Bobby Layne Curse to Expire in 3 Days, Lions Fans Rejoice

Posted Oct 03, 2008 3:15PM By Adam Gretz (RSS feed)

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Cheer up, Lions fans, your long national nightmare is about to end. That's right, in just three days the curse of Bobby Layne is set to run out, and your beloved football team will once again return to prominence in the NFL. What's that you ask? The Lions were cursed? Yeah, I had no idea. But apparently this explains everything from Matt Millen, to Joey Harrington, to Barry Sanders suddenly walking away from the game. The Curse Of Bobby Layne website has the full story.

In 1958, after leading the Lions to 3 NFL Championships and providing Detroit nearly decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years"

With this news, and the fact Millen was finally relieved of his duties two weeks ago, things are really starting to look up for the Lions. But back to this curse business ...

The site does a rundown on all of the Lions regular season and post-season failures (complete with line charts and graphs!), while also breaking down the coaching graveyard. Apparently, not one of the Lions coaches during this 50-year stretch of futility ever worked in the NFL again as a Head Coach.

My favorite section, however, might be the one titled, "The Humiliations," which looks back at all of the absurd happenings in Lions history, from Marty Mornhinweg taking the wind in overtime, to the team once, allegedly, trading its first-round pick and not even realizing it. Too bad that didn't happen the year they took Mike Williams. Or Kevin Jones. Or Charles Rogers.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-03-2008 @ 3:38PM

Brody said...

Wait, what? The Lions once traded away a first round draft pick without realizing it? Can you puh-lease give me a reference for that one? I tried Googling, but couldn't come up with anything.

I would LOVE to read the story about that one. Only the Lions.

10-03-2008 @ 3:40PM

Adam Gretz said...

Brody,

It's on the Curse of Bobby Layne Website under the "Humiliations" section. It's under the 1974 section.

10-03-2008 @ 5:16PM

Randy said...

I wonder if Millen uttered the same words on his way out?

10-03-2008 @ 6:06PM

Eddie said...

So that's what Matt Millen's wife was babbling on and on about...

And all this time we thought she was making excuses for her sorry-excuse-of-a-coach husband!

10-03-2008 @ 10:12PM

Tim Thomsen said...

The Curse of Bobby Layne was great. You forgot George Plimpton played a QB in the 1960s and wrote a book about training camp. And he was a decent athlete but not the best.

10-04-2008 @ 7:07PM

Steve said...

O.K. so we're out from under the Bobby Layne curse. But we still have to deal with the Billy Ford curse.

10-05-2008 @ 10:44AM

Tony said...

Trading Dave Thompson in exchange for a #1 pick would have been humiliation enough! But, according to a snippet from an old newspaper I was able to find via Google it looks like that draft deal was Dave Thompson plus a first rounder in exchange for the Saints first round pick:

"... draft the New Orleans Saints swapped their first-round pick to Detroit for the Lions No 1 pick and offensive lineman Dave Thompson a three-year pro from ..."

In other words, the Lions traded up. They picked eighth that year, using the pick they'd acquired from New Orleans, and the Saints used the Lions pick at #13. Detroit took Ed O'Neil and New Orleans picked Rick Middleton, both linebackers.

A better humiliation would be who Detroit didn't draft that year, namely Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, and/or Mike Webster, all future Hall of Famers, all picked by the Steelers, the team the Lions traded Bobby Layne to. Pittsburgh drafting four future Hall inductees in one draft has never been approached before or since and is considered the greatest draft performance in NFL history.