Tag: Curse

DETROIT — In 1958 a disgruntled Hall of Fame quarterback supposedly laid a curse on the Detroit Lions after being traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bobby Layne was the quarterback for the Lions from 1950 until 1958, leading the team to three NFL Championships in 1952, 1953 and 1957.

The hard-drinking, gun-slinging QB was a fan favorite but often butted heads with coaches and the front office for his behavior. It was rumored that Layne would sometimes drink before and even during games, some saying that his 4th quarter comebacks and game-winning drives would come after he sobered up.

In 1957, Layne broke his ankle causing him to miss the final three games of the season. Backup QB Tobin Rote would fill in, win those final games and take home the NFL Championship. That’s when the Lions traded Layne to the Steelers.

Layne supposedly put a curse on the Lions saying they wouldn’t win another Championship for 50 years. And they didn’t: becoming one of the worst franchises in football and becoming the butt of joke after joke. And even to this day, they still haven’t won a Super Bowl, or even gone to one. But all that seems like it is changing.

The Lions no longer seem like the same old Lions. But why is that? What changed? Some are attributing the Lions’ success to an unlikely duo who crossed paths at Ford Field in the summer of 2022.

Michigan icon Jeff Daniels and Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning decided they were going to break this curse once and for all.

The two filmed a ritual in the endzone at Ford Field, filling a bathtub with whiskey, filling Layne’s old helmet with the whiskey, adding salt to the tub and reciting an incantation.

The ritual was conducted in the summer ahead of the 2022-23 season, and the beginning of the season didn’t really make it seem like the curse was broken. The Lions started the season with only a single win through the end of October. Then, the episode of Peyton’s Places aired and things started to change.

I spoke with Jeff Daniels last week about the curse, the ritual and what he really believes.

“The Lions won eight out of their next 10. And then the following year, they start out, and they have that great year, and they get all the way to San Francisco and the NFC Championship. And by this point, people anywhere I go at Ford Field, they’re going, you broke the curse, you and Peyton broke it past tense,” Daniels said.

The Lions’ rebound in 2022 wasn’t anything short of a herculean effort, starting the season 1-6 and ending with a chance at the playoffs at 9-8. This was the start of something new.

Then, in 2023, the Lions won the NFC North for the first time in decades, before winning two playoff games in Detroit and eventually falling to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game. Now, in 2024, the Lions are favored to win the Super Bowl after the first round of the playoffs.

“I mean, I can’t go anywhere in Ford Field without being, you know, asked if I thought, I think the Lions should make a statue of me and Peyton outside of Ford Field. You know, it’s just we’ve become iconic, and I guess as long as we keep winning, and man, if the Lions go all the way, oh, man,” Daniels said.

Daniels was also working on something between when he conducted the ritual and now. A song about the curse. A song that could be the anthem to this year’s playoff run.

The song is called “The Curse of Bobby Layne” and he even got Manning to contribute to the track too.

“So I did like a minute and a half version of it. And then when I got done, it was so well received that I said, Maybe we should do the full band version, which we did in December. And then I said, I gotta have Peyton on this. And so I texted him, and I said, ‘would you be willing to,’ he goes, ‘absolutely.’ So he was all in,” Daniels said.

The Lions’ turnaround over the last few years is so much more than breaking a curse. It’s about transformation and about pride.

“You can now be proud of not only this team, but your city and your state. People all over the country want to be Lions fans now. For decades, that wasn’t the case. And as somebody who works on the coasts, we are in flyover country. We are in ‘why the hell would you live there country?’ And now people are looking at the Lions, what the Lions are doing and that’s reflecting back on us. I mean, we can be proud of where we’re from, the Midwest, where we grew up, who we are, I think in that sense, that has been broken,” Daniels said.

The entire culture of the franchise has changed with the incoming of head coach Dan Campbell and the direction owner Sheila Ford Hamp has taken the team.

“I talked to Sheila about this. She’s a friend, a great friend of mine. Um, here’s what’s been broken, the culture of losing. And the Lions, no matter how far they go this, this next month, we’re winners. We’re no longer losers. Sheila will tell you, this team is built to last. You know, it’s not one and done, and we lose everybody,” said Daniels.

Daniels doesn’t take the credit for the Lions’ success and said that there were others who were more deserving.

“Detroit Lions’ success is due entirely to ownership, a general manager, a head coach, a coaching staff, the players, Peyton Manning and me in that order,” Daniels said before chuckling.

You can purchase a copy of “The Curse of Bobby Layne” by Jeff Daniels, Peyton Manning and the Ben Daniels Band at JeffDaniels.com.