Few professional sports teams have as ignoble a history as the Detroit Lions. With just one playoff victory over the last 66 years, the Curse of Bobby Layne has headed to overtime. Nevertheless, the Lions have been blessed with some great players over the years, including 14 who ended up in Canton and five on the NFL 100 All Time Team. Here’s my list of the ten greatest Lions of all time:
Honorable Mentions
Herman Moore was just behind Jerry Rice and Cris Carter among the greatest pass catchers in the mid-90s, but his career peak was too short. The same is true for star RBs Doak Walker and Billy Sims, whose entire careers barely spanned half a decade. Charlie Sanders was a HOF tight end, but his numbers pale in the modern era. Lomas Brown has a decent Hall of Fame argument, but if he hasn’t even cracked Canton, he’s not cracking my list (my top ten are all HOFers). Night Train Lane and Ndamukong Suh are both among the greatest ever at their positions, but they only played part of their careers for the Lions (the final six years for Lane, the first five seasons for Suh). Jason Hanson and Eddie Murray were both great long-time kickers, but they’re kickers. Matthew Stafford has every Lions passing record on lockdown, but he was a good a QB who was never great, and he couldn’t win anything until he left Detroit.
10. Bobby Layne
We start with the man responsible for the Lions curse. In his eight seasons in Detroit, Bobby Layne would win three titles; in the 66 years since, they’ve won just a single playoff game. Layne was also a legendary partier; the Lions haven’t been associated with parties, joy or happiness this century.
The Lions initially acquired the third-year quarterback to pair him in the backfield with his high school teammate Doak Walker. Walker, who was also the Lions kicker, would have over 4000 yards in a six-year career in which he’d be named to five Pro Bowls and four first-team All-Pros.
Layne led the NFL in passing attempts and yards in his first season with the Lions. He repeated that the next year, while also leading the league in completions, touchdowns and interceptions, and making his first Pro Bowl. The only better QB in pro football was Cleveland’s Otto Graham, and the two teams would meet in the next three NFL championships.
In 1952 Layne established himself as the best QB in football, leading the Lions to a 9-2 record and being named a first team All Pro. He overcame four interceptions in a semifinal win over the Rams and then he won his first title over Graham and the Browns the next week. The next year Layne made his third consecutive Pro Bowl and beat Cleveland in the championship for the second year in a row. Going for the threepeat in 1954, Layne fell apart in Cleveland in the title game, throwing six interceptions as the Lions lost 56-10.
In a precursor to Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson, Walker surprisingly retired in his peak after the 1955 season. Nevertheless, in 1956 Layne made his fourth Pro Bowl and his third All Pro team. He also became the Lions full-time kicker in Walker’s absence, leading the league in field goal accuracy in his first season in that role. In 1957 Layne broke his leg in the penultimate regular season game and missed the Lions’ final championship.
When the 1958 season started, Layne adopted a gregarious rookie named Alex Karras (#7 below) as his chauffeur and wingman. But after week two the Lions traded Layne to the Steelers, now coached by Layne’s former Lions coach Buddy Parker. He’d go 7-2-1 in Pittsburgh, finishing third for the MVP while making Pro Bowl and All Pro teams, which he’d repeat again the next year. Upon being traded, Layne allegedly said that without him, the Lions would “not win for 50 years.” Not only did the Lions win just a single playoff game during the next half century, in the final season of the curse they became the first team in NFL history to go 0-16. But the curse was supposed to end 15 years ago, and yet the Lions continue to lose.
9. Jack Christiansen
Layne isn’t solely responsible for the Lions success in the 1950s. On the other side of the ball they were stacked with Hall of Famers, a defense known as “Chris’s Crew”, led by safety Jack Christiansen, who made six consecutive first team All Pros and five straight Pro Bowls. He had 46 interceptions in his eight-year career, leading the league in picks in two of the championship seasons, with twelve in 1953 (still the fifth most ever in a season) and ten in 1957. He was also an elite punt returner; he returned two punts for touchdowns in the third game of his rookie season, and then did it again on Thanksgiving. His record of eight career punt return touchdowns would stand for 40 years after his retirement; even today he’s still fourth all time. The all-around talent also ran for two TDs in 1952. As an all-time great both at safety and as a punt returner, in 2020 he was named to the NFL 100 All Time Team.
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8. Lem Barney
A decade after Christiansen’s retirement came another dynamic DB and returner. Barney led the NFL with ten interceptions as a rookie in 1967. He returned three of those for TDs and was also the Lions’ full-time punter, winning Defensive Rookie of the Year. In 1968 he also became the Lions’ primary returner, returning a kickoff for a TD, and then returning punts for TDs in each of the subsequent two seasons. As a cornerback he made seven Pro Bowls and consecutive first team All Pros in ‘68 and ‘69. Barney’s career ended prematurely due to his involvement in an international drug smuggling ring which scared off NFL teams.
7. Alex Karras
(AP Photo/File)AP
Barney would not be the only Lions defensive star to miss time due to a criminal investigation. He’s also nowhere near the most colorful Lion ever. That designation surely belongs to Alex Karras, who was a professional wrestler before he became a Lion and became a Hollywood actor after his Lions career.
In 1963, Karras and Paul Hornung admitted to betting on NFL games, leading to a one-year suspension. Karras returned to pro wrestling during his hiatus. He also became a star of Paper Lion, a celebrated book by author George Plimpton, which chronicled Plimpton’s attempt to try out for the Lions. Because of Karras’s suspension he wasn’t even with the team, but in his absence he was a frequent subject of the tall tales told by his teammates. This led Karras to play himself in the movie version of the book in 1968, and after the Lions released him in 1971, Karras started making appearances on The Tonight Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He also starred in Blazing Saddles and on M*A*S*H, and he was a Monday Night Football commentator for three years.
On the field, he missed only one game due to injury in his twelve NFL seasons. He was an All Pro in each of the three seasons preceding his suspension and each of the subsequent four seasons as well, meaning the suspension likely cost him eight straight All Pros (he’d instead get his eighth in 1969). The suspension may also have played a role in his delayed acceptance to the Hall of Fame, as Canton didn’t come calling until 2020.
In classic Lions fashion, Karras never made the playoffs until the final game of his career, when his defense played great but the Lions lost to the Cowboys by the silly score of 5-0.
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6. Lou Creekmur
Creekmur was the anchor of the offensive line that protected Layne and Walker, starting at left guard his first two seasons before shifting to left tackle for the remainder of his career. He played in every Lions game from 1950 to 1958, 165 consecutive games when including preseason and postseason. He also played in eight straight Pro Bowls and was an All Pro seven straight times. In typical Lions fashion, Creekmur retired early at 31. But after the Lions started the next season 0-4, they persuaded him to return for the remainder of that season, and they went 3-4-1. The Lions total record with Creekmur on the field was 68-44-4 in the regular season and 5-1 in the postseason with three rings.
5. Yale Lary
The Lions of the 1950s and 1960s may have had the greatest secondary in NFL history. Christiansen and Yale Lary were both HOFers and all-time safeties, and cornerback Jim David made six Pro Bowls. When Christiansen and David departed, Hall of Famers Night Train Lane and Dick LeBeau arrived. And while Christiansen may have been seen as their leader in the ‘50s, by the time Yale Lary’s career was over, he had a strong argument for being the most valuable all-around player.
I rank Yale Lary as the 13th best safety in NFL history. He was also a great punt returner, with three return TDs, to go along with his three defensive TDs. But he was perhaps most spectacular as a punter. Lary’s average punt length was 6.0% better than the league average during his career, the fourth best such rate in history; by comparison Ray Guy (the first player to make the HOF solely as a punter and considered by many to be the greatest punter ever) was only 5.2% better than the league average during his career. Lary’s punts also helped invent the concept of “hang time”, staying in the air so long that it would give his teammates time to get down the field before the opponent could even attempt a return.
In total Lary made nine Pro Bowls and six All Pros. He missed the entire 1954 and 1955 seasons serving in Korea, or else he’d likely have had two more Pro Bowls and All Pros and the Lions may have had another title or two. The all around talent also played pro baseball during the first four years of his NFL career.
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4. Calvin Johnson
Barry Sanders was drafted third overall by the Lions and retired after ten seasons when he realized the Lions could never compete. Calvin Johnson was drafted second overall by the Lions and retired after nine seasons when he realized the Lions could never compete.
After a somewhat lackluster rookie season, Megatron exploded in his second season, leading the league with 12 receiving touchdowns. Unfortunately, the Lions Lionsed, going 0-16. Those struggles hindered Megatron’s personal accolades, but he was finally named a Pro Bowler and second team All Pro in 2010. The next year he set personal highs in catches (96), touchdowns (16) and yards (1681), the latter the seventh most to that point in NFL history and just five yards short of Herman Moore’s team record from 1995. Then he was somehow even better in the playoffs, with 12 catches for 211 yards and two touchdowns, but the Lions gave up three fourth quarter touchdowns to lose badly in New Orleans.
The next year Megatron was even better, with 122 catches for an all-time record 1964 receiving yards. But the Lions lost the last eight games of the year, and incredibly Johnson had just five touchdowns all year, being tackled inside the six yard line on eight other receptions. In 2013 Megatron had his third consecutive season as a first team All Pro with over 1400 yards, but the Lions kept losing. In 2014 the Lions won eleven games, their second most ever, but they lost again in the playoffs, and Megatron took a step back, with just 71 catches for 1077 yards and no All Pro honors. He’d have a similar season in 2015 and then, like Barry Sanders, announced his retirement after his age-30 season. And then the Lions, like they did with Barry Sanders, forced Megatron to repay his signing bonus for retiring early, pissing off their star, who to this day refuses to attend Lions games or otherwise identify as a member of the team. Despite his early retirement, I still rank Megatron the twelfth greatest receiver in NFL history.
3. Joe Schmidt
Earlier this month we ranked Schmidt the 13th greatest athlete ever from Pennsylvania. Often considered the first true middle linebacker, his eight first team All Pros have never been exceeded by any defensive player. The ten-time Pro Bowler also won NFL championships for the Lions in 1953 and 1957. In the latter title game he had two interceptions as the Lions cruised 59-14. If he knew the Lions would only win one more playoff game across the next seven decades, he may have retired on the spot, but instead the AP NFL Lineman of the Year stuck around Detroit for eight more seasons as a player, and then seven more as a coach (the latter six as head coach).
2. Dutch Clark
Dutch Clark’s Lions career even predates the Lions, as he spent his first two NFL season on the predecessor Portsmouth Spartans. After graduating from Colorado College in 1930, Clark became the school’s assistant football coach and head basketball coach. The following year he got permission to take a leave of absence during football season to play for the NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans, agreeing that he would return in time to coach the basketball team. In his rookie NFL season he was leading the league in scoring when he had to leave to return to his main gig in Colorado Springs.
Despite being named first team All Pro in each of his first two seasons and leading the league in a variety of statistical categories, in 1933 Clark accepted a job as head football coach at the Colorado School of Mines, thus forgoing a return to the NFL’s Spartans. But after the Spartans moved to Detroit and were renamed the Lions in 1934, Clark returned to the team where he immediately regained his position as the greatest football player on Earth, offensively, defensively, and as a kicker.
After winning championships in 1935 and 1936, Clark announced his intention to leave the Lions to pursue a head coaching position. Shortly thereafter, Lions coach Potsy Clark resigned to become the head coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and so the Lions added head coach to Clark’s duties.
After the 1937 season Clark announced that he was too old and injured to continue to play, but the coach agreed to play occasionally as a backup back during the 1938 season, his final as a player in the NFL. In total he was an All Pro in each of his six complete seasons, leading the league in virtually every category then tracked.
He was inducted into the inaugural class of the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and then the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. His #7 was the first jersey retired by the Lions and he was named to the NFL 100 All Time Team in 2020.
1. Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders looks for room to run against Washington during the 1991 NFC championship, the furthest the Lions have gone in the playoffs in nearly 70 years. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)AP
Was there any question who would be number one? Sanders is in the conversation for the greatest running back of all time and the most exciting football player at any position. Like Megatron, the depressing nature of being a Lion drove him to an early retirement, which may be the only reason he didn’t retire with the all-time rushing mark.
After a ridiculous junior season at Oklahoma State where he won the Heisman after running for 2628 yards and 37 touchdowns (those numbers are not typos), Sanders wanted to enter the NFL draft, which at the time was limited to college seniors. But with Oklahoma State under NCAA investigation, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle gave Sanders special permission to enter the draft (a year later all juniors would become draft eligible), and the Lions took Sanders third overall in the 1989 draft. His rookie season would be a microcosm of his entire Lions career. He was great, but the Lions lost his first eight games. He ended the season as a Pro Bowler, first team All Pro, and the Offensive Rookie of the Year.
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Sanders would be named a Pro Bowler and All Pro in all ten seasons of his pro career, a feat which will presumably never be matched. In his sophomore campaign he led the league in rushing yards and touchdowns. The following year he led the NFL in rushing TDs and helped lead the Lions to their only playoff victory since 1957. That season included a game versus Minnesota where Sanders rushed for 220 yards and four TDs.
In 1993 Sanders suffered the only significant injury of his career, missing the final five regular season games (he missed only two other games across the rest of his NFL career, including zero in his final five seasons), but he was still a Pro Bowler and second team All Pro, and he returned for the playoffs to have his best ever postseason game, running for 169 yards, only for Brett Favre to throw a 40-yard touchdown pass in the final minute as the Lions blew the lead.
The next year was the best of Sanders’ career to date, as he led the league with 1883 rushing yards and 2166 yards from scrimmage, winning Offensive Player of the Year and finishing second for MVP. But with a chance for playoff revenge in Green Bay, Sanders was held to a total of negative one yards rushing in 13 carries in the worst game of his career. The next year the entire Lions offense would show up in the playoffs, scoring 37 points in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the defense allowed 58.
In 1997 Sanders was 29, ancient for a running back. His rival Emmitt Smith was two years removed from his final season with either 1400 yards or 4.3 yards per carry. So when Sanders combined for 25 carries for 53 yards through his first two games in ‘97, it looked like Barry was also entering the final stage of his career. And then he went thermonuclear, with 14 straight 100-yard games and exactly 2000 yards rushing across those 14 games, becoming just the third player ever with 2000 rushing yards in a season. Sanders finished with the second most rushing yards in a season and won his second Offensive Player of the Year award, as well as winning the MVP. But the Lions were still the Lions in the playoffs, losing what would be Sanders’ final playoff game 20-10.
Sanders was back in form in 1998, running for 185 yards and three TDs in a week two loss. But although he played well the rest of the season, finishing with 1491 yards, he scored just one touchdown the rest of the season. And with a division stocked with the 15-1 Vikings and three-time MVP Brett Favre still in his prime in Green Bay, Sanders looked at the Lions history and realized he’d never achieve postseason success.
And so, despite being just one strong season away from breaking Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record, after a decade of Sisyphusian effort, Sanders shocked the football world the day before Lions training camp was set to start in 1999, faxing a retirement announcement to his hometown newspaper. In his autobiography Sanders would explain that his decision was driven solely by the Lions losing ways, which makes him a perfect representative of what it means to be a Detroit Lion.