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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With the final couple of weeks of January to come, it feels like the girls basketball season is starting to hit that next gear as conference title races tighten and contenders truly start to separate themselves from the rest of the field.

We’ll take a look at the week that was around the greater Milwaukee area, including a pair of superstars who could join an exclusive group soon.

More: Here’s how the new proposed WIAA football, lacrosse alignment plan could affect Milwaukee area

Pair of area stars named to McDonald’s All-American Game nominee list

Wisconsin has three McDonald’s All-American Game nominees this year, with two from the greater Milwaukee area. Hartford forward Makena Christian (Minnesota) and Pewaukee guard Amy Terrian (Michigan State) were both named to the nominee list, along with Hortonville star Rainey Welson (Maryland).

If one or both are selected to the game, which will be played April 1 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they would join current Connecticut guard KK Arnold (Germantown, 2023), current Women’s Chinese Basketball Association player Sidney Cooks (Kenosha St. Joseph, 2017), current Dallas Wings star Arike Ogunbowale (DSHA, 2015) and current Oregon assistant coach Samantha Logic (Racine Case, 2011) as the only girls players from the area to participate in the game.

Christian has the Orioles flying as the leaders of the North Shore Conference with a 13-1 mark this season. She’s averaging 24.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.9 steals this season. The Minnesota recruit also became the 40th player in state history to eclipse 2,000 career points earlier this season.

One-half of the Terrian twins also has Pewaukee where it usually is, atop the Woodland West standings at 13-2 this season. Through 14 games played this season, Amy Terrian is averaging 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.7 steals and is shooting 47.7% from deep. She also became the program’s all-time leading scorer earlier in the season.

Whitnall caps perfect week after not playing at home for 56 days

The last time Whitnall played a home game, the Green Bay Packers still had seven regular-season games to play.

For the first time since Nov. 19, the Falcons hosted an opponent and extended their winning streak to seven games with a 69-24 rout of Racine Horlick on Tuesday night. The win streak now sits at nine games following a victory over Shorewood on Thursday (93-70) and a 71-21 drubbing of Cudahy on Friday night to improve to 13-1 on the season. The nine-game winning streak is the longest since the 2019-20 season for the Falcons when they won eight straight from Jan. 10 to Feb. 11, 2020. It’s only the second streak of that length since the 2012-13 season in program history.

Along with the perfect week, Riley Ward had a 30-point outing earlier in the week against Shorewood and then scored her 1,000th career point during a 21-point first-half performance in the rout of Cudahy. The Falcons will likely be favored against Brown Deer and Cudahy again next week to extend the win streak before a massive showdown next Friday against Pewaukee.

Wauwatosa East stays unbeaten, only two area undefeated teams left

There’s only two Milwaukee-area teams with zeros in the loss column as the three-day weekend arrives for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday: Wauwatosa East and Bradley Tech/Arts.

The Red Raiders improved to 15-0 with dominant performances against DSHA (69-36) and Brookfield Central (84-49) this week to stay unbeaten, while the Trojans improved to 12-0 with a 59-15 victory over Carmen Northwest on Thursday. Tech raced out to an eye-popping 48-6 halftime advantage and put it in cruise control to remain undefeated.

Tuesday’s win over DSHA marked the seventh time this season the Red Raiders have held an opponent to 40 points or fewer. Emma Close scored a game-high 24 points for Tosa East, while Mikaia Litza flirted with a quadruple-double. Despite a 3-for-11 shooting performance with eight turnovers, Litza still had 8 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 8 steals for the home side.

Other gatherings including some tight title races and a statistical title chase

• As the regular season enters the home stretch, you can expect some title races to heat up. The Classic 8 Conference has four teams with a 5-2 mark or better in C8 play this season. Muskego still paces the field with an 8-0 mark after a 55-38 victory over Waukesha West on Friday. Kettle Moraine Lutheran remains the lone unbeaten (6-0) in the East Central Conference title chase with Winneconne on its heels at 5-1. Tosa East sits atop the Greater Metro Conference at 9-0 with Brookfield East (8-1) lurking just behind with one more meeting to go between the two.
• Salam sits perfect atop the Lake City Conference at 9-0 with Faith Christian not far behind at 8-2. The Prairie School leads the field in the Metro Classic Conference with Dominican (5-1) and Racine St. Catherine’s (4-2) in hot pursuit. The three-horse race in the Midwest Classic Conference is madness so far, as Lake Country Lutheran (7-0), Watertown Luther Prep (7-1) and Living Word Lutheran (6-1) all still have title hopes. Hartford leads the North Shore Conference, but don’t count out Whitefish Bay (8-1) and Homestead (7-2).
• The top of the Southeast Conference has a pair of unbeatens with Oak Creek (6-0) and Kenosha Bradford (5-0). Union Grove leads everyone in the Southern Lakes Conference at 7-0, but Westosha Central lurks with a 6-1 mark. Whitnall (6-0) leads the Woodland East with Greenfield (6-1) right behind, while Pewaukee (7-0) handed Pius XI (5-1) its first loss in Woodland West play this week.
• There’s another race around the area and that’s the statewide scoring title chase between Shorewood’s Serinity Metcalfe and Brown Deer’s Ameerah Grant. Both players are averaging at least 38 points per game this season with Metcalfe having a slight 0.3 average advantage (38.3) over Grant. Lakeland wing Kristina Ouimette is the only other player averaging at least 30 points per game this season across the state. Metcalfe has just one game below 30 points this season and four 40-point games, including a 52-point outing against Milwaukee Juneau on Dec. 10. Grant has been just as ridiculous with five 40-point games, including a 50-point performance this past Tuesday on 19-for-30 shooting in a win over St. Augustine Prep.

The Minneapolis police union is seeking a voice in the latest plan for court-ordered reforms of the police department. The union on Friday filed a motion to intervene in the proposed federal consent decree.

Last week the city and U.S. Justice Department announced details of a federal consent decree, in which a judge would enforce major changes at MPD. The agreement is similar to a state-level settlement between MPD and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Police Federation attorney Jim Michels said in a phone interview with MPR News on Friday that members are concerned about possible conflicts with their labor contract.

As one example, Michels pointed to language in the consent decree that details shift scheduling for supervisors.

“It calls for the department to schedule sergeants and lieutenants in certain ways,” Michels said. “And we have scheduling language in the labor agreement that talks about how sergeants and lieutenants are scheduled.”

Michels said that the union does not oppose the consent decree, but wants to have a say in its implementation.

“That’s the tack we’d like to take initially, is try to work together to collaborate to make sure everybody’s interests are taken care of. Because right now, unless the federation is allowed to have a seat at the table, the only interests being advanced are the interests of the city and the federal government,” Michels said.

Michels noted that federal judges overseeing consent decrees elsewhere, including in Albuquerque, have allowed police unions to intervene in the reform process.

The group Communities United Against Police Brutality, which has long advocated for court oversight of MPD, filed an amicus brief to participate in the case soon after the agreement was announced.

The consent decree will not be legally binding unless it receives the approval of U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson.

Police reform advocates fear that the Justice Department under incoming President Donald Trump could scuttle the agreement unless it takes effect before his inauguration.

During his first term, Trump opposed consent decrees and called them a “war on police.”