In the past five years you always heard the same words about Detroit. People allowed the words "depressed," "downtrodden" and "suffering." But the people who embraced that kind of language certainly were not in and around Ford Field on Sunday when the Detroit Lions p'wnd the Kansas City Chiefs.

There may have been some doubters, (cough, Jeff Riger, cough) but they certainly were not tailgating Sunday. The Eastern Market was ensconced in an exuberance so viscous that it may have soaked into the pavement. Exuberance and beer, perhaps. Fans woke up on Sunday morning to warm weather, sunshine and expectations that didn't seem irrational. The countless trailers and tailgates were buzzing. The outside karaoke bar had a line of singers who were approaching the climax of Sister Sct. Chants of "Let's go Lions" broke out and had zero sarcasm. I swear, I saw at least 3 people dancing.

The swirl of beer bongs and hot women in tight Stafford uniforms in the Eastern Market is usually the highlight of my Sunday. That certainly was not the case this weekend. I took my seat with the rest of the late arriving crowd and watched something I have never seen before. The Lions eviscerated an opponent with a chainsaw bayonet. They scored the winning touchdown on their opening possession, and spent an afternoon dominating both sides of the ball. Many fans were trying to decide if the Lions were running up the score, and had no idea what their mouths were saying. The stadium was sort of loud at times, but it could be a lot louder as most Lions fans were in a stunned silence.

Many people sitting in my section had no idea what they were looking at. I heard dozens of "Can you believe this?" and "This is awesome!" and I actually heard laughing. We openly discussed leaving before the 4th quarter, and decided that after a decade of suffering, we wanted to watch this dismembering. I high-fived almost everyone in my section (my hand hurt afterward) and I kept saying: "We won by 45 points." Most Lions fans would blink when I said that or roar with a Mel Gibson level of intensity.

On the walk into the stadium, I saw many Chiefs fans getting yelled at. A couple of them were pretty brutal. On the way out of the stadium, Lions' fans were as caring as triage nurses. I saw one person in a Charles jersey being consoled by 3 fans, explaining that it was not so long ago that we were in the same position. Funny how we envied them when they won the Scott Pioli sweepstakes and we were "stuck" with Martin Mayhew? Boy, were we wrong, huh?

Believe me, that stadium is going to be louder. It's going to be a tough place to play for opposing teams. Hopefully, Lions' fans remember to actually pipe down when the offense is on the field. It's annoying how loud the newbies get, but I can't blame them. The last couple of years, fans have resorted to dancing in the isles when the Lions get a first down or have a penalty go their way. They simply don't know how to react to winning by 45 points. I didn't either.