Detroit Lions Continue Tradition of Wacky Team Introductions

NBC's Sunday Night Football (on a Thursday to open the 2023 season) is the singular NFL telecast that includes video introductions of the players by the players. The players introduce themselves and, generally, their school.

Often it is the college they graduated from, less often the player shouts out a high school of junior college.

The freewheeling Detroit Lions, who historically haven't made many primetime games that would allow them the vaunted special introductions make the most of it when they get the chance.

The tradition of wacky intros began in the 2022 season during a Sunday nighter with Green Bay. That one is captured here:

Is The Ohio State University Just 'The' Now?

Starting tackle Taylor Decker has the all-timer here when he credited is college as 'the.' Just 'The.'

Football fans may very well guess, and you'd be correct if you did that Decker is an alum of the Ohio State University. That coveted 'the' gets shorted to just THE in Decker's intro.

Being that he now lives and plays in that state up north, one wonders how the The act plays out in the shadow of Ann Arbor.

Concluding that full 2022 starting line-up package, Mike Tirico remarks, "That is some set of starting line-ups...they have a lot of fun with that."
Following the 2023 rendition, however, it went unremarked - the Lions are gonna Lion.

The NFL also keeps a full tally of the best player introductions from over the years and the history of the feature. Here's 10 minutes worth:

The Real-Life Version of Key and Peele's Player Introductions

You would be correct if you immediately thought was to the classic Key & Peele send-up of football player starting line-up introductions from the East/West Bowl sketch.

Here's more of the weird and wacky in sports, and we're here for it.