Sweet revenge: You'd be hard-pressed to find an athlete who isn't motivated by the chance to endure such a gratifying experience.
There's not much better in sports than when a team, in a subsequent matchup with the squad that knocked it out of the playoffs, beats that group of players the following season.
The Lions would have a chance to garner at least a small degree of revenge by beating the San Francisco 49ers in their rematch with the reigning NFC champions this upcoming season. Detroit is projected to return to Levi's Stadium, the site of the organization's devastating NFC Championship Game loss, to square off with the 49ers during the 2024 regular season.
The matchup will surely bring back memories of the second-half collapse – the Lions held a 17-point lead going into halftime – and strong feelings of disappointment and regret for Dan Campbell and his squad. As Campbell said after the gut-wrenching defeat, “It's hard when you lose that way. You feel like you get your heart ripped out.”
Lions quarterback Jared Goff and his teammates had an equally tough time absorbing the loss in its immediate aftermath.
“Losing this game is devastating, and yeah, it doesn't feel good,” Goff expressed. “You walk off the field, you see them celebrating and knowing the plays to be had out there for us that weren't made, you think, 'Oh, that should be us, celebrating this win.' So, yeah, it's hard.”
Losing to the 49ers, and in such an epically bad fashion, was truly a disheartening experience for Goff & Co. It's what would make beating Kyle Shanahan's team that much sweeter in the squads’ looming rematch with each other in 2024.
To me and plenty of Lions supporters, there would be no better Week 1 matchup than Detroit taking on the 49ers, the franchise that “stole” a trip to the Super Bowl from it.
Sure, a regular-season victory against the 49ers wouldn't make up for Detroit's loss in the NFC Championship Game or replace the feeling of grave disappointment that the players and fanbase endured after the heartbreaking defeat. However, it would go a long way toward reassuring the organization and its fans that Detroit belongs on the same playing field as San Francisco and the rest of the NFL's very best teams.
On a separate note, there is arguably only one more popular NFL team than the Lions right now: the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Detroit can't compete with all the starpower that Kansas City possesses, most notably two-time NFL MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce (and dare I bring it up, his music star girlfriend, Taylor Swift).
I bring this up because I'd love to see – and I believe America would, too – a rematch of last year's NFL opener between the Chiefs and the Lions. However, the Chiefs are not one of Detroit's scheduled opponents for the upcoming season.
With that said, no offense to the Bills, the Cowboys, the Rams or any of the Lions’ other set opponents for ‘24, but there's no better Week 1 opponent for Detroit than San Francisco.
NFL schedule-makers, give the people what they want: a Week 1 matchup between the reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers and the upstart Detroit Lions.
