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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