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Eric WoodyardESPN
If bringing a Super Bowl to Detroit required losing an arm than new Lions head coach Dan Campbell says he would be armless. Although Campbell has yet to coach an actual game in Motown, the first-year sideline leader is already making an early case as one of the most entertaining coaches in the league with his off-the-cuff style.
On Sunday, Campbell made a guest appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast on which he shared an idea that he actually presented to Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp about having a pet lion around the team’s practice facility.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to do it, but I would love to literally just have a pet lion. Just a legit pet lion on a chain, a big ass chain, and he really is my pet,” Campbell said on the podcast. “We just walk around the building, we go out to practice, we’re at seven-on-seven, we’re behind the kicker when he’s kicking. There we are.”
Campbell further imagined that the lion would be “on command.” Campbell joked that if a position group wasn’t performing well, he could have the lion relieve itself in front of the group.
“I mean, think about it,” he said. “That would be outstanding.”
Campbell also made national headlines during his introductory news conference in January, notably with his impromptu answers that included his vision for the team being tough enough to “bite a kneecap off.” The lion reference was just the latest example, although he doubts it’ll ever happen.
“The problem is I don’t know if PETA’s gonna to allow that, though. It’s gonna be hard,” Campbell said. “Believe me though we would take great care of it. It would be fed well, it would be petted, it would be manicured. I might end up losing an arm because of it, but that would be even better because it would validate what, this is a freaking, this a creature now. This is an animal. This thing, this is from the wild.”