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

PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic | NHL.com

Published

6 hours ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic | NHL.com

Both generations on the ice Friday are intent on growing the game for today’s kids. Hartje and the Polar Bears believe an important step for women’s hockey in Michigan would be starting a Division I college team.

“I think if the PWHL establishes a team in Detroit, it will put a lot of pressure on the colleges to make sure there’s a D-I team in the state,” Hartje said. “Michigan has the second-highest number of players in the league, and it would have been a dream for us to be able to stay in the state to play.”

It’s been a problem for decades. Pierson had to turn down the offer from Boston University, because her family couldn’t afford to send her to New England for college. Hartje ended up at Yale University, and Megan Keller, who scored the gold medal winning goal for the U.S. in the 2026 Winter Olympics and plays for the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, went from suburban Detroit to Boston College.

Meanwhile, 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic team members and Michigan natives Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings and Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets were able to stay in the state to play with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, then based in Ann Arbor, before moving on to the University of Michigan in the same town.

“Megan’s brother played at Michigan State, and I’m sure she also would have stayed here to play for a Michigan school,” Skarupa said. “It’s imperative that Michigan gets a college program.”

Skarupa is serious about growing the game. She is working with Keller and the NHL Foundation U.S. to identify recipients for its $100,000 Empowerment Grant Program for Girls Hockey.

“Every time I go back to a city, there are new teams, new girls and new faces,” she said. “It’s a testament to growth all over the world, but it is tremendous inside the U.S.”

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Detroit, MI

Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002

Published

18 hours ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002

Updated on: March 27, 2026 / 12:23 PM EDT
/ CBS Detroit

An additional case, this one involving a victim who was then 14 years old, has been added to the sexual assault investigation against a former Detroit Police Department sergeant.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the latest charges on Friday against Benjamin Martin Wagner, 68, who now lives in Greenville, N.C. He had retired from the Detroit Police Department in 2017.

The victim in the additional charges was 14 years old when the assault happened in October 2002 in Detroit, Worthy said. The prosecutor alleges that Wagner approached the victim, pointed a handgun at her, ordered her away from the location and then sexually assaulted her.

In this case, he faces charges of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. An arraignment hearing took place Friday in the 36th District Court in Detroit. A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 7.

The woman is now 37 years old.

“She has lived with what happened to her for 23 years and has now bravely decided that she wants to be a part of holding him accountable,” Worthy said.

Wagner participated in a court hearing Thursday and was remanded to jail, one week after he was charged with 15 counts of kidnapping and rape in five separate sexual assault cases. All of those incidents happened between 1999 and 2003 in the northwest side of Detroit, with the victims being young women between the ages of 15 and 23.

The court dates for the earlier list of charges are April 7 for a probable cause hearing and April 14 for a preliminary exam.

Wagner joined the Detroit Police Department in 1989 as a police officer and was eventually promoted to sergeant. He retired in 2017 and moved to North Carolina.

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Detroit, MI

Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026 — 11 p.m. Update

Published

1 day ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026 — 11 p.m. Update

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