(Clarence Tabb Jr. / The Detroit News)
Don’t you just hate when people nearly twice your age go and do something that you’d never be able to do, like ever, all because they possess a helluva lot more gumption and determination than you.
Joe Paquette Jr. is one of those guys.
The 63-year-old admitted Detroit Lions fan (he should get accolades just for saying that in public) walked from his home in Munising, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to the Lions training camp in Allen Park. Paquette completed his 425 mile journey in 18 days.
Despite arthritis in both knees, blistered feet, and seven consecutive days of rain, Paquette persevered, and upon his arrival at the Lions practice facility, had one thing to give to the team.
Sisu.
Sisu?
Sisu.
“It means perseverance and being able to bounce back from a difficult situation, which we all know the Lions are in,” Paquette said Wednesday. “I said that’s what the Lions need, they need Sisu. But how do you get it down there? Do you send them a letter that ends up in the waste basket?”
Not by a longshot. According to Paquette, you do it by walking an average of 25 miles per day, while sleeping at night in your brother-in-law’s motor home.
Paquette got to meet some of the Lions players after practice, and will be a guest of the team’s at their next preseason game versus Cleveland. Wait a tick, a 63-year-old guy walks over 400 miles to inspire you, and the best you can do is make him guest of honor at a Browns/Lions game? Hopefully Sisu lasts longer than one game, because I doubt very highly that the Lions will need it against the woeful Browns.
And I hate to see good Sisu go to waste.
