Detroit, MI

Have Detroit Lions ever won the Super Bowl? No. They’ve never even made it

Published

1 year ago

November 28, 2024

Press Room

Have Detroit Lions ever won the Super Bowl? No. They’ve never even made it

Have the Detroit Lions ever won the Super Bowl?

No, they have not won the Super Bowl, nor have they even played in the NFL’s ultimate game in the previous 58 editions. But they are the consensus Super Bowl 2025 betting favorite entering Week 13 of the 2024 NFL season, and lead the NFC at 10-1 entering Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast vs. the Chicago Bears.

Sadly, 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.

However, both the Jaguars and Texans are expansion teams: The Jaguars joined the NFL in 1995, and the Texans arrived in 2002.

The Browns did not exist for three seasons (1996-98) after the team moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, which means the Lions are the only club which took part in every season in the Super Bowl era to never make the game.

The Lions last January crumbled away their best chance ever to reach the Super Bowl, blowing a double-digit third-quarter lead and losing a gut-wrenching NFC championship game to the San Francisco 49ers.

Super Bowl LIX (59) is set for Feb. 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, home of the New Orleans Saints.

There are 12 NFL teams to never win the Super Bowl, with records via Pro Football Reference:

Lions (0-0)
Browns (0-0)
Jaguars (0-0)
Texans (0-0)
Chargers (0-1)
Titans (0-1)
Cardinals (0-1)
Falcons (0-2)
Panthers (0-2)
Bengals (0-3)
Bills (0-4)
Vikings (0-4)

Lions championship history

The Lions last played for an NFL title in 1957, crushing the Browns, 59-14 for the crown for the third time 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 last season, when they won twice: a 24-23 thriller over the Los Angeles Rams and 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both games were at home at Ford Field, their first home playoff games since 1993.

HOW WE GOT HERE: Why Detroit Lions fell into championship obscurity

Some believe the team is cursed by Bobby Layne, who put a hex on the Lions in 1958 after he was traded to Pittsburgh. 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.

The Lions have made the NFC championship game twice: in the 1991 season, where they were promptly discarded by Washington, the eventual champions, 41-10, and in the 2023 season, when they blew a 17-point halftime lead and lost to San Francisco, 34-31.

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Detroit, MI

EPA wrongly found Detroit area safe for smog, judge rules in split decision

Published

8 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Press Room

EPA wrongly found Detroit area safe for smog, judge rules in split decision

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was wrong to determine Michigan met federal health and environmental standards for ozone pollution or smog in the Detroit area in 2023, a federal appeals court judge has ruled.

U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Helene White on Dec. 5 issued a split decision in a case about how environmental regulators measured Detroit air quality in 2022, when wildfire smoke drifted over Detroit and affected the air quality monitor readings for a few days in June.

Michigan considered those days “exceptional events” because of the wildfire smoke and didn’t include the high ozone pollution readings in its calculation to the EPA.

With those days tossed, the state was able to argue in 2023 that Michigan met federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone pollution. The seven-county Metro Detroit region had previously been out of compliance with the ozone standards.

The Sierra Club sued, arguing the wildfire smoke did not meaningfully change ozone readings and that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy failed to analyze how local pollution sources contributed to the ozone levels on those days. The environmental advocacy group also challenged the EPA’s finding that the region met federal standards for ozone pollution.

White determined the exceptional events designation was appropriate, siding against the Sierra Club in deciding the EPA and EGLE correctly analyzed the smoke’s impact on ozone readings in June 2022.

She sided against EPA in deciding the EPA was wrong to put Michigan back into attainment for ground-level ozone without Michigan adopting control measures that would cut volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ozone pollution.

EPA determined the Detroit area was out of attainment for ground-level ozone on April 13, 2022. Michigan regulators did not impose control technologies for ozone-causing pollutants by the deadline in early 2023. Instead, they asked EPA to redesignate the area as in attainment with the air quality rules.

Michigan was obligated to implement control technologies even though it had submitted a redesignation request, White said in her order. Control technologies include efforts to reduce volatile organic compounds from being released from manufacturing plants and industrial sources, according to EPA documents.

Sierra Club member and Detroit environmental justice activist Dolores Leonard cheered the outcome of the case.

“Without this victory, EPA’s decisions would have let Michigan avoid the rules needed to reduce pollution and keep the air we breathe safe,” Leonard said. “At a time when asthma rates are rising in Detroit, especially in Black communities, that’s unacceptable. With the backing of this federal court decision, our community will continue to push the state of Michigan to take much-needed action to relieve ozone pollution in this area.”

The Clean Air Act requires those pollution control measures to be implemented even after the EPA puts an area back into attainment to ensure the air quality remains healthy, said Nick Leonard, executive director of Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, which argued the Sierra Club’s case.

White’s order means the EGLE will have to reapply for the attainment of the ozone standard, Leonard said.

“At the very least, I would say they have to correct the legal deficiency, which was that they didn’t enact the pollution control rules that are typically required for areas that are in non-attainment for this long,” he said.

The EPA is reviewing the decision, its press office said. The office did not respond to a question about whether it would ask Michigan to adopt volatile organic compound control measures as a result of White’s decision.

The EGLE also is reviewing the ruling, spokesman Dale George said.

“While EGLE was not a party to the case and is not able to speak in detail about the legal outcome, we were encouraged that the court supported the use of exceptional events demonstrations and acknowledged the sound science behind EGLE’s determination that the Detroit area met the health-based ozone standard,” George said.

Leonard said he was disappointed but not surprised that White ruled against the Sierra Club’s arguments that EGLE and the EPA did not correctly account for wildfire smoke’s impact on ozone readings in 2022.

That issue is going to plague communities as climate change causes northern wildfires to become more common and kick smoke into Michigan, he predicted.

“If we start to essentially cut out bad air quality days because of the claim they were partially influenced by wildfire smoke … , you create this disconnect between the regulatory systems that are meant to protect people and the actual air pollution that people are breathing,” Leonard said.

ckthompson@detroitnews.com

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Detroit, MI

Active saves leader Jansen joining Tigers on 1-year deal (sources)

Published

20 hours ago

December 13, 2025

Press Room

Active saves leader Jansen joining Tigers on 1-year deal (sources)

The Tigers’ bullpen revamp for 2026 now includes an unusual feature for the A.J. Hinch era: A veteran closer. Detroit has reached agreement on a one-year contract with four-time All-Star and 16-year veteran Kenley Jansen, sources told MLB.com.
The deal, which is pending a physical and has not been confirmed

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Detroit, MI

Detroit-area teen charged in carjacking at Applebee’s restaurant bound over to circuit court

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2025

Press Room

Detroit-area teen charged in carjacking at Applebee’s restaurant bound over to circuit court

December 12, 2025 / 10:59 PM EST
/ CBS Detroit

A 15-year-old boy who is accused of carjacking a woman last month at an Applebee’s in Roseville, Michigan, is heading to circuit court after waiving his preliminary examination, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

The teen is charged with one count of carjacking, third-degree fleeing a police officer, two counts of malicious destruction of personal property, assault with a dangerous weapon, assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer, operating without a license and failure to stop after a collision.

The teen appeared for a probable cause hearing on Dec. 10 and waived his right to a preliminary examination. He will be arraigned on Jan. 5, 2026.

He remains in at the Macomb County Juvenile Center under a $250,000 cash/surety bond. If he posts bond, he is ordered to wear a GPS tether, be restricted to his mother’s house and have no contact with the victim, witnesses or Applebee’s.

Prosecutors allege that on Nov. 24, 2025, the teen forcibly took a woman’s 2016 Jeep Patriot in the restaurant’s parking lot. The teen took off in the vehicle and crashed it on Gratiot Avenue.

“The allegations and charges in this matter are serious. Carjacking is a violent offense that carries life-altering consequences for victims and offenders alike,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a statement. “To the young people of Macomb County, understand that the choices you make today will determine the path available to you tomorrow. We want every youth in this community to succeed, but that starts with stepping away from dangerous decisions before they lead to irreversible outcomes.”