Detroit Lions Fans in Northern Michigan Get Rare Opportunity to Actually See Their Team on TV Sunday

NFL television broadcast rules can get a little tricky and can be often frustrating for fans when the games they hope and expect to see are not available.

Consider earlier this season when the Detroit Lions were playing on the NFL Network as part of a late-season triple-header on the basic cable outlet. Cord cutters who lived outside of metro Detroit and didn't have a subscription service missed out on the game.

That Fear of Missing Out feeling is likely odd to many Lions fans who live in nearly all of the Lower Peninsula as the Lions would be the 'home' team when the league and its broadcast partners Fox and CBS determine which markets get which games on Sunday.

But if you live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, you're often out of luck if you're a Lions fan and looking for your team's game. The reason is that the Green Bay Packers are the default 'home team' to media markets like Marquette so if the Packers and Lions happen to be playing in the same window (as in both teams happen to be playing as the same time in either the 1p or 4p kickoff times) and are on the same network (often Fox - who has the NFC rights) the Packers will be shown instead of the Lions.

(The same thing happens to Lions fans in the extreme southwest corner of the state. Areas like Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties are largely served by tv outlets in South Bend where the 'home team' is the Chicago Bears.)

However for the Week 15 slate of games when the familiar scenario has set up - the lions and Packers are both kicking at 1p and Fox has both games - the NFL gods finally smiled on Detroit Lions fans living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula as all of those TV markets will be showing the Lions rather than the Packers.

As shared on the Detroit Lions True Fans Page on Facebook, there was euphoria among Lions fans in the Yoop who actually will get to see their team.

This is where we’ve watched the Lions every week for years in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. So glad the local network is airing the Lions over the Packers for the first time ever this Sunday!!!!

The OP shares photos of a Honolulu Blue-decked out den with a computer monitor - likely for finding the Lions game by hook or by crook on any other given Sunday.

For the Week 16 match-up with the Lions and Vikings, a game that with a Lions win will secure the NFC North title and a playoff bearth, nearly all of Michigan is getting the game telecast.

Only the areas of Michigan around Meniminee (just too close to Green Bay) and the aforementioned southwest region anchored around Benton Harbor won't be getting the Lions telecast. (Unlucky for Lions fans there, Fox happens to have the AFC's Indianapolis Colts since they're hosting an NFC opponent so the Fox affiliate in South Bend which serves Southwest Michigan gets a rare chance to have the Indiana team.)

With the Packers not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs - but on life support - playing the league's worst team this season, the Carolina Panthers, that game will be getting a very limited audience that doesn't even include all of Wisconsin or the Carolinas - a fact not lost on Packers fans who took to social media to decry the lack of wide coverage on NFL TV saying "this is what happens when you don't win."

So Lions fans who will be getting a chance to see the team on Sunday when you may have, in a different season, seen the Packers yet again, rejoice and enjoy it.

And get ready for next year - based on the success and surging popularity of the team, expect plenty of primetime Sunday afternoon 'Game of the Week' as week as Sunday and Monday nighters for the Lions during the 2024 season.

(Editor's Note: To geek out on all things NFL media and the weekly maps of game coverage they publish every Wednesday during the season - check out 506Sports.)