Detroit Lions linebacker and captain Alex Anzalone felt the same pain and anguish as the fanbase following the excruciating end to the season in the NFC championship game.

Anzalone, who has been called the "LeBron James of our defense," shared his pain in an article Tuesday written for The Players' Tribune, an outlet that has athletes share their own story with fans. Anzalone touched on numerous topics, from how he balanced his role as a father of a young son with dealing with his own physical and emotional pain from the season, to supporting Dan Campbell and his aggressive decisions, while delivering a promise to Detroit that the team will have an insatiable hunger to reach the summit next season.

"I can’t help but have this image of Dan sitting in a dark room this Sunday, all by himself, gripping his coffee cup for three hours straight, staring daggers at the TV, just counting down the milliseconds until training camp starts and we can run it back," Anzalone wrote to finish his message to the fan base.

"You’re gonna have 53 dogs out there doing the exact same. You’re gonna have a whole coaching staff doing the same. You’re gonna have a whole city doing the same. This year, it sucks. Next year, it’s us."

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His open letter to the city, titled "To the City of Detroit," began with a defense of Campbell and his fourth-down decision-making. Anzalone said the entire team was behind Campbell on those fourth-down calls, which ended up failing, in the second half of the NFC championship game, because those aggressive decisions were engrained into the DNA of the Lions' team. They will always bet on themselves, even "as the chips are down," as he wrote, and will continue to do it in the future.

"It was the right decision — and I’m not talking about the right decision for analytics or talk radio or whatever," Anzalone wrote. "It was the right call for us, especially in that moment. When you’re in that situation, 20 games into an NFL season, it’s not like a video game. You’re not playing Madden. You had guys out there playing with bum ankles. Guys playing with MCL sprains. Guys taking nerve injections and toradol. Guys who could barely get out of bed that morning. It’s a battle of wills at that point in the season. You’re just running on pure belief and adrenaline. I feel like if you shy away from your identity in that moment, then you’re betraying the very thing that got you there.

"On 4th down, in that situation, we’re always going for the kill. That mentality took us from 0–10–1 to the NFC Championship game in just a few seasons. Honestly, if anything, when we decided to kick the field goal in the first half, I was more surprised then."

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In the week following the loss, Anzalone said he was in a dazed state, still processing his emotions of coming so close to the Super Bowl but ultimately falling short. He immediately jumped back into the full-time role of "Dad" for his 3-year-old son Cooper, who brightened his mood by telling Anzalone he was not disappointed in him or the team for losing before the Super Bowl.

He also thanked his wife, Lindsey, for taking care of their kids and serving as his "absolute rock" while he was traveling. He reflected on raising Cooper, who began to walk at the start of the 2021 season, in Detroit, going through the pain of a miscarriage of their second child before training camp in 2022, and welcoming a daughter to the family this past season. Despite riding an emotional roller coaster during his Lions tenure, Anzalone said he has never been happier than when the Lions were doing well and his family, which he said dwarfs the importance of football, added one more member.

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"The way that this city and all the fans lifted me and my family up during those dark days added a whole other dimension to this season," Anzalone wrote. "When our daughter, Carter, was born right before the holidays, and we were playing such great football, and all the Christmas lights and the Lions flags were going up all over the city, it was such a special time. Probably the happiest I’ve ever been."

He only had a couple hours of sleep following the loss before he jumped into parenting duty, thanks to his son pulling his eyelids open. Cooper was happy to have his father home to play and told Anzalone he wasn't sad that the Lions lost, which helped boost his spirit in "a moment that meant so much to me."

But a few days later, Cooper had another question that hurt his spirit, when the toddler asked Anzalone if he played in the Super Bowl. He said his entire Detroit tenure came back to him in that moment: The 0-10-1 start to 2021 and the subsequent turnaround, the message to win out in 2022 after losing to the Bills on Thanksgiving, beating the Chiefs on the road to start 2023, taking down Matthew Stafford and the Rams in the wild-card round to exorcise franchise demons, then doubling down with another win over Tampa in the next round, before eventually bowing out one game from the Super Bowl.

All of those moments, Anzalone said, washed over him after Cooper's question. He delivered a simple but motivating message in response to his son, and then turned to the future in the letter to say the best is yet to come.

"Daddy, did you go to the Super Bowl?" Anzalone wrote. "No, buddy. We didn’t. But don’t worry. We’ll get there.

"What we’re building here is extremely special. You can talk about it all day, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say. It’s one thing to say that a city, and a team, and a culture is unique. It’s a whole other thing to actually turn down the cheddar. (Great to have you back, Coach Ben and Coach AG.) We will get there."

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Anzalone said his confidence lies in the players around him and the coaching staff in place, which has helped cultivate a winning environment that has become contagious for everyone in Allen Park. And since they are running it back, success is the only path forward for him; no failure allowed.

"It’s something we feel in our bones. We want to make history next season. Anything less is failure."

He then finished his letter to the city with a simple sign-off that read:

"Believe,

Alex"

You can read the entire letter on The Players' Tribune.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Alex Anzalone delivers promise to fans for 2024