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59 reasons Detroit Lions have never been to the Super Bowl
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- 59 reasons Detroit Lions have never been to the Super Bowl
Nine years ago, my editors at the Free Press asked me to come up with 50 reasons why the Detroit Lions had never won the Super Bowl. The Carolina Panthers were getting ready to play in their second Super Bowl as an expansion team at the time, and on the golden anniversary of the big game the Lions had never so much as sniffed an appearance.
Well, Super Bowl 59 is about here, and, once again, the Lions won't be in the game. They lost as 9½-point favorites to the Washington Commanders in the NFC divisional round in January despite being the favorite to win the Super Bowl .
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The 1-seed Lions won a franchise-record 15 games in 2024, but fell victim to five turnovers in a stunning loss at Ford Field to rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the 6-seed Commanders.
We've updated the list to 59 reasons why the Lions have never won the Super Bowl, nor even made it — the only NFL team that has existed for the entire Super Bowl era never to reach the greatest stage .
So, why have the Lions been left out of 59 years of Super Bowl partying? Let's count the ways, curated by longtime Detroit Free Press Lions insider Dave Birkett , author of the new book , " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline."
HOPE: As long as Brad Holmes (and Dan Campbell) are around, Lions will have chance to compete
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1. Ford, tough
Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford and head coach Wayne Fontes in 1995 at the Pontiac Silverdome.
William Clay Ford bought the Lions in 1963 and the team has had just 20 winning seasons in the 61 years since. Ford, who died in 2014 , was a nice man who too often trusted the wrong people to build him a winner. His daughter, Sheila Hamp, runs the organization now and set it on its current path of success .
2: Uncle Scrooge
Russ Thomas was one of the people Ford left in power way too long. Thomas was the team's cost-conscious vice president and general manager in 1967-89, when the Lions rarely reached the postseason and often got into contract squabbles with players.
3: Booth review
Lions owner William Clay Ford introduces Matt Millen as the team's new CEO and president in 2001.
Matt Millen is the modern-day version of Thomas. The Lions lured him out of the broadcast booth after the 2000 season, and he ran the team for one of the worst eight-year stretches in NFL history. The Lions' record with Millen as president: 31-84.
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4: Promo code
Martin Mayhew took over for Millen a few weeks into the 2008 season — and amazingly was retained as GM after the Lions finished the year 0-16. Mayhew did put together two playoff teams, but he'll mostly be remembered for a litany of failed draft picks .
5: Oh, curses
As the old story goes, quarterback Bobby Layne, who helped the Lions win their most recent championship in 1957, put a 50-year hex on the team after he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers in October 1958. Of course, that doesn't explain the past 15 seasons, including the 2024 NFC championship game meltdown .
6: Just the fax
Barry Sanders was one of the most dynamic running backs in NFL history, but he walked away from the game with no warning on the eve of the 1999 season by faxing his retirement to the Wichita Eagle newspaper in Kansas. Sanders' abrupt departure left the Lions punchless on offense for the next decade.
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7: Lucky strike
The Lions took Sanders with the third pick of the 1989 draft after the player they hoped to get, Michigan State's Tony Mandarich, went second to the Packers (and became one of the NFL draft's biggest busts). Turns out, it's better to be consistently good than occasionally lucky.
8: Piano man
Three years after Sanders' retirement, the Lions spent the No. 3 pick of the draft on a quarterback they hoped would become the face of the franchise. Joey Harrington turned out to be better at playing the piano than football , and he was forced out of town by Steve Mariucci a few years later.
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9: Wide load
In an effort to surround Harrington with talent, Millen spent three straight first-round picks on wide receivers. Charles Rogers and Mike Williams bombed out in the NFL, while Roy Williams had a fine but unremarkable career. Ultimately, Millen's decision to build outside-in doomed the Lions.
10: Second to none
Mayhew fared reasonably well with his first-round picks, but the second round was his kryptonite. From Titus Young to Mikel Leshoure to Ryan Broyles , draft picks that should have become the nucleus of the team were instead out of the league quickly.
11: Odds and ends
The Lions made the playoffs for the first time in the Super Bowl era in 1970 but dropped a divisional round game to the Cowboys by the odd score of 5-0 . The Cowboys got a fourth-quarter safety, and Bill Munson threw a late pick off the fingers of Earl McCullouch.
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12: Right stuff
The Lions made two playoff trips in the 1980s — in strike-shortened 1982 and the next season when they lost to the 49ers , 24-23. Billy Sims ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns in that game, but Eddie Murray pushed a 43-yard kick wide right with 5 seconds left.
Moments after Detroit Lions kicker Eddie Murray tried but failed to kick a field goal to win the playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers in the closing seconds on Dec. 31, 1983, the offense walked off the field and reacted to losing the game. From left, James Jones, Leonard Thompson, Mark Nichols and Gary Danielson
13: Wash-ed out
In the 1991 season, the Lions won their only playoff game of the Super Bowl era until the 2023 season, then got blown out by Washington in the NFC title game. Things started bad and got worse as Erik Kramer fumbled on the second play to set up Washington's first of five TDs in a 41-10 loss .
14: Cover, too
The Lions won their last division title in 1993 and should have won a playoff game that season, too. But Brett Favre threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Sterling Sharpe with 55 seconds left to give the Packers a miraculous 28-24 victory.
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15: Flag day
Controversy marred the Lions' wild-card loss to the Cowboys in the 2014 postseason, when officials waved off a pass-interference penalty midway through the fourth quarter following an incomplete pass on third down. Dallas scored the go-ahead touchdown on its next possession and held on to win, 24-20.
Detroit Lions running back Joique Bell comforts defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh, center, Ziggy Ansah, left, after the 24-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round of the playoffs Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
16: Whistle stop
Officiating cost the Lions in their playoff loss to the Saints in the 2011 season. Justin Durant picked up a Drew Brees fumble with a clear path to the end zone, but the play was blown dead. The Lions led at the time, 14-7, but the Saints ran away in the second half.
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17: Paul bearer
Playoff losses are one thing, but no game changed the course of the franchise more than a season-ending loss to the Bears in 2000. Paul Edinger's 54-yard field goal with 2 seconds left kept the Lions out of the playoffs and ultimately ushered in the Millen era.
18: Purple power
As much as the Lions are to blame for their Super Bowl-less predicament, they've had some powerhouses to contend with over the years, too. The Vikings won 10 of 11 division titles from 1968-78 thanks to QB Fran Tarkenton and the "Purple People Eaters" on defense.
19: Bear in mind
The Chicago Bears weren't quite as dominant in the 1980s, but they scored five straight NFC Central titles in 1984-88 and won a Super Bowl with one of the best defenses in NFL history. The Lions, meanwhile, had two winning seasons the entire decade.
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20: Arm and hammer
The Packers had the best team in the division for a 30-year stretch that covered most of the 1990s until 2020, no surprise given they employed two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in that time in Brett Favre and the soon-to-be-gold-jacket-wearing Aaron Rodgers .
21: Quarter bounce
As good as the Packers have been at quarterback, the Lions have been just as bad for most of the Super Bowl era. Between Greg Landry's Pro Bowl appearance in 1971 and Matthew Stafford 's in 2014, the Lions started 30 different mostly forgettable signal callers.
22: No help
At no point were the Lions' deficiencies at quarterback more pronounced than in the 1990s, when they seemed to be a QB away from big things. Sanders played with journeymen his whole career, a big reason he'll be remembered as one of the best players never to win a Super Bowl.
Detroit Lions quarterback Andre Ware in action against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, Oct. 14, 1990 in Kansas City.
23: Ware house
The Lions did try to give Sanders a quarterback early in his career, taking Andre Ware seventh overall in the 1990 draft. The Heisman Trophy winner out of Houston proved erratic as a passer and was out of the league in five years.
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24: Mitchell plan
Four years after bombing on the Ware pick, the Lions signed Ware's draft classmate, Scott Mitchell, to a three-year, $11-million deal in free agency. Mitchell had one big season in Detroit but ultimately landed on the scrap heap, too.
Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell is brought down in the fourth by the Packers Vonnie Holliday during Detroits loss to the Packers 38-19 Sunday September 6th during the season opener at Lambeau Field in Greenbay
25: Mega minions
Sanders isn't the only iconic player the Lions have failed to surround with the proper talent. For most of his nine seasons in Detroit, future Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson was a one-man show on offense. Johnson retired at the age of 30 without ever winning a playoff game.
26: Pitter Pat
The Lions signed Pat Swilling as a restricted free agent in 1992, only to have the Saints match the offer sheet. A year later, unbeknownst to some higher-ups in personnel, the Lions traded their first-round pick for Swilling. The Saints took Hall of Fame tackle Willie Roaf with the pick; the Lions got 10 sacks out of Swilling in two years.
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27: Coaches' call
In the '90s, head coaches Wayne Fontes and Bobby Ross had final say over personnel. They probably shouldn't have, though, considering the Lions employed three future GMs at one point in the decade in Kevin Colbert (Steelers), Thomas Dimitroff (Falcons) and Rick Spielman (Vikings).
28: Buck shot
Fontes, with a career 67-71 record including the playoffs, remains the winningest and losingest coach in team history. The Big Buck, Monte Clark and Joe Schmidt are the only Lions coaches in the Super Bowl era to last more than five seasons, a problematic lack of continuity. Dan Campbell will be in Year 5 next season.
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29: Graveyard shift
Worse, no full-time Lions coach has gone on to coach another NFL team in the Super Bowl era. In a league of retreads, that says something about (most) of the men hired to run the team.
30: Gone clubbin'
One retread the Lions hired that they probably shouldn't have was Steve Mariucci. First, they violated the Rooney Rule to bring Mariucci aboard. Second, Mariucci's country-club approach to the game wasn't the right fit for a young team. He was fired before his third season was up.
Detroit Lions rookie snapper Don Muhlbach, left, is consoled by head coach Steve Mariucci, center, and receiver Roy Williams, after Muhlbach's bad snap cost the Lions a tie with the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field on Dec. 19, 2004. The Lions scored a TD with 8 seconds left but missed the extra point on a bad snap by Muhlbach that gave the Vikings the 28-27 win.
31: Wind chimes
Mariucci took over for Marty Mornhinweg, widely panned as one of the worst head coaches in NFL history. Mornhinweg had no presence with veterans, and the lowlight of his 5-27 tenure as coach was taking the wind in an overtime loss to the Bears.
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32: Half staff
Head coaches are only as good as their coordinators, and the Lions have had some doozies through the years. No staff was more overmatched than Rod Marinelli's 0-16 group of 2008. Jim Colletto's offensive call sheets were a joke among players, and Joe Barry didn't yet know how to run a defense.
33: Unlucky 13
The Lions have had their share of draft busts through the years. One particularly tough-to-stomach pick came in 1983, not so much for whom they took with the 13th pick (running back James Jones out of Florida) but on whom they passed (quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Dan Marino).
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34: Tight wad
The 2014 draft is another Lions fans will remember for its missed opportunity. The Lions took tight end Eric Ebron with the 10th overall pick when they could have had Aaron Donald or Odell Beckham Jr.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell talks to former tight end Eric Ebron before the game between Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025.
35: Freddie, adieu
In 1965, the year before the AFL-NFL merger, the Lions drafted receiver Fred Biletnikoff in the third round. Biletnikoff didn't sign with the Lions, though, reportedly picking the AFL's Oakland Raiders because of money. He went on to be Super Bowl 11 MVP.
36: Ten fold
DeMarcus Ware wasn't a Super Bowl MVP, but he could have been with two sacks against the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Like Biletnikoff, Ware was almost a Lion. The Lions zeroed in on the pass rusher with the 10th pick of the 2005 draft, but Millen was swayed in the war room to take USC receiver Mike Williams, who hadn't played in a year due to an eligibility snafu, instead.
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37: Busted coverage
In terms of sheer busts, few Lions draft picks can match Reggie Rogers, the seventh overall pick in 1987 . Rogers killed three teens while driving drunk in October 1988. He played 11 games and had one sack in his Lions career.
38: Cave men
Ndamukong Suh was a home run of a draft pick in 2010, but the Lions caved to his contract demands early, giving him a voidable sixth year in his rookie deal, then watched him leave for the Miami Dolphins in free agency without getting anything in return.
39: Billy ball
Injuries spoiled their share of good draft picks, too. Billy Sims was on his way to NFL stardom when he suffered a gruesome knee injury in 1984. Sims, the No. 1 pick in the 1980 draft, never played another down after his injury and the Lions' ground game languished until Sanders came along.
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40: Best buy
Jahvid Best's career ended not in an instant like Sims', but from the cumulative effect of four brain injuries in college and the pros. Best looked great in flashes his first two seasons, but the Lions gambled away a high draft pick when other teams took a more prudent approach.
41: Cool Brees
Lions doctors were too liberal in Best's case and maybe too cautious with Drew Brees. The Lions hoped to sign Brees as a free agent in 2006 but were scared away by a shoulder injury. Brees went on to win a Super Bowl with the Saints in the 2009 season and is one of the most prolific passers in NFL history.
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42: Tragedy strikes
Besides the death of Chuck Hughes , the most tragic injury to strike the Lions happened in 1991, when Mike Utley was paralyzed on the field . Eric Andolsek died a few months later , leaving the Lions' once-promising offensive line in a state of rebuild as a time when the rest of their roster was among the best in the NFL.
43: Home cooking
The Lions have hosted two Super Bowls, which was great for metro Detroit but bad for their chances of being in the game. Before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, no team had played in a Super Bowl in its home stadium, and the Lions didn't come close to appearing in Super Bowl 16 at the Pontiac Silverdome or 40 at Ford Field in downtown Detroit.
A fan holds a ticket near the entrance of Ford Field before Super Bowl XL between the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Ford Field, Feb. 5, 2006 in Detroit.
44: Brain drain
The Lions had two of the best coordinators in the NFL under Campbell in Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. It's not the first time they've had well-respected assistants on staff . Bill Belichick and Don Shula spent time in Detroit as assistants and went on to win Super Bowls elsewhere.
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45: Dungy of doom
In some instances, the Lions have kept the wrong people too long. They had a chance to hire Tony Dungy in 1996 but kept Fontes as coach instead. Dungy took over the lowly Buccaneers that year and fashioned them into title contenders; Fontes was fired after the season.
46: Culture club
Losing cultures can be hard to explain but easy to spot. That's a situation the Lions have found themselves in through the years, when losses piled up to the point they're expected and players want to be anywhere but at work.
47: Banner day
Remember when the Lions hung banners at Ford Field to commemorate their playoff appearances? It may not have been their intention, but by raising those banners to the rafters, they lowered their bar on what was considered a successful season.
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48: Passive aggressive
Be it for salary-cap reasons, their own inability to judge talent or something else, the Lions of the 2010s never went all in when they tasted success. After playoff appearances in 2011 and 2014, they did little in the offseason to upgrade their roster.
49: International incident
The Lions got off to a terrible start in 2015 after winning 11 games in 2024, and when they fired Mayhew and president Tom Lewand after a bad loss in London, it made Jim Caldwell a lame-duck coach. Caldwell may never have won a Super Bowl in Detroit, but the organization set him up for failure his final two seasons.
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50: Search and destroy
The Lions hired Ernie Accorsi to lead their general manager search after the 2015 season. They put their trust in Accorsi for the right reasons; owner Martha Ford and president Rod Wood were new to their jobs (and in Wood's case, he was new to the NFL). But Accorsi led a narrow search that ended with the Lions hiring Bob Quinn, who was miscast as the team's GM.
51: Patriot day
Quinn brought "the Patriot Way" to Detroit, which was a disaster almost from Day 1. He kept Caldwell as coach, despite his own reservations, then hired his former colleague with the New England Patriots , Matt Patricia, as Caldwell's replacement. Patricia rubbed large chunks of the locker room the wrong way and won sparingly on the field.
Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia looks at the replay on scoreboard during the second half of the Lions-Jets game at Ford Field in Detroit, Monday, September 10, 2018.
52: Big Play and Quandre
Among the players Patricia ran off with his tough-guy ways were defensive starters Quandre Diggs and Darius Slay . The Lions got a swap of late-round draft picks for Diggs and third-and fifth-round choices for Slay. Both Diggs and Slay made three Pro Bowls with their new teams.
53: Staff directory
Stafford was so turned off by the franchise's inability to build a winner that he asked for a trade before Campbell and Brad Holmes took over as head coach and GM in January 2021. In a state of rebuild, the Lions had little chance of competing their first two years under Campbell and Holmes, though the deal netted the franchise the nucleus of its current roster.
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Detroit Lions president Rod Wood talks to Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford before the game between Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021.
54: Baker's dozen
By the end of the 2022 season, the Lions were as dangerous as any team in the NFL. But you can't win a Super Bowl if you don't get into the playoffs, and the Lions' final game of the year, in prime time in Green Bay, was rendered meaningless when the Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams in overtime after Diggs intercepted a Baker Mayfield pass to set up the game-winning field goal.
55: Carolina blues
The Lions wouldn't have needed help to get into the playoffs if not for their own failures that season. They started 1-6 in 2022, then suffered a crushing late-season loss to the lowly Carolina Panthers in Week 16 that doomed their postseason chances.
56: Reporting for duty
The Lions lost a late-season game last year when officials botched the administration of a two-point play. Taylor Decker caught the would-be game-winning 2-point conversion, but officials wrongly signaled swing tackle Dan Skipper as the eligible receiver . The loss cost the Lions a chance at getting the No. 1 seed in the playoffs the following week, when the San Francisco 49ers were able to rest their starters.
Detroit Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker (68) catches the ball in the end zone for a 2-point conversion against Dallas Cowboys during the second half at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. The play was flagged for illegal touching.
57: Halfway there
The Lions dominated the 49ers in the first half of the 2024 NFC title game. They led 24-7 in the third quarter, then fell apart with a series of self-inflicted mistakes . As tough as the loss was to swallow, it served as fuel for the 2024 team's franchise-best 15-2 regular season .
58. Nightmare at Ford Field
Turnovers can even the playing field in a game, and that's exactly what happened on Jan. 18, 2025 at a raucous Ford Field in the divisional playoff round. Lions quarterback Jared Goff fumbled deep in Commanders territory in the first quarter, and threw three interceptions , and receiver Jameson Williams tossed an ill-advised pick on a reverse pass in the fourth quarter as the Lions lost the turnover battle, 5-0, in a crushing 45-31 loss to 6-seed Washington. The Lions were the consensus Super Bowl favorite entering the playoffs .
REQUIRED READING: Injuries, luck & Bobby Layne nuked Brad Holmes' roster and cost Lions a Super Bowl
59: Bottom line
In a game where talent reigns supreme, the Lions haven't been good enough most years, though their roster is as good as any in the NFL right now.
This story was updated after the Lions were eliminated in the 2025 playoffs by the Commanders.
Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline."
Order your copy here . Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com .
Follow Dave Birkett on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: No Detroit Lions in Super Bowl? 59 reasons it hasn't happened
