Obama: Lions' loss 'a little suspect'

Corrections and Clarifications: An earlier version had the wrong date of the event.

President Obama likes to give shoutouts to local sports teams when he travels, and he had a special reason to do so Wednesday when he visited Detroit Lions country.

His visit to a Ford plant came three days after the Lions lost a very heated NFL playoff game to the Dallas Cowboys, a 24-20 contest that turned on some much criticized officiating.

"I would have been pretty irritated," Obama told the crowd. "Were you irritated?"

Yes, responded Lions' fans, one of whom put it succinctly: "We got hosed!"

Obama zeroed in on one particularly controversial play. The Lions, ahead 20-17 in the fourth quarter, were driving when the officials called a pass interference penalty on the Cowboys. Then, as the teams began preparing for a first down play, the officials changed their mind and picked up the flag without explanation.

"Now, listen, I'm a Bears fan — you beat us twice," Obama told the Detroit crowd. "But even a Bears fan has to admit that that was a little suspect. ... I have never seen anything like that before."

As he does with many a suffering sports fan, Obama sympathized with the Lions — after all, the Bears haven't made the NFL playoffs in four years.

"There's always next year," Obama said.

The president even tied the Detroit Lions' plight to the city's efforts to dig itself out of bankruptcy.

Said Obama: "If there's one thing that you can take to the bank when talking about Detroit is that Detroit always comes back."