The Detroit Lions: Decades of New Beginnings

The Detroit Lions won their fourth and final NFL Championship in 1957. Since then, they’ve been a second-tier team that won 42 percent of their games, earned just three division titles, posted a 1-12 playoff record, and suffered through a “perfect” 0-16 season.

A major problem has been mismanagement. William Clay Ford purchased the team in 1963 and during fifty years of control oversaw one rebuilding program after another involving over twenty head coaches and hundreds of players. During thirty-one of those years, he employed two failed general managers—Russ Thomas and Matt Millen. Thomas infuriated players and fans with his tightwad ways, and Millen was incapable of building a winning team. The Lions have had star players—and a few superstars—but few quality teams. They have also been plagued by an inordinate amount of bad luck: botched referee calls and player miscues at key moments cost scores of games. Another factor hindering performance was the decision made in the 1970s to become an indoor team.

It hasn’t been all doom and gloom. The Lions have enjoyed a few successful seasons, and these are discussed. There have also been oddball moments, including losing twice to last-second record-setting field goals, being victims in the shortest (at the time) overtime game in history, and becoming involved with author George Plimpton who wrote a bestselling book about his time with the team. The book led to the Lions’ players acting in a Hollywood movie.

The book concludes with a discussion of strategies moving forward. It has been a long, hard road for Detroit’s football fans. Hopefully, the future will differ from the past because a new generation of ownership took control of the team in 2020. The Lions are embarked on yet another new beginning. Will this one be different?