Rivalry is a big part of the NFL. In divisional games, especially big ones like the Detroit Lions versus Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, it’s somewhat frequent for us to see players with intense actions during games.
But the game on Thursday night had a really weird situation even before the kickoff, and it involved a fan.
A Detroit Lions supporter was on the field before the game, and he started to talk with Packers players and with head coach Matt LaFleur, who had some curse words thrown the fan’s way.
After the Packers’ 34-31 loss at Ford Field, LaFleur explained his perception of what happened.
“I’ve never been a part of something like that,” LaFleur recalled. “He was talking to our players, giving them the throat slash sign. You are trying to de-escalate it, and he gets in my face. So I thought it was pretty unsportsmanlike. I’ve never seen that, I’ve been in many fields. Usually they police that much better.”
For Matt LaFleur, situations like this can’t happen in the NFL.
“I thought it was an arrogant fan that wanted to get part of the action,” the coach added. “I would like to see security or something step in there and get him out of there. He shouldn’t be doing that.”
The Packers fell to 9-4 in the regular season. The race for the NFC North title is all but over for the team now, but they are still in good position to get in the playoffs as a wild card. Maybe, Green Bay will have another shot at playing in Detroit. So far, though, LaFleur doesn’t want to think about that scenario.
“That’s a long way, and if we don’t look at what we have right in front of us, then we’re doing ourselves a disservice,” LaFleur pointed out. “You gotta keep your eyes down and just continue to work and grind and get better, stay together. All these games from here on out, they’re gonna come down to situations like these. I do think we have a really good football team, we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot, just like we’re gonna give our best shot. It’s just a few plays here and there that separate these types of games.”