After the Detroit Lions defeated the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football to close out the NFL's regular season, Lions head coach Dan Campbell told Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell "see you in two weeks" implying the Vikings would upset the Rams, leading to their third matchup of the season.
Whether it was a nice gesture of respect towards O'Connell or a shot taken at the Rams, Sean McVay and company are taking it personally. In what is rapidly becoming the most intense rivalry in the NFL, the Lions and the Rams do not like each other and Campbell's words have been used as bulletin board material according to defensive captain Quentin Lake.
Perhaps Campbell misspoke. Perhaps he was throwing shade. While I'm sure the Lions head coach would love to take back his words, you can't put ketchup back into the bottle. And in life, sometimes you're wrong. In this situation, Campbell was dead wrong.
While both teams could face off in the NFC championship, they're focused on their next opponent. That doesn't mean the Rams and Lions have not kept each other in mind. The Lions did beat the Rams in last year's Wild Card game and in the season opener. The Rams feel the hit by Lions safety Kerby Joseph on Tyler Higbee, committed in the playoffs last year, a hit that tore Higbee's ACL and MCL was low. Stafford told Joseph that the hit was "dirty as ****." Joseph disagrees and that sparked a massive wave of hate between the two fanbases and that has flooded onto the field.
Some Lions fans take exception to Matthew Stafford's exit from the franchise and have publicly expressed irritation with Stafford and his wife Kelly.
There are also the various connections such as the Stafford-Goff trade and the men who did it, Les Snead and Brad Holmes. Holmes was an executive with the Rams under Snead. Both men are very competitive and do not want to lose to the other.
There has been bad blood brewing and Campbell's words added fuel to the Rams' desire to win a Super Bowl. Campbell will have to swallow his words on this one as Los Angeles took Minnesota to school with a 27-9 victory.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/rams/ as Dan Campbell Has to Eat Foolish Words After Rams Dispatch Vikings.