Thoughts for the Day, January 7, 2025: The Lions made a special day to a grieving son, who was a Bear fan. The Lions get my Orchid of the Day.

Orchid of the Day: The Detroit Lions Organization.

This is a follow up to a story I posted three weeks ago about a Lions fan’s fast action at Soldier Field in Chicago when a Bear fan was having a heart attack. Here are excerpts from Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press.

This is a story that has unfolded in the most unlikely way with several twists and turns, with moments of pain and joy.

Jeremy Schmidt’s father, Wally Schmidt, collapsed at Soldier Field in Chicago on Dec. 22 as the Lions were getting ready to play the Chicago Bears. Ben Roth, an off-duty paramedic and Lions season-ticket holder, rushed to help, restarting Wally’s heart with an AED. That gave Schmidt, also a big Lions fan, four or five extra hours with his father, who passed away that night from heart failure.

So, the Lions wanted to do something for them, something quiet and dignified, just to bring them some joy, trying to make their lives a little better in a time of grief.

The Lions flew Schmidt and two guests and Roth and his wife and daughter to Detroit over the weekend, setting up several special moments. The Lions put them up in a hotel and gave them tickets and field passes for Sunday night’s regular-season finale against the Minnesota Vikings — the biggest regular-season game ever played at Ford Field…

The Lions didn’t put out a press release about bringing in Schmidt and Roth. They didn’t make it known publicly…I only found out about it because both Roth and Schmidt texted me.

On Monday, Roth and Schmidt headed to Chicago; and they planned to do an ESPN interview on Tuesday which is scheduled to air on ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown.

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Listening is becoming a lost art

I think the world is telling me I need to become a better listener.

Yesterday I was watching Howard Stearns’ interview with Bruce Springsteen when Howard asked Bruce and his wife Patti how they turned from being “rock stars” to parents when they returned from a performance. Bruce said something that I wrote down to use as a future Quote of the Day. Here is what he said. “When you are the parent, you need to be the audience.” Then today I read a Detroit News Opinion article by Len Niehoff, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

I first heard about the following concept when I attended a seminar on negotiations and Stephen Covey was the presenter. I didn’t realize it originated from Aristotle. Here are excerpts from Niehoff’s article.

…I want to suggest a resolution that probably hasn’t found its way onto most of our lists but should. We all need to do more listening. And it’s going to take some work, because we’ve all gotten bad at it. Indeed, our listening muscles have atrophied from neglect.

History has a lesson here. In the middle part of the 13th century, members of European university communities engaged in a practice called disputatio. We might describe a disputatio as a disciplined debate over an important subject.

In his biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, Josef Pieper points out that every advocate in a disputatio had to begin their argument by restating the position of their adversary.

They couldn’t fudge things by restating the argument inaccurately or unpersuasively. They had to express the other side’s views fairly and as convincingly as they could.

These requirements achieved two purposes. First, they helped guarantee that the advocate was responding to the position the other side actually held.

Second, and more importantly, they ensured that the advocate had listened carefully to their opposition.

We might think of it this way: To earn the right to argue, you had to show that you had listened — and had done so with a sincere effort to understand.

This is great advice that we can use in our daily lives. Our politicians could use it as much as anyone. I will let you know when Leah says I am getting better.

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Fun for all seasons

Things are looking up for sports fans in Michigan. Here is why.

· The Lions are the number one seed in the NFC and are the NFC North champions.

· The Tigers made the playoffs last season and have the number one rated farm system and number one rated prospect.

· The Pistons are at .500 and would currently be in the playoffs if the season ended today. Their new coach has instilled life into them, which we haven’t seen in nearly 10 years. Cade Cunningham is becoming a top player in the league.

· The Red Wings seemed to have turned it around after firing their coach and hiring former assistant Todd McLellan. They have won three in a row and are only a few points from a playoff berth.

· Michigan State men’s and women’s basketball teams are ranked in the top 25.

· Michigan’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are ranked in the top 25.

· Michigan’s football team ended the season with wins over Ohio State and Alabama and have a top recruiting class and transfer portal class.

· MSU’s football team is heading in the right direction.

Michigan has always been sports crazy. We will be getting our chances to prove it to the rest of the country for the next year. It is going to be year-round fun.

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Largest Sunday Night Viewing in 13 years.

The Lions' 31-9 victory over the Vikings, drew the largest "Sunday Night Football" season-finale audience since Washington-Dallas for the NFC East title in 2012 (30.3 million).

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Quote of the Day: “When you are the parent, you need to be the audience.” Bruce Springsteen

Second Quote of the Day: “They can’t bury what comes from the f**king dirt.” The Lions 5’9” cornerback, Amik Robertson, describing how he stifled the best receiver in the NFL, the Vikings Justin Jefferson. People have said Robertson is too small to play in the NFL, but the Lions saw the strength of his will and desire. It has paid off for the Lions and Robertson

Orchid of the Day: The Detroit Lions’ organization for providing Jeremy Schmidt and Ben Roth and their families with a special day on Sunday. See above story.

Onion of the Day: The weather in Gulf Shores. It was below freezing this morning with 25 MPH winds. No golf. No biking.

Lyrics of the Day: Well, there's people and more people. What do they know-know-know. Go to work in some high rise And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico, oh-ooh yeah. And there's winners and there's losers But that ain't no big deal 'Cause the simple man, baby Pays for the thrills, with bills, and no pills that kill.

If you think you know the answer, indicate your answer in the comment section below.

Answer to January 6 Lyrics of the Day, “Louie, Louie” which was made famous by the Kingsmen. The recording was made in one take, and it was not done by a recording studio which resulted in such poor quality the words were hard to understand. This led to many interpretations of the words, most of which included f**k. This resulted in the song being banned in some states and many homes.

Question of the Day: Is there a better football announcer than the Lions’ Dan Miller? See below Video of the Day.

Video of the Day: Dan Miller is going to have a heart attack one day announcing a Lions’ game.

Calls of the Game: Detroit secures the NFC North and No. 1 seed in primetime | Lions vs. Vikings

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