The Lions Finally Roar

"“The ‘hero’s journey’ has always been one fraught with incalculable danger, crushing failure and injurious self-doubt. Nowhere is this truer than the decades-long epic journey of the Detroit Lions. Bill Morris brilliantly documents this journey with fascinating insights, sometimes scathing humor and impenetrable detail that gives us a grid-iron-level look at our Detroit Lions. And I say ‘our Detroit Lions’ because, like a tragic Greek play, Detroiters have always been the chorus singing in the worst of seasons, ‘We believe in you!’” -- <B>Stephen Mack Jones, bestselling author of <I>August Snow</I> and <I>Deus X</I></B> “Things really are turning around for the Detroit Lions. Not only is this recently woeful team must-see TV for the first time since Barry Sanders’ retirement, they are the subject of the best new sports book I’ve read in years. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the Lions have inspired two great football epics –– tough seasons make good literature –– as George Plimpton's Paper Lion is now joined in the motor city pantheon by Bill Morris’s The Lions Finally Roar. This is a truly excellent book, and, like only the best sports books, is about far more than the team or the game. It’s about the city and its people, from the auto industry aristocrats to the Strohs besotted lunatics in the cheap seats. Now that the Lions finally have their gridiron scribe, there will be no stopping them –– a realization not easy for a Bears fan like myself. Here's hoping Caleb Williams pans out!” -- <b >Rich Coen, author of <i>Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football</i></b> ""From the long-lasting curse of Bobby Layne and the depths of the Matt Millen era into today's sunlight as one of the NFL's most promising teams, Bill Morris takes his readers on a rollicking journey through Detroit football misery and redemption in The Lions Finally Roar. A splendid writer, astute chronicler of Detroit's rich history, and son of a Lions executive, Morris was the perfect author to tell this dramatic tale."" -- <b>David Maraniss, author of<i> When Pride Still Mattered: The Life of Vince Lombardi</i></b> Praise for Bill Morris ""[Morris] does a superb job of recounting a life amid a series of significant decades. His imaginative 'mongrel' approach—a mix of…biography, history, reportage, memoir, autobiography, and, when the record runs thin, speculation that flirts with fiction—is successful. An entertaining combination of domestic and world history."" * <B><I>Kirkus</I></B>, <B>Starred Review</B> * “A wonderfully atmospheric novel that captures time and place, an illumination of a pivotal point in history.  Bill Morris is an exceptionally gifted and savvy writer.  The comparison to Graham Greene is fully merited.” * <B>Nelson DeMille</B> * “Switching between Bledsoe and Doyle’s perspectives allows for a crackling pace, and Mr. Morris clearly loves the nooks and crannies of his hometown Detroit the way George Pelecanos loves Washington."" * <B><I>The New York Times</I></B> * “A vivid and entertaining expedition.” * <B>Loren D. Estelman</B> *"