LoginDetroit-raised comedian uses the Lions to express his struggles with addiction in ‘Honolulu Blues’
There’s no doubt the Detroit Lions have scarred many of their fans, being the first team to ever go 0-16.
Heartbreaking losses that seemed to defy the rule book, like Calvin Johnson’s non-catch in Chicago. Or the picked up penalty in the playoffs vs the Cowboys.
Losing affects the players too, like Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders faxing his retirement to his hometown newspaper.
It’s not easy for anyone around that franchise, apparently. The same goes for Dearborn-raised, Brooklyn-based comedian Joel Walkowski.
In his book “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man” Walkowski recounts the story of his family’s personal trauma, alongside the failings of his favorite team, the Detroit Lions. It’s incredibly funny and deeply personal in a way that many can relate to.
Walkowski has been on stages across the country. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, on Comedy Central and a bunch of other places. He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara why he decided to write the book.
Joel Walkowski: It was during the [Lions coach Matt] Patricia era, and you knew that fourth quarter collapse was always coming, and knowing that the hard thing was coming kind of made it easier. And that made me think, like, ‘oh, being a Lions fan impacted me in a profound way’.
And then as part of my, like, sobriety journey, I was tasked to do goals for myself. Like, what do I really want out of life? What do I think maximizes who I am? And it was like, “Oh, if I don’t write this book, I will always regret it.” So it became my purpose, my number one goal, and like I revolved my life around writing this book.
Russ McNamara: It says a lot about the depth of a book when a historically bad franchise with its own share of tragedy isn’t the darkest stuff in it.
JW: I’ll say that there is maybe every bit of darkness that could exist is in this book, but it’s handled with lightness. And I do think the overlap is there because I started to get very serious about my sobriety, September 2021 exactly.
And I don’t know how familiar you guys are with Lions history, but things started to be done very different. So it’s Campbell-Holmes era. It’s Sheila Ford. I’m bouncing back from, like, my darkest points. So like looking at Jared [Goff] and Dan [Campbell] and Brad [Holmes], as I’m like, you know, white knuckling 90 days of sobriety and thinking, like, “Oh, is there a different way to do this?” It was so helpful.
RM: In the book, you’re very open about your experience growing up, and you specifically mentioned essentially getting addicted to speed as a child—as many people of our age did. At what point did you, even as a child, kind of realize something’s not right?
JW: I was seven years old when I was put on very high doses of Adderall. Then I get to high school and there was a high school video program. I started to want to make different videos. I wanted to have more ambitions, but I would just start taking pill after pill after pill, pulling all-nighters and really string myself out.
But along those same lines, every time I’d produce something, I got validation. I was seen for the first time. So this finding of my identity was happening while I was abusing a substance.
I didn’t become an addict because I was letting loose or partying. I became an addict alone in my room, fostering some ambition, because putting something out there was the only way I had any value, any worth, right?
RM: How much of that value and worth did you sort of get tied into with following the ins and outs of the Detroit Lions?
JW: My life revolves around Sundays, but I try and make them only value added. Regardless of a win or loss, I play basketball from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. If we win, I show my girlfriends the highlights. If we lose, I turn off my phone and don’t check any football news until Tuesday.
If you get to the very ending of this book, which dovetails with, you know, a certain 17-point halftime lead, [Lions vs 49ers in 2023 NFC Championship Game] that lesson was given to me is “the win is the friends and relationships we make along the way.” And that it took me nearly 40 years to learn that.
Joel Walkowski’s book “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man” is out July 14, 2026 just in time for the start of Detroit Lions training camp. It is available for pre-order now.
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