Fans applaud Lions' draft pick, Mayor Duggan teases breaking attendance record
Detroit — Lions fans applauded the team's latest draft pick on Friday, cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr., hopeful he can help take the team to the "next level" — maybe even a Super Bowl.
Even for fans who weren't very familiar with the Missouri player, many said they trusted Brad Holmes. Some even had a mantra: "In Brad we trust."
"It fills a need we have on defense, and I think he'll really help us," said Paul Zantac of Flat Rock.
Zantac was one of roughly 230,000 people who converged on downtown Detroit for the second day of the NFL Draft, putting the city on track to potentially break the record for draft attendance.
Barry Sanders/Mike Duggan intro
Lions fans exploded into chants of “Barry” as legendary running back Barry Sanders took the stage with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to announce Rakestraw, the draft's 61st pick.
"It’s a great time to be in Detroit!" said Duggan, who predicted that the city would break the record for attendance at the NFL Draft.
When Rakestraw's name was announced, fans in the crowd cheered, even if some weren't totally familiar with Rakestraw.
Metro Detroit native Gary Fournier, 50, said by picking Rakestraw, the message was clear: in Brad Holmes we trust.
"We were sick of watching the secondary get burned last year, it was our only weakness," Fournier said. "
Sydney Fournier, 21, agreed.
"I think we need to build up our defense so it's a great start to that," Fournier said. "We had our cornerback in the first round and another cornerback in this round so I think we're gonna be doing real great this season."
Cade Dunn, 20, attended the draft with them and said he expects a Super Bowl win next year.
"I just trust in Brad Holmes, if he wants a corner I want a corner," Dunn said. "We just got a corner but, he's a stud. I'm hoping that it'll be great."
Fournier, who attended the draft on Thursday and Friday, said he'd never seen so many people downtown.
"The city's alive, the electricity here is like nothing I've ever experienced," he said.
Duggan: 'It's been remarkable'
Speaking to reporters after announcing the Lions' pick, Duggan acknowledged he and other city officials, including Police Chief James White, have been focused on everything from safety to the city's cleanliness over the last two days.
"Our minds are on what’s going on with safety, what’s going on with attendance, what’s going on with cleanliness, but.. the whole city has done great," he said. "But all of us will be happy to wake up Sunday morning."
Still, "it’s been remarkable," he said.
"This has been special in the way Detroit is being seen around the country," he said. It's "game-changing for the city," in terms of attracting young people to live in Detroit or businesses to locate.
At Capacity
For several hours Friday, the draft was at attendance capacity, meaning gates to enter the footprint were closed and fans were being turned away.
Just before 7 p.m., the NFL sent an alert that the draft footprint had reached capacity and fans would be diverted to other viewing areas. The draft also reached capacity Thursday.
"The only time I've ever seen crowds like this is at Opening Day, when you're coming out of the stadium," said Jestin Jansen of Ypsilanti who came with friend Chad Sweet of Saline and their families. "Otherwise, it's unheard of."
Later Friday, the area opened again for fans as some left.
Jennifer Haynes of Warren and Amber Comment of Shelby Township came downtown and were just south of the draft theater at Campus Martius, sitting in a swing in the median. Comment said she didn't usually spend a lot of time downtown."Being down here today has made me want to come downtown more," she said.
Tribute to Wolverines
At the official start of the draft, the University of Michigan football team was honored after winning a National Championship. The team was introduced with a video from quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was drafted Thursday by the Minnesota Vikings.
The team walked onstage with their trophy to several choruses of "The Victors." They were met with loud applause, and only a few scattered "Go Green" cheers.
Fans from all over
Friday's crowd didn't appear to be as tightly packed into the draft footprint as Thursday but Honolulu blue was clearly the dominant color. More than 80% of fans downtown on Friday were decked out in Lions gear, but there were also NFL fans from Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Los Angeles.
For Atlanta fans William Schroeder, 25, and Bradley Moye, 25, football has been part of their lives since they were kids. The pair flew in from Georgia on Thursday and said they've been planning the trip for months. It's their first NFL draft and first time in Detroit.
"It's so gorgeous," Schroeder said. "I love the pride here and the culture is amazing. The food is amazing too. ... I want to come back here during the summer time."
The camaraderie among fans really stood out to Moye, and Schroeder said Detroit set a high benchmark for future drafts.
Aaron Ortega, a.k.a Birdman, is a diehard Eagles fan but lives out in California now. This is his third draft and said all the Detroit fans have been supportive and helpful so far.
The Detroit Lions have a huge underdog story, Ortega said, adding that he could feel how anxious the city is for a Super Bowl win.
"The pulse of the city, of what's been going on with the team - you can feel it," Ortega said. "The NFL is here so, it's just you can feel the passion in the city."
The big crowds congested some area roadways and some complained of expensive parking, but many visitors said they felt welcome in Detroit. Detroit police, meanwhile, said Friday afternoon that there were no incidents to report.
Given the crush of people Thursday, tourism officials on Friday acknowledged they are still requiring the use of OnePass QR codes to get into certain draft areas.
Family affair
For some fans, the second day of the draft was a family affair. For others, it was a tradition.
Maureen Lewis, 59, of Warren brought her grandson Thomas, 4, wearing Lions gear as they walked down Woodward."There are lots of people here and some of them have numbers like mine," Thomas said, pointing to his Aidan Hutchinson shirt.Maureen said she liked seeing everyone having a good time downtown."It's nice to see Detroit how the people who live here see it," she said. "There were some rough years there, but the Detroit we're visiting has been really nice and welcoming. We've had a great time downtown."
Wind speeds, and NFL, shut down Dodge Fountain (for now)
Detroit has spent months and millions of dollars renovating the city's historic Dodge Fountain in Hart Plaza. Renovations started in October to have it finished in time for the draft.
But on Friday, the city of Detroit posted on its Facebook page that the fountain would again be turned off. Why? The NFL requested it due to wind speeds.
"Due to current wind speeds, the dodge fountain is shut down at request of the NFL," said a post Friday on the city of Detroit's official Facebook page. "Don’t worry, the fountain will be back up and running for all to enjoy once the draft is over."
The work of modernist artist Isamu Noguchi, the fountain is a stainless steel ring held 24 feet in the air by two cylindrical legs over a black granite pool. Its 300 water jets spray water up and over the ring and cascade water down in a curtain.
No Ubers from Canada
Dietra Allison, Columbus, 63, is a founding member of Steel Aftermath, a local Steelers fan club in Ohio. She and two fellow club members came up to Detroit for the draft.
Allison had previously been to the 2019 draft in Nashville, which she said was smaller and fewer people than Detroit's.
She used to travel to Detroit to watch Tayshaun Prince play for the Pistons, but he left the franchise in 2013. Since then she's noticed new buildings pop up and said the city looks a little cleaner.
"It's exciting," Allison said.
Allison was staying across the Detroit river in Canada but got stuck there on Thursday because no Ubers would cross the border, she said. To avoid missing another day of the draft, she plans to stay in Metro Detroit for the rest of the time.
"We drove down here after we left the border and we've been down here ever since," Allison said. "It's a lot more people now than it was when we first arrived."
First-time visitors weigh in on Detroit
For many, the draft marked their first visit to Detroit.
Liz Hernandez, who is from Cleveland and was wearing a Browns jersey, had the day off on Friday so she decided to take advantage of it."Honestly, I'm having so much fun," she said. "I had today off so I decided to come up and stay with my friend who lives on the west side. Parking was a little expensive, but everything else has been cool so far."She said she was going to try to be near the draft stage later, but if it's too crowded, she'll go back to her friend's place and watch everything on TV.
Diehard Bears fans Mile Gilmartin, 45, and his son Mike Jr., 10, meanwhile, traveled from Chicago to see their teams' first round picks. The father-son duo is staying in Dearborn and said the 15-minute drive went smoothly. After parking on the outskirts of downtown, Mike Jr. racked up 23,000 steps during the first day of the draft.
Neither had been to Detroit before and Mike Sr. said he loved the architecture and that the Lions fans had been particularly welcoming.
"We felt very welcome here... as you'd expect in the Midwest," Mike (senior) said.
After getting shuffled around to different entry points Thursday afternoon, when the Draft footprint hit maximum capacity, Mike and his son wanted to arrive downtown early on Friday to try out some of the activities. Mike Jr. had already competed in several passing contests available to fans at Hart Plaza.
"We had an awesome time, and we made it in, and we got that we got we got the draft picks that we wanted," Mike (senior) said.
Mike Jr., who carried a homemade sign that read "Our next luck-man Caleb Williams", was already asking to go to next year's draft.
Big lines
Earlier Friday, lines stretched down Woodward Avenue to take photos inside the draft clock and buy NFL swag. Kids played catch in front of the spirit of Detroit while crowds began making their way towards Camous Martius.
The Monroe Street Midway area behind the Draft Theater was slowly filling with fans a few hours before round two started. Many milled around drinking and eating, exchanging dirty looks with rival fans before breaking into smiles and conceding friendly fist bumps.
Hart Plaza bustled with fans picking up merchandise, with the longest lines for the Detroit Lions tent. Lions legend Barry Sanders drove down Jefferson on a golf cart and was met with throngs of fans cheering him on and chanting his name.
LA Rams season ticket holders Dan and Gay Ryan take their team's mascot seriously, wearing matching Ram masks to every game and the draft this year.
The pair flew out from Los Angeles and are staying with relatives in Detroit. They've never been and have been using the Q Line to get around.
"It's a lot nicer than we thought it was and it feels safer than we thought it would be," Gay Ryan, 56, sad.
They were two of 14 lucky inner circle fans that got to watch the first round of the draft from inside the theater.
"It was amazing, the energy was so high it felt like we could've stayed up all night," Gay Ryan said. "Everybody loves football and so you can talk to anybody and there's this common denominator and everyone's really friendly."
400,000 on Thursday
The city on Thursday set an NFL record for first day attendance at more than 275,000, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced from the draft stage. The prior record was more than 200,000.
Visit Detroit officials said they are hoping to set a new three-day NFL draft attendance record.
Detroit's draft also is on pace to break the three-day attendance record, which was set in Nashville, Tenn., at 600,000.
Detroit police officials estimated the overall crowd in the city during Thursday at 400,000 before they decided to shut down entry into the draft footprint at 6:30 p.m. As a result of the hordes of people, league officials decided early in the day to suspend the use of QR codes that people received when they registered for the free registration entry into draft spaces and activities.
"For the NFL to expedite entry into the venue, we did not scan (the) OnePass QR code, but OnePass is still required to access all of the games and attractions inside Draft Experience presented by Rocket Mortgage," said Chris Moyer, a spokesman for Visit Detroit. That same protocol would continue Friday, he said.
Tourism officials urged those attending the Draft Experience to still download the app, as it's still needed once inside the gates. More than 500,000 downloads by people attending the draft had already occurred as of early Friday afternoon.
Officials closed down entry into the main draft footprint area at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, exercising the NFL's right to shut off access when capacity was reached. Prior to the draft, city officials set up spillover areas and large TV screens for fans in areas such as Capital Park and Grand Circus Park if maximum capacity is reached again Friday.
The draft is set to resume at 7 p.m. Friday with teams making their second and third round selections. The Detroit Lions only have a selection in Round 2 at No. 61. The team traded its third round pick to the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday to move up in the first round from No. 29 to No. 24, where the Lions chose Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold.
All draft towns different
Sarasota, Fla. native Dan Branch found himself in Detroit proper for the first time Friday afternoon. He had previously traveled to Michigan to watch the Super Bowl in Pontiac's Silverdome in the early 1980s.
He is also staying downtown, after flying in Wednesday, and thought the city is modern and clean. Detroit is his seventh NFL draft, although he said they're hard to compare with each other.
"They're great, they're all different," said Branch, 59. "None of them are the same. The layouts are different."
Detroit's food is 'best kept secret'
Tennessee Titans super fan Sam Dean, aka Mr. First Down, showed up for Day 2 of the draft in a cowboy hat and feathered sky blue jersey.
He's held season tickets for the Titans since 2013 and prior to Detroit had only attended the NFL draft when Nashville hosted it in 2019. Nashville set the record for three-day draft attendance.
He drove the 10 hours from Nashville and was not disappointed.
"I just need eight more food trucks of Mom's Spaghetti," Dean, 38, said, referring to Eminem's popular restaurant downtown.
Dean, who is staying downtown, had also sampled Buddy's Detroit style pizza for the first time.
"The best kept secret about Detroit is the cuisine, the food here is excellent," Dean said. "It's heavy, but it's excellent."
Dean said he felt bad for fans who couldn't get in Thursday night when the draft footprint hit capacity, and wished it could have been expanded to accommodate the demand.
Corktown sees Honolulu Blue
Fans in their Honolulu blue jerseys were out early Friday afternoon in Corktown, the city's oldest neighborhood adjacent to downtown, ready for Day 2 of Detroit’s draft weekend.
Area restaurants and bars like The Yard on Michigan Avenue expanded hours and offered special drinks for the event.
With many coming to Detroit from out of state for the draft, The Yard benefitted from its proximity to The Godfrey hotel, said Ben Potter, director of operations at the bar that features ax throwing, a board game lounge and an in-house food truck. Thursday was busier than usual at The Yard, and Potter expects Friday and Saturday to be even busier.
“It’s really exciting to have the draft here,” Potter said. “It’s going to expose a lot of people that maybe had the wrong idea about our city to just the incredible vibrancy that our city’s currently existing in and the amazing community energy that we have here.”
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