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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
MINNEAPOLIS — Jared Goff wasn’t even born the last time the Detroit Lions clinched a division title.
However, on Sunday, the veteran quarterback — born in 1994 — was at the forefront of the Lions’ celebrations after securing their first division championship since 1993.
With the 30-24 win over the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit clinched its first division title in three decades, ending the NFL’s second-longest active drought without a division title next to the Cleveland Browns (1989).
“It’s cool. It really is cool,” Goff said. “Being able to really reflect on it like we did something that [hadn’t been done by] team after team after team for 30 years. This 2023 team did it and broke that streak and we will guarantee a home playoff game. But, yeah, we’ve got some work to do next week and the following and see where we go.”
Goff passed for 257 yards and a touchdown and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns, but it was Ifeatu Melifonwu‘s interception of a Nick Mullens pass at the Lions’ 5-yard line, with 58 seconds remaining and the Vikings driving for the potential go-ahead score, that sealed the victory. The interception was Mullens’ fourth of the game.
“It was about time; that was my first career interception, and thank God for that,” Melifonwu said. “I was in a post, and I saw Justin Jefferson in the middle, then I saw the quarterback and I jumped it. When Kerby [Joseph] got two earlier, it was a matter of time. My time was coming.”
Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown also finished with his eighth 100-yard receiving game this season, tying Tyreek Hill for the most in the NFL. He ended with 12 receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown. He admitted to feeling speechless after the back-and-forth battle.
“It was really important for us. I mean 30 years is a pretty long time when you think about it,” St. Brown said. “I mean for us, we knew it. It was on our fingertips. It was here. This was a chance. We couldn’t let it slip.”
Entering the game, Goff said the current Lions team didn’t “carry the weight of the last 30 years here” with the division-title drought. However, coach Dan Campbell, also a former Lions player, made it a priority to help the guys understand the special opportunity they had in front of them with the chance to accomplish this season-long goal.
“I’m proud of everybody. This has been a long time coming,” Campbell said. “Look, I’m proud of all the Lions fans out there that have been dying for this for years, man. That’s for you, too. I know it’s been a long time. You deserve that. And it’s not over. That’s just one.”
After the victory, Campbell welcomed team owner Sheila Ford Hamp and president Rod Wood into the locker room, where he called offensive lineman Taylor Decker — the longest-tenured Lion — and Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow in front of the team to be recognized after experiencing years of agony within the franchise before this moment.
“It means everything,” Ford Hamp said. “It’s amazing.”
Decker and Ragnow shared an emotional experience together in the midst of the celebration, which included the team blasting Lil Yachty’s song “Minnesota” in the visitors’ locker room. “It’s just a lot of pent-up emotion, just to want to be respected as a team and to be looked at as a winner,” Ragnow said. “I’ve cried more today than I have in probably my whole career. It’s just because it means a lot to me.”
Wayne Fontes, 83, was the coach of the Lions in 1993 when they finished 10-6 and clinched the NFC Central division in the last week of the regular season with a win over the Green Bay Packers. He can barely recall his feelings during that moment, as so much time has passed, but he is a big fan of Campbell.
“Congratulations. Dan Campbell has done a great job. He’s an outstanding coach,” Fontes told ESPN. “The football team is well coached. Their assistant coaches do a great job and Dan Campbell is probably one of the best coaches to come around in a long, long time in Detroit. I keep rooting for them and I think they’re going to continue to win because again, they have a good coach, coaching staff and good players.”
“Thirty years is a long time ago,” Fontes added, laughing. “Dan Campbell deserves a good ‘attaboy’ or ‘way to go’ or whatever because he’s done a great job. I really believe that.”