Detroit Lions Fans and the 5 Stages of Grief with Suh

Dec 7, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions fans during the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field. Detroit won 34-17. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

If you have ever taken an intro psychology class in either high school or in college you more than likely learned about the Kubler-Ross model also known as the 5 stages of grief. This is a model that shows 5 different emotional ways people deal with grief, or as my teacher would like to believe any traumatic event in their lives. In fact when we learned about the Kubler-Ross model he showed us this video. Note there is mature words, even though they are beeped out, it is from adult swim, so that should give you an idea. Just thought that I would let you readers know that.

So with an idea of the five stages of grief, we can look at how Detroit Lions fans can get over the departure of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. We will start with denial and work our way through until the end with acceptance.

Denial

Many started the offseason with the saying and belief that Suh wouldn’t leave the Detroit Lions solely because where else was he going to go? It seemed like the Lions were just one season away from getting it all together and making longer runs into the playoffs. You could say had the playoffs worked out just a little different they may have had a good run, but that didn’t work out.

Detroit Lions /

Detroit Lions

Many thought there was no way that Suh was going to leave and when news broke about Suh signing a deal with Miami many thought that it was just a silly rumor that could never happen and the Lions would still have Suh under a new contract soon. They denied it completely and thought it was all just a big joke or rumor that got out of hand for on Twitter.

Anger

Then Detroit Lions fans then moved on to being angry. Not just only angry, but furious about Suh leaving Detroit because he is just a money hungry player who never cared about this team. “We don’t need him anyway, he can be replaced” I saw skid across my time line once or twice on the Twitters and Facebooks.

Most of the anger was surrounded by the fact that fans felt Suh was leaving for money and that was all he cared about. He ended up with a contract worth north of $110 million dollars while $60 million of that is guaranteed so it is easy to think that way. However, if you were offered that kind of money, tell me you wouldn’t take whatever the job might be.

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Bargaining

This is where we take go a little off the path. Technically when people barging in this stage they say they will give up something for something else to happen. Yet with Suh gone and them having no control over the situation, well they can’t really bargain in the typical ways people tend to.

So fans say, “Well he just didn’t fit in here” or “he just wasn’t what the team needed”. This is them semi still in the first stage of denial but also finding an excuse for what has just happened. In this case those people who say he just wasn’t the right fit for Detroit are in this stage.

Depression

This is an easy stage to understand, fans are simply sad about Suh leaving. Some times they will seem like their football worlds have fallen apart. They may act different and might think about changing team alliances, but in the end realize that there is just no point to changing teams.