The Detroit Lions have now gone 60 seasons without reaching the Super Bowl. The Lions are the only continuous NFL club − playing every season in the Super Bowl era − to never make the game.
The Lions are the only NFC team to never make the Super Bowl. Three other NFL teams have never played in the Super Bowl, all in the AFC: Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans.
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However, both the Jaguars and Texans are expansion teams: The Jaguars joined the NFL in 1995, and the Texans arrived in 2002. (Both are in the playoffs this season.)
The Browns did not exist for three seasons (1996-98) after the team moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens.
SAME OLD: The Lions’ most gut-wrenching, weird losses: The list since 2000
Two years ago, the Lions blew their best chance to make the Super Bowl, squandering a 17-point third-quarter lead and losing the NFC championship game to the San Francisco 49ers.
Super Bowl LX (60) is set for Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
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There are 12 NFL teams to never win the Super Bowl; records provided Pro Football Reference:
[ HOW WE GOT HERE: Why Detroit Lions fell into championship obscurity ]
Lions championship history
The Lions last played for an NFL title in 1957, crushing the Browns, 59-14, for their third crown in the 1950s. The Lions also beat the Browns for the NFL title in 1952 and 1953.
The Lions also won the NFL championship in 1935, their second season in Detroit.
The Lions famously had only one playoff win since that 1957 title — until the 2023 season, when they won twice at home: a 24-23 thriller in the wild-card round over the Los Angeles Rams and 31-23 victory in the divisional round over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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Are the Lions cursed?
Some believe the Lions are cursed by Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne, who allegedly put a hex on the Lions in October 1958 after he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Well, it hurt me, naturally, when I was traded to the Steelers from the Lions,” Layne said in 1971. “We had been very successful in Detroit. … I really didn’t know what to think.
“I tried what they referred to as a hex.”
But that curse, when Layne purportedly said the team would not win a championship for another 50 years, was supposed to end in 2008. Instead, the Lions went 0-16 that season.
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It has been longer − 68 seasons and counting, and the Lions have just three playoff wins since the curse was uttered.
Peyton Manning and Jeff Daniels tried to exorcise the curse in 2022.
In 2025, Daniels performed a song, titled “Curse of Bobby Layne.”
Say goodbye, to all that sorrow.
Say goodbye, to all that pain.
Say goodbye, to the Same Old Lions.
And the curse of Bobby Layne.
Jeff Daniels talks to Peyton Manning at warm up before the NFC divisional round at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan, 21, 2024.
The 15-2 Lions then promptly lost to the rookie-quarterback led Washington Commanders in the divisional round at Ford Field as 9½-point favorites at home, committing five turnovers.
The Lions have made the NFC championship game twice: in the 1991 season, where they were obliterated by Washington, the eventual Super Bowl champions, 41-10; and in the 2023 season, when the Lions allowed 27 straight points and lost to San Francisco, 34-31.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Have Detroit Lions ever won the Super Bowl?