Dan Campbell Showed Lions 49ers Loss in Team Meeting

Lions revisited pain of NFC Championship leading up to rematch with 49ers.

Lions coach Dan Campbell at the NFC championship game. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Detroit Lions defensive lineman DJ Reader remembers the feeling of walking off the field at SoFi Stadium with the confetti falling.

On that day, February 13, 2022, Reader left the field as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. The confetti was not falling for his team, but rather the Los Angeles Rams who knocked off the Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI.

On Monday, Reader will take the field with the Lions as they venture back to the site where they suffered a similar feeling on Jan. 28, when they squandered a 17-point halftime lead against the San Francisco 49ers with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

Though Reader is in his first year with the Lions, and was not a member of the team when they lost to San Francisco, his experience on the losing side of the biggest game in football allows him to resonate with what his teammates felt on that day in January.

“I think it’s impossible for guys to scrape that memory," Reader said. "Especially when you’re out there, if you watched it or if you’re around. I think that’s a good thing, I think that’s a good thing to build off of, to feel, to understand, to hone in, really use it. So I’ve never really shied away from that kind of emotion, or the feel of, ‘Hey, this is important.’ Everybody knows how important is and guys want to go out there and do their job against a team that got the better hand of them.” 

Predictions: Lions-49ers

Detroit Lions DJ Reader (98). / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Reader told Fox 2 Game Day Live that the team watched the final moments of last season's loss to the 49ers during a team meeting this week. He watched as his teammates dealt with the immediate aftermath of being on the wrong end of a game with so much on the line.

“We watched, earlier in the team meeting, and just kind of watching the end of it, everybody’s emotions. The cameras catch every single angle. They can throw some music behind there, and it really describes the emotion that you was going through," Reader explained. "As a player, that’s when it’s real. Because you work so hard, and felt like you got to the end, and just came up short. You can’t hide that raw emotion you feel."

Watching those moments brought back the feeling he had as he dealt with the Super Bowl loss three seasons ago. Plenty has transpired in the meantime for Reader, including a loss in the AFC Championship game the following year, a significant injury and signing with Detroit this past offseason.

However, the feeling that comes with getting so close only to come up short has never left him.

"I remember losing the Super Bowl, and that feeling never goes away. Every time it comes up, you’re always gonna re-live it," Reader said. "I think that’s a taste that guys want to get out of their mouth and get off their mind. Obviously you’ll never forget it, but you can pave the way to go out there and redeem yourself.”