DETROIT — “I will not live long enough to see it.”

You know someone who said it. You know somebody who knows somebody who said it. Every person reading this with a tie to Michigan has someone in their life who swore they’d never live long enough to see the Detroit Lions actually contend for an NFL championship.

Well, folks, guess what?

“Things aren’t always easy here,” Lions coach Dan Campbell says. “But that’s what we’re about.”

Sunday in Detroit, roughly 70,000 football-tortured souls came downtown to sob and cheer this state’s most beloved sports franchise to the edge of the impossible. For the second week in a row, thousands old and young pumped enough electricity into Ford Field to power a city block. They were rewarded for their efforts with a 31-23 Lions win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC divisional round.

Perhaps, a romantic might hope, the fans were loud enough for those who are no longer with us to feel the thing they wanted so badly but never got to witness. Some may not have been there in body, but the spirit of every true Honolulu Blue believer who had ever suffered with this team was no doubt hovering above those rafters.

The Detroit Lions (it has taken me longer than I care to admit to finish writing this sentence) are one win away from the Super Bowl.

“We wanted (to build) something the city can be proud of. You can look at (our) guys and say, ‘I can back that guy, I can back that team, I can resonate with that group,’” Campbell said. “They’re salty. They don’t quit. They play hard. Our guys have a kinship with this city, this area.

“They love it, man.”

DETROIT — There’s an oft-shared experience among those who’ve played for the Detroit Lions. A rite of passage, really. You’re told you won’t win anything.

That this franchise is known for losing. Players know it all too well, and have heard it all too often.

“‘Oh, you guys are no good. You guys aren’t gonna do anything.’ Everyone on this team, I’m sure someone’s told them that,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said Sunday evening. ‘You’re on the Lions. You guys aren’t gonna do anything.’”

Leave it to St. Brown — the man with more receipts than your accountant during tax season — to put it in layman’s terms. This was his experience. Three years ago, he joined a roster stripped to its core, set to face another rebuild.

The general perception? Why should this one be any different? These are the Lions, after all. They weren’t going to win anyone over at an introductory news conference. In order to re-wire the way people view this city’s football team, it was up to St. Brown and so many others acquired over the years to win when it matters most — in January.