Broderick: Los Angeles 'Lions' will win Super Bowl with Stafford at QB

The Lions are in the Super Bowl ... the Detroit Lions are in the Super Bowl ...

Well, at least, one Lion is in the Super Bowl.

With longtime Lion Matthew Stafford suiting up for the Los Angeles Rams for the Super Bowl on Sunday, we are counting that as a win for Detroit — because, as you know, wins are hard to come by in the NFL in the Motor City.

Stafford walked Detroit out of the darkness of a winless season as the Lions No. 1 pick in 2009 and he had been the starting quarterback ever since — leading our hapless team to a wonderful 0-3 record in the playoffs during those 12 years.

And to have "our" quarterback finally in the big game, it finally feels like Detroit fans have something to cheer for. Yes, the professional football product in this state is that pathetic — not having won a championship since the Michigan Panthers in 1983 (looking for championship No. 2 during the upcoming USFL season).

So, we will take what we can get.

And that's why it says in this space that Stafford and the Rams will win Sunday's big game, knocking off the upstart Cincinnati Bengals.

Honolulu blue & silver fans can't have any love for the Bengals, who unabashedly made the playoffs to put even a bigger spotlight on Detroit's futility. Cincinnati's postseason win makes the Lions No. 1 on a list it doesn't want to be on — the longest amount of time since a playoff win for an NFL team.

For almost as long as the Lions have been waiting for another playoff win, which happened in 1992, this Enquirer sports columnist has predicted who will win the big game in these pages — a stretch that has gone on for more than two decades.

During this era, we have seen the Lions come close. No, Detroit hasn't sniffed a Super Bowl, don't be silly. But the Lions have had players and coaches who have been a part of Super Bowl success, with other teams.

Names like Matt Millen and Steve Mariucci are almost curse words in Detroit now, but when they came to town they brought with them a history of Super Bowl success. Rare, though, has it gone the other way. Hardly ever have we seen a player leave the Lions and then find Super Bowl stardom as Detroit is often the place where careers come to die.

And for sure, we haven't ever seen anything like what Stafford is doing. Makes you wonder who saw this coming.

Well, I did. In my annual Super Bowl column last year.

As I wrote about things we haven't seen before in the big game, like someone as old as Tom Brady play in the Super Bowl, I left this comment ...

"And we haven't seen a Detroit Lion get a chance to win a Super Bowl (that would be Matthew Stafford, who will get his ring next year with the Rams)". - Broderick - Feb. 6, 2021.

Now, I don't always get my Super Bowl predictions right (please don't check the last 20-some columns, I probably have a record more closely associated with this state's favorite team than I would like), but I did get two correct last year. I picked the Bucs and Tampa Tom to win the Super Bowl and I said Stafford would be in the big game this year.

So it's time to wrap our arms around this situation. All long-suffering Lions fans need to root for the Rams to win.

You might have seen the T-shirts mocking the situation already, with the classic Lions logo with a Rams helmet on its head. Many die-hard Lions fans should jump at the chance to wear one of those right now, to inch that much closer to a Vince Lombardi Trophy that hasn't been close to coming to Detroit since that city hosted the Super Bowl in 2006.

And with Eminem in the halftime show, Stafford behind center, and probably a cute lab puppy from Dearborn in the Puppy Bowl — this is basically a Detroit Super Bowl.

Not to give out my age, but I was born the same year as the Super Bowl. And, the Lions have not played in that game in all of that time. I am hoping to live at least a few more years, but I'm really not sure I will ever see a Detroit Super Bowl Sunday.

So, it is what it is. Which brings us to this year's prediction. The Los Angeles Lions will win the Super Bowl. At least one L.A. Lion will. Good luck, Matthew Stafford, you have the hopes of two NFL cities on your shoulder pads.

Prediction: LA Rams 34, Cincinnati Bengals 28

Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @billbroderick.

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Broderick: Los Angeles 'Lions' will win Super Bowl with Stafford at QB