Chris Dieterich played in the NFL for seven seasons, and it’s not difficult to envision him doing so. Even today, at age 65 and living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Dieterich has a thick 6-3 frame that still seems suited for the task of blocking other burly men and pushing them where he wants them to go.
So naturally, whenever he’d meet someone at a dinner party or an outing over the years, or just while strolling along the pier near his house, his former vocation would come up. He’d cheerfully rehash his go-to name-drop stories of blocking Hall of Famers such as Lawrence Taylor and Mike Singletary, of being recruited to North Carolina State by Lou Holtz, and of playing on the barely disguised concrete that passed for artificial turf back then along with the toll it has taken on his body since (he’s had four hip replacements and numerous other surgeries to his knees, shoulders and neck). All of it, even the aches and pains, is something he is always happy to discuss.
But then the inevitable question arises.
So what team did you play for?
“And I’d kind of put my hand over my mouth and mumble the name,” Dieterich said with a deep chuckle. “I’m kind of joking, but it was like, ‘Oh, man.’ It’s been some long, painful decades for us.”
That shame, exaggerated perhaps only slightly, is just about gone now.
Suddenly, Dieterich is more than happy to say he played nearly a decade for the Lions, an organization that no longer is associated with its 0-16 record in 2008, its lack of a championship since 1957, or its 30 years between home playoff games that ended this month.
The Lions — his Lions — are one of the four teams still left playing in the NFL, set to face the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game in Santa Clara on Sunday — and one win away from the unimaginable feat of playing in the Super Bowl for the first time.
For Dieterich, who grew up in Stony Brook and played for Ward Melville (he won the 1975 Hansen Award as the top…
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