The Lions Finally Roar

On November 22, 1963, William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, made a successful bid to buy the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for the unheard-of sum of $6 million. As Ford and his entourage settled down to a celebratory luncheon, their waitress delivered the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas. "Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford's ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. But the tide is finally turning. The Lions Finally Roar culminates with the team's recent turnaround and playoff run under the stewardship of Bill Ford's daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. The Lions Finally Roar is about much more than football. It explores the American class system, the linked histories of Detroit and its auto and music industries, the city's changing racial dynamics, the rising power of television, and how all of it played into the NFL's transformation from a fall sport into the multi-billion dollar, year-round entertainment behemoth that is a cornerstone of American popular culture.