Dan Campbell Showed Lions 49ers Loss in Team Meeting
Lions revisited pain of NFC Championship leading up to rematch with 49ers
Detroit Lions defensive lineman DJ Reader knows the sting of falling just short. He remembers the confetti falling at SoFi Stadium on February 13, 2022—not for his team, the Cincinnati Bengals, but for the Los Angeles Rams, who defeated them 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI.
On Monday, Reader will return to that same stadium, this time as a member of the Lions. His new team is preparing to face the San Francisco 49ers, the same opponent that ended their season on January 28. In that NFC Championship game, the Lions blew a 17-point halftime lead, losing their shot at the Super Bowl.
Although Reader wasn’t part of Detroit’s roster during that heartbreaking loss, his own experience of falling short in a high-stakes game allows him to relate to his teammates.
“I think it’s impossible for guys to scrape that memory,” Reader said. “Especially when you’re out there, if you watched it or if you’re around. I think that’s a good thing—to build off of, to feel, to understand, to hone in and really use it. I’ve never shied away from that kind of emotion or the feeling of, ‘Hey, this is important.’ Everybody knows how important this is, and guys want to go out there and do their job against a team that got the better hand of them.”
Earlier this week, during a team meeting, the Lions revisited their NFC Championship loss. Reader described watching the final moments of the game alongside his teammates and seeing the raw emotions on display.
“We watched it earlier in the team meeting, just kind of watching the end of it—everybody’s emotions. The cameras catch every single angle. They can throw some music behind there, and it really describes the emotion you were going through,” Reader told Fox 2 Game Day Live. “As a player, that’s when it’s real. Because you work so hard and feel like you got to the end, and just came up short. You can’t hide that raw emotion you feel.”
For Reader, the memories brought back his own feelings from losing the Super Bowl three seasons ago. His journey since then has included another AFC Championship loss, a significant injury, and his move to Detroit this offseason. Yet the pain of falling short remains vivid.
“I remember losing the Super Bowl, and that feeling never goes away. Every time it comes up, you’re always gonna relive it,” Reader said. “I think that’s a taste that guys want to get out of their mouth and off their mind. Obviously, you’ll never forget it, but you can pave the way to go out there and redeem yourself.”