Detroit Lions Change Their Game Plan In Response To The Oxford Shootings

On the Saturday before their game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Detroit Lions did not follow the schedule of a typical NFL week. Typically, that day-before-gameday is packed with last-minute adjustments and walkthroughs, heavy doses of treatment, and therapy followed by encouragement from the coaches so that by the time the team broke up for the day, the energy level would be high and players would be totally “in the zone.”

But on this particular Saturday, the Lions passed on the opportunity to solely focus on game preparation to turn their attention to something they felt far more important than football: how to comprehend and respond to the news of a shooting at Oxford High School, about 30 miles outside of Detroit. The tragedy had occurred four days earlier when a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire and killed four students and wounded seven others. (The student is being charged with murder and terrorism as an adult, and his parents were also charged with involuntary manslaughter.)

At the Lions training facility, it was decided that the team would dedicate its efforts not simply to register a win but to remember those who had fallen that day.

Win or lose the game, these Lions were playing for Tate Myre, the school’s football star and a top student, Madisyn Baldwin, an aspiring artist, Hana St. Juliana, a member of her school’s volleyball and basketball teams and Justin Schilling, who played golf and bowling and worked at a Middle Eastern restaurant where he was known as “an exemplary employee.” They were playing not only for those killed, but also the injured who were, like their fallen classmates, busy with life and good kids, all.

The Lions players were shown videos about the victims, were told stories about the events surrounding the tragedy, and were encouraged to keep each of those families in their hearts as they lined up 24 hours later against their favored rival from Minnesota.

A most extraordinary thing happened. The winless Lions fought for 60-minutes, punching way above their weight class.

When the game ended, Detroit’s tearful coach Dan Campbell spoke at a press conference, saying, “This game ball goes to the whole Oxford community and all those who were affected. And that being said, man, I just … I want us to not forget these names.” And then he read out the roll call of the dead and the wounded: Myre, Baldwin, Juliana, and Shilling, as well as Phoebe Arthur, Jon Asciutto, Riley Franz, Elijah Mueller, Kylie Ossege, Aiden Watson, and Molly Darnell, who’s a teacher.

“Those names who will never be forgotten and are in our hearts and in our prayers,” Campbell concluded.

Campbell told the gathered press exactly how he and his team stepped back from gameday prep, assessed their “real life” priorities, and came up with a new game plan. “My thought was, ‘Hey man, if we can for three hours just ease their suffering a little bit, that’s worth it,’” said Campbell. “And so that’s kind of how I thought of this and we just did a great job.” Campbell continued, “I hope that they were all watching today and were able to enjoy that win, and we can take their minds off it for whatever it may be, three hours. I think anytime we can do that, it’s a lot bigger than our sport, it’s a lot bigger than us. I think that today is one of those special circumstances that we were able to rise to the occasion and make something special happen.”

Of course, you don’t have to be responding to a horrific event to play for a larger purpose. What we do have to do is step back from our souped-up lives to re-assess priorities. The encouraging news on this front is, first, that there are almost an unlimited number of things that qualify as a “larger purpose” than simply fulfilling our contracts to do this or that job for this or that pay. And playing for a larger purpose motivates us exponentially to work harder, smarter, more collaboratively and in service of longer-term rather than shorter-term ends. And I have to wonder whether those Detroit players, having experienced what it felt like to make

every block and tackle on behalf of the lost young of Oxford will ever play their game quite the same way again.

Oh, and the final score: Detroit WON 29 – 27.