2023 Detroit Lions Awards: Pride of Detroit Moment of the Year

A look back at the best moments and accomplishments from Pride of Detroit in 2023.

The 2023 season wasn’t just unforgettable for the Detroit Lions, but it was a year I’ll never forget professionally. It was a record year for Pride of Detroit in so many ways. Our community has never been bigger, we’ve never had a wider reach in terms of variety of content we offer, we broke records in our Movember campaign, and we even launched an entirely new newsletter. Without a doubt, this has been the most satisfying year I’ve worked here—and it sure helped that the Lions were a kickass team.

So for our next POD Award, we are going to navel-gaze for a bit here and offer our recommendations for Pride of Detroit Moment of the Year.

Before we get into our nominations, here are the other awards you can still vote on.

• Breakout Player of the Year
• Special Teams Player of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Rookie of the Year
• Game of the Year
• Offensive Player of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Play of the Year

2023 Pride of Detroit Moment of the Year

Meko Scott: Movember — Raising over $40,000 for charity

With this being my first year as part of the POD staff, I’d have to say seeing us raise so much money during the Movember charity drive. I’ve always watched and supported this cause as a viewer but to see all the work that went into it and the support from the fan base was truly special.

Brandon Knapp — Madden Simulations

I love seeing Jeremy react to the action on the field and how the games were somewhat creepily accurate to the game for a few weeks. The community is nice on Twitch and seeing the pup is always great.

John Whiticar — Hitting 100,000 followers on Twitter

Twitter has undergone a downward trend this past year, but I still want to acknowledge the milestone that Pride of Detroit hit: 100,000 followers. While the Pride of Detroit site is the home of our writing, Twitter has been our voice and our best connection with the community. I first became engaged in the Lions community thanks to Twitter. To see us hit 100,000 is a credit to all the writers and creators we have had over the years, as well as a credit to all of those that make this community what it is.

Morgan Cannon — Dan Campbell acknowledging the power of the mustache

I know we at Pride of Detroit do a lot of amazing things for our Movember campaign, but I am going to switch things up here.

It’s not often when you have Motor City Dan Campbell complimenting your boss’s facial hair. “Let me just say this. You’ve got an impressive mustache right now.” Pretty, pretty cool.

Hamza Baccouche — Post-game live show after opening win vs. Chiefs

For me, it was the live streamed PODcast after the Lions’ Week 1 win over the Chiefs. All the offseason hype was validated and everything in the world felt possible for the Lions in that moment. It was such a rare feeling of living up to the hype in Detroit, and the beginning of a 21-week long shedding of “Same Old Lions.”

Erik Schlitt — Movember: The Egg Massacre

The POD November charity drive is always the highlight of the year for me because of how the community rallies together to raise some serious money for a few great causes. This year’s new “pick a podcaster to smash an egg on their head” created an unexpected wrinkle, that initially seemed harmless enough, but ended up creating a core memory for my children. After a few “let’s let Erik’s kids smash some eggs on his head,” I thought I was in the clear, but it wasn’t long before I was accumulating eggs, reaching almost two dozen for the final full-day live stream. The end result saw my kids pelting me with 24 eggs, laughing and soaking in the opportunity to have some fun at Dad’s expense.

Ryan Mathews: Kyle DeDiminicantanio goes all-in on Movember

If you missed this “First Byte” preview of Week 10’s matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, you should go back and watch our video. Talk about rising up to the occasion and being ready for anything: Kyle D. had no idea he was stepping into a charity stream spot and showed up in the best way—offering to get egged and shave into a mustache if our awesome community raised money live on stream.

Jeremy Reisman: Movember + Pride of Detroit Direct + YouTube expansion

I’m going to cheat and name three things because I’m the boss and I can.

I can’t express my gratitude enough for everyone who helps out during our Movember charity drive. Whether it’s the hundreds of you who offer up your well-earned money for great causes, the amazing charities we’ve worked with, the POD staff who help organize and carry me through our marathon stream, or the amazing list of guests who offer their time to hang out, it’s the best month of the year for me, and you all make it possible.

But I’d also love to take the moment to express some pride in launching Pride of Detroit Direct: SB Nation’s first ever premium newsletter that we launched in September. It was an exciting new endeavor that challenged me both as a writer and a fan to come up with fresh perspectives during an iconic season. Without a doubt, it was a rousing success, and I still get emotional thinking about the wave of emails I got after the season ended from subscribers offering their gratitude for the intimacy the newsletter provided. A special thanks to Ryan Mathews, Morgan Cannon, Brett Whitefield, Erik Schlitt, and Jon Ledyard for offering their viewpoint to the newsletter.

Finally, I want to shout out both Meko Scott and Morgan Cannon for putting huge efforts into expanding our reach to YouTube. Both guys have put in a ton of work since the beginning of the year to produce high-quality and engaging content to a whole different audience. In 2023 alone, we saw our YouTube subscribers increase by over 57 percent, which is an amazing accomplishment considering how long we’ve been around on YouTube. If you haven’t already, check out their passionate content and subscribe now.

I’d love to hear what you all think. What do you love about this site? What was an unforgettable moment? Vote in the poll below and share your thoughts in the comment section.