Our NFL stars aren’t all just about football and the gridiron. From the NFL community’s rousing support amid JuJu Watkins’ injury to Mike Tomlin meeting Caitlin Clark and Serena Williams with his wife at the NFL annual meeting, they remind us that they are members of a larger sports community. And we love them for it. And it’s not just showing up or supporting other players. Our stars have played significant roles in shaping the industry too. Two such names from the Detroit Lions have shown up to raise the roof for their favorite NBA team.

As per posts on X by Brad Galli, Detroit Lions’ HC Dan Campbell was spotted sitting courtside with his wife Holly at game 4 of the NBA playoffs between the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons. The game took place at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. And they weren’t alone. Lions’ QB, Jared Goff, was also in the crowd, smiling as a camera picked up on him. This is an important game for Detroit. One, because this is their home ground, obviously. And two, because the Pistons have had a rough couple of years. 

According to reports, the Detroit Pistons have lost 8 home playoff games, including last season. This year, they are going 0-3 in the playoffs and could surely use some extra support. And they got it with Dan Campbell, his wife, and Goff. Dan doesn’t just drop wisdom bombs in pressers and the locker room, though. Pistons HC JB Bickerstaff has reached out to Dan Campbell on one occasion, hoping to get Campbell to come into the building and drop some inspiration on the Pistons. “When their season is over, we definitely will get together and have him over here and talk to the guys to see if he can give us a little of that spark too.”

And Jared Goff is a big supporter of the Pistons. He and his wife, Christen, turned heads when they showed up to the Pistons vs. LA Clippers game back in March. Now he’s here rooting for his home team again. And that’s not all, Christen and Jared have also joined an investment group which aims to bring the WNBA back to Detroit. Pistons owner Tom Gores leads the group and is trying to revive women’s pro basketball in their city. Big things are happening in Detroit behind the scenes, people. And while fans soak up the inspirational radiation from the presence of Jared Goff and Dan Campbell at their home court, the Lions are prepping for some changes this Thanksgiving Day. 

Campbell’s Lions’ Thanksgiving tweak

 For decades, fans have tuned in to see the Lions’ game at 12:30 on Thanksgiving Day. But this year, Goodell has made some tweaks to the blueprint. On The Pat McAfee Show, Goodell announced that the Thanksgiving kickoff game will start 30 minutes later than usual, at 1 p.m. “One little small change, we’re probably going to move from a 12:30 Eastern start to 1:00. We’ll go back to the traditional windows – So they’ll be 1, roll right into Dallas, and then roll into the primetime.”

The idea behind this whole tweak is to make Turkey Day’s schedule more like your usual Sundays. The first game at 1, the second at 4:25 (hosted by the Cowboys), and the third one at prime time. This is part of a strategy the NFL’s been cooking up. Goodell has also added that the Christmas game tradition will continue. It was pretty successful last year, so there’s no reason to change that, right? The 2025 Christmas is on a Thursday so that we can see three NFL games on the day.

For the Thanksgiving game this year, according to reports, we’ll find out who the Lions will be playing on May 14th when the official schedule is released. But if you stuff up on Turkey too much, don’t fall asleep. You might miss the Lions if you do.