game and then swing over to catch the end of the Lions game. His brother, in a Lions jersey and hat, said he would be leaving the Tigers game once the Lions kicked off.
"We've done a couple of doubleheaders before, but this is an atmosphere I have never experienced," Joe Grant said, gesturing to the massive crowd outside of Ford Field.
And among that crowd of Lions and Tigers were dogs. Tom McDevitt, 40 from Detroit, and Jenny Grace, 40 from Berkely, were downtown with their dogs, who they say are Lions fans.
Jenny Grace, 40 from Berkeley, walks Bobby the Detroit Ambassadog down Brush Street ahead of the 1 p.m. Lions kickoff. Grace and Bobby were among thousands of Detroit sports fans who were downtown Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024 to see the Tigers and Lions play.
There's Bobby "the Detroit Ambassadog," Hutch the blind rescue dog (equipped with doggy eyeblack that matches Aidan Hutchinson, his namesake) and Rubicon, Hutch's big brother.
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McDevitt, Grace and their friends came down to have a good time and root for the big cats of Detroit, even if they're dog people.
Ryan Aalderink and his son Tiergan,7, both of Grand Rapids,walk by Comerica Park on their way to Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, September 15, 2024.
"We're just down here to put smiles on people's faces," McDevitt said. "That's just what we do."
Not everybody wanted to cheer on both teams, though.
Mike Hall, 62 from Wixom, said he grew up in Buffalo as a Bills fan. As he waited to get into the Tigers game, he said the only reason he'd root for the Lions is so "the Bills can beat up on them in the Super Bowl."
His wife tried to mend things.
"He likes the Lions!" she said.
News Reporter Liam Rappleye can be reached at LRappleye@freepress.com .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions and Tigers fans pack downtown with playoff buzz in air
