C.J. Gardner-Johnson hopes Lions fans don ski masks for home opener: 'It's part of us'

C.J. Gardner Johnson, in his first year as a defensive back with the Detroit Lions, got a taste of what his team's fans can bring to a game, in last week's season-opening victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in raucous Arrowhead Stadium.

He liked what he saw.

"From what I've seen the crowd," Gardner-Johnson told reporters, "we got probably the most ruthless fans in the game, so I think from talking crap, they feed off of us, they yell the loudest, and that was a home game for K.C. They just love their Lions team, so I think the more we win, the more we're going to see true Lions fans."

They turned out in droves against the Chiefs, even in enemy territory. It's be ratcheted up tenfold for the Lions' home opener Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field, And, if Gardner-Johnson has his way, a majority of those fans will be wearing blue ski masks like the one he donned in Kansas City.

"You're gonna see on Sunday," he told reporters. "Blue ski masks everywhere."

That request appears to have set online orders ablaze, with some outlets reporting the ski mask being sold out on Amazon. They were available as of Wednesday afternoon.

Gardner-Johnson stoked the request on social media, posting on X on Tuesday evening: "If you gone have a ski mask on Sunday quote this."

He added on Wednesday in a subsequent post that he's not "promoting violence," and that it's "football related."

"We villians, right?" Johnson told reporters Tuesday. "It's part of us. It's the culture. I'm changing it."

"We taking what's ours."

Kickoff Sunday is at 1 p.m.