Dan Campbell's opinion of Lions fans hasn't changed after harassment made him sell house
The security concerns that caused Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell to sell his Oakland County home this week have not changed his opinion of the team's fan base as a whole.
"I love our fans," Campbell said in his weekly Friday news conference in Allen Park. "The fans are unbelievable. This city – there’s nowhere that I would want to be or any other team that I would want to coach for. It’s rare to have an environment like we have and to be able to coach here, play here. And I tell our guys that all the time, ‘This is a rare spot, and you better enjoy it because not every place has it like we have it.'"
Campbell told Crain's Detroit Business this week that he and his wife, Holly, put their 7,800-square-foot Cape Cod-style mansion up for sale after he was harassed by fans following tough losses in the 2023 season that ended in the NFC championship game.
In one incident, Fox Sports reported last December that someone sent a work crew to Campbell's Bloomfield Hills house the morning after the team's loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
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Dan Campbell is an absolute class act.
DC knows the 1% of toxic fans don’t represent this fanbase as a whole and the people of metro Detroit.
We love you coach.#OnePride pic.twitter.com/5Cp2j9gRZQ— FυɛӀɛժ ву мσтσωη (@FueledByMotown) September 20, 2024
Campbell told Crain's that he "loved" the house and neighborhood, "it’s just that people figured out where we lived when we lost.”
The house, which was built and previously owned by former Detroit Red Wings center Igor Larionov, already has a sale pending, and the Campbells have found a new home in Oakland County, according to Crain's.
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On Friday, Campbell declined to share any details of the danger he has encountered as Lions coach.
"No disrespect, I don’t even want to go there with any of it," he said. "It’s all good and I have a job to do. My primary job here is to coach this team and have them prepared every week and I have to do my job. That’s the sole focus."
Campbell is in his fourth season as Lions head coach with a 25-27-1 record, and signed a contract extension in March.
Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, "Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline." Preorder it now from Reedy Press.
Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell loves Lions fans despite harassment making him sell house
