Wondering Where the (Detroit) Lions Are

I take no pleasure in the Detroit Lions' 0-16 season, no pleasure in their staking an infamous claim in NFL lore. I didn’t want to see it happen, ever.

But singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s 1979 song “Wondering Where The Lions Are” seems as fitting a musing today as it would have been then as relates to the Detroit Lions. Nothing suggests Cockburn (pronounced "co-burn") intended any connection to the Detroit Lions in his song, but curiously, there are other “signs.”

Cockburn was all over the Lions and maybe even foresaw this 0-16 debacle. His songs “Night Train” and “Pacing The Cage”—both off his 1996 album “The Charity Of Night”—perhaps really were about the late Lions' Hall of Famer Dick “Night Train” Lane and Lions fans, respectively.

It’s a theory.

In “Wondering Where The Lions Are,” Cockburn uses the word “petroglyphs,” which can refer to carving in stone like, say, an 0-16 record.

This slideshow is, with apologies to Daniel Muth and J. Conrad Guest (and mostly Bruce Cockburn), among others. Legit Lions fans Muth and Guest wrote recent, stirring pieces about the Lions on Bleacher Report.

In fact, it was a comment Guest made about the Lions’ storied history that got me “wondering where the Lions are.” Sorry for piling on, guys. I accept the 15-yard penalty.

To enhance this slideshow, open a second screen—speakers on—and go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_NeFrQAF1Q. Click on the song and then go back to the slideshow on Bleacher Report, right to “Begin Slideshow.”