Jared Goff and the Lions: The NFL's most unlikely love story

The story of Jared Goff's revival with the Detroit Lions is a story of loss and faith. Megan Stefanski has witnessed hundreds of losses since she started going to every game, home and away. Her father, Donnie, was as committed to seeing the Lions live as his daughter, but he missed his granddaughter's baptism because it conflicted with a football Sunday. Yooperman died in 2019, about a week before the season, without seeing them so much as come close to another title. In 2021, the Lions traded for Jared Goff, who had been discarded by the Rams. Goff was relegated to bridge quarterback, but he has since morphed into a quarterback the team doesn't just win in spite of, or even with. This season, he has the sixth-best QBR in the league, six games with an 80% completion rate, the most in NFL history, and an NFL-best 18 touchdown passes on third and fourth downs, with no interceptions on such downs. The Lions play Washington on Saturday night as the NFC's No. 1 seed for the first time in franchise history, and they have a chance to make the Super Bowl for the first time since 1968.