HE STANDS TALL and strong, looking as if he could still snowplow an outside linebacker halfway into Canada. But on this day, in this place, Dan Campbell can't contain his tears.

His new bosses, Detroit Lions president Rod Wood and owner Sheila Ford Hamp, are a few minutes away from introducing Campbell to the world in a news conference. On the indoor practice field, in the middle of COVID-19 in January 2021, they tell him that they believe in his style, his plan to turn the sad-sack Lions into winners, and his impact on the city of Detroit. The part that hits Campbell hard is that they believe in him .

It's a quiet cry, in a quiet cavern of a building. During his playing days, this indoor field always had the whir of people coming and going, whistles blasting, pads clapping together

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