General Motors pushing back production for Lions NFC title game

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell.

The Detroit Lions are just one win away from reaching their first-ever Super Bowl, and the Motor City is understandably excited about it. So much so that it is even putting the auto industry on hold on Sunday evening.

At least temporarily.

General Motors is pushing back the start of its third shift at the Flint, Michigan assembly plant by one hour to allow employees to watch Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers. That delay should allow employees on that shift to see the entirety of the game and still make it to work on time.

That Flint plant makes pickup trucks — the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra —  for GM, and according to the Detroit Free Press, it is the only auto plant in Michigan that has a third shift run on Sunday.

So they were the only group of workers in danger of missing some — or all — of Sunday’s game. Now that is no longer an issue.

Several GM employees were posing on social media the news about the delay.

GM wrote to its employees in a memo, via the Detroit Free Press:

“We recognize the Detroit Lions playing in an NFC Championship game as a rare, unique opportunity that warrants this temporary schedule adjustment to allow employees to enjoy the game and to make it to work on time.”

The third shift at the Flint plant typically starts at 10 p.m. ET and runs for nine hours, while Sunday’s NFC Championship Game will kick off at 6:30 p.m. ET in San Francisco.

Sunday’s shift will now start at 11 p.m. ET and only run for eight hours. It was also noted by the Detroit Free Press that the hour the employees will be working is not part of their regular 40-hour weekly shift and is an overtime hour that can be made up elsewhere.

This is only the Lions’ second-ever appearance in the NFC Championship Game and their first since the 1991 season.

They lost the 1991 game in Washington by a 41-10 margin. The Lions remain one of just four teams to have never reached a Super Bowl, joining only the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans. The Lions can remove themselves from that list on Sunday.

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