The Detroit Lions are trying to shed some franchise history during the 2025 NFL playoffs.

The Lions are the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the first time and host the Washington Commanders Saturday in the divisional round. With a win, the Lions could reach the NFC championship game for a second consecutive year and host the game for the first time in franchise history.

If the Lions can win two playoff games against Washington and then the winner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams, Detroit they would reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. They are the only NFC team to never reach the big game.

The Lions’ history has not been kind regarding championships. Detroit is one of 12 teams not to win a Super Bowl since it began in the 1966 season. The Lions are one of seven teams to win a championship before the Super Bowl era but haven’t won in the 66 seasons since their 1957 triumph.

TIME IS NOW: 58 reasons Detroit Lions have never been to the Super Bowl

The Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans (then known as the Houston Oilers), Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills are the other teams to have a championship in history but no Super Bowl.

NFL longest active championship droughts

The Lions have the second-longest active drought, trailing the Cardinals by a decade. The Lions, who won four NFL championships, most recently finished at the top of the league in 1957 (other championship years are 1935, 1952 and 1953). Famously after the 1957 championship, the Lions traded quarterback Bobby Layne, who starred on the three championship teams, and he cursed the franchise for 50 years without another championship.

The Lions are now at 67 years, but might have gotten some recent help from actor and fan Jeff Daniels.

The Cardinals, along with the Chicago Bears, are the oldest team in NFL history founded in 1920. The Cardinals have two championships, but last won in 1947 when they were based in Chicago. Their championship drought is at 77 years. The Cardinals lost in a classic Super Bowl to the Pittsburgh Steelers to conclude the 2008 season.

OPINION: I gave up on the Detroit Lions in 1975. Now, they’re winning, and I’m confused.

The Oilers won their only two championships in the AFL in 1960-61.

The Chargers won their only championship in the AFL in 1963.

The Bills won consecutive AFL championships in 1964-65.

The Vikings won the NFL championship in 1969 but lost Super Bowl 4 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the final season before the AFL and NFL merged into one league.

Five franchises founded during the Super Bowl era — the Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans and Carolina Panthers — have never won a championship.

The four teams without a Super Bowl appearance are the Lions, Browns, Texans and Jaguars, though the Lions are the only team to play in every season of the Super Bowl era and still be left out.

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

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(CBS DETROIT) – It’s a sweet way to celebrate your birthday: Free tickets to see the Detroit Lions.

“When they sent me a text message, this is a scam. I was like, ‘Don’t pick it up.’ Then they were like ‘If you don’t, we will go to the next person.’ I was like hold on,” Niko Monjarez said.

It’s a notification that almost seemed too good to be true. Niko just celebrated his birthday, and luckily, his aunt knew about Home Bakery’s raffle and was looking to score. The bakery recently went viral after creating a cake imitating the headstand celebration done by Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.

The cake is pretty popular in the Rochester community. After St.Brown visited the business, he offered up two tickets for Saturday’s game.

“I thought I’d just get the receipt and stick it in his card, I probably won’t win. The love gift is, I spent two hours in the cold waiting just for him,” Monjarez’s aunt, Cyndi Wehrli, told CBS News Detroit.

The St. Brown cake is pretty popular in the Rochester community. After St.Brown visited the business, he offered up two tickets for Saturday’s playoff game.

Customers had to buy something from the bakery to participate. That decision alone was a game-changer.

“Normally, in January, I’m laying off, I’m cutting hours, some up to 25%. I don’t have to do that. Some of my people will look for a second job; they don’t have to do that,” said bakery owner Heather Tocco.

Tocco and her team decided on the headstand cake weeks ago. It took around 200 hours to complete and stands just over 6 feet tall.

“We actually took the image of him on his head and expanded it to the height that we wanted,” she said.

Wehrli says she is in disbelief that her nephew won. As a lifelong Lions fan, she’s proud to witness the team’s progress.

“I think it’s so amazing that St. Brown did what he did and used a local entity,” she said.

Monjarez isn’t surprised his aunt had the winning receipt. He says she does a lot of good in the world. With the win, he now gets the chance to surprise another family member.

“My dad’s been a lifetime Lions fan. This is historic, and to be able to go see that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Monjarez said.

The cake display will stay up until the Super Bowl, while the Home Bakery team is planning to replace it with a Vince Lombardi display.

FOX 2 – Annette Anderson was full of gratitude at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for 1st Step Healthcare Training.

“Today is my one-year anniversary and I’m here one year later,” she said.

The backstory:

Anderson’s brainchild is a boot camp for nursing assistants, offering training and getting them ready to enter the workforce.

“I felt like healthcare needed a change, and I wanted to make that change,” she said. “I wanted to get people in the field that were very empathetic and compassionate. And I also wanted to be an entrepreneur and own my own business, to change the lives of my family – to let them know, if she can do it, I can do it.”

For Anderson, it is a passion project.

“You never know when the time you might need someone to take care of you,  you need people that are very passionate to take care of you,” she said. “I know that I would trust my students taking care of me because I trained them to that standard.”

Anderson got $20,000 from Motor City Match as seed money. A business like this needs classroom equipment, furnishing, marketing, and so much more.

Already more than 70 students have graduated from the program.

“Learning from someone who cares about healthcare and takes it as serious as everybody should take it,” said Rebecca Platt, a participant. “It’s good to know that there are people out there who still care and they want to retrain people to do the same thing for people who need it.”

“These are high-paying, well-regarded jobs for people to take care of their families and their communities,” said Kevin Johnson, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

According to projections from a report by Mercer on the future of the U.S. healthcare industry, Michigan is expected to face a projected shortage of 2,520 Certified Nursing Assistants by the year 2028. 

Learn more about 1st Step Healthcare Training on its website, HERE.