Lions lore: The story behind the ‘Curse of Bobby Layne’

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Superstitions and curses go hand-in-hand with sports. Whether it’s lucky socks or a player’s special pregame warmup, the traditions mix the mental with the spiritual in a fun way.

Some of sports’ biggest curses have actually been broken in recent years. The Curse of the Bambino? The Red Sox snapped that 86-year skid in 2004. The Curse of the Billy Goat? That one lasted 71 years before the Cubbies finally won it all in 2016.

But one is 67 years old and still going strong: One that Lions fans know all too well: The Curse of Bobby Layne.

It’s a story that involves a dominant team, a jilted star and several coincidences that could make even the strongest skeptic take a second look.

A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

The story starts in 1950, at the dawn of a decade that would prove to be the team’s best by a wide margin. In the years leading up to 1950, the Lions hovered around the bottom of the league standings. Between 1946 and 1949, they went 10-37.

The front office tried to shake things up and targeted Layne, a future Hall of Fame quarterback who dominated the college ranks at the University of Texas but had yet to make his mark in the NFL.

Layne’s pro career got off to a bizarre start. He was originally drafted by third overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1948, but Layne chose not to sign because the Steelers were the last team in the league that still ran the single wing offense. Instead of losing the value of his rights to another league, the Steelers traded Layne to the Chicago Bears.

Layne and Bears owner George Halas had talks as his college career was wrapping up and the QB believed Chicago was the right fit for him. But after one season buried behind Sid Luckman and Johnny Lujack on the depth chart, Layne wanted out.

Layne reportedly tried to engineer his own trade to the rival Green Bay Packers. Halas had to fight that and advances from the Cardinals (then based in Chicago) and with teams from the up-and-coming All-America Football Conference. Just like the Steelers, Halas didn’t want Layne playing for a rival, but he also didn’t want to lose the QB as an asset, so instead he shipped him off to the now-defunct New York Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs were abysmal. They went 1-9-1 in 1949. But Layne got his wish and the chance to prove his worth on the field. And considering his team, he put up decent numbers. He completed 52% of his passes for 1,796 yards. It was enough to put him on the Lions’ radar.

Detroit’s front office put a trade package together. In addition to receiving wide receiver Bob Mann, the Lions would also make the Bulldogs’ final three payments that they owed to the Bears. And just like that, the Lions had a QB to build around.

A DETROIT DYNASTY

Things clicked pretty early for Layne in Detroit. Paired up again with former high school teammate Doak Walker, the Lions improved to 6-6 in 1950 and went 7-4-1 in 1951. With some big improvements on defense, cutting down from 259 points allowed to 192, the Lions improved to 9-3 in 1952 and made the playoffs.

Pat Harder was the hero in the divisional tiebreaker round. He ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns. He also kicked four extra points and a field goal in a 31-21 win over the Los Angeles Rams.

The championship game against Cleveland — the Super Bowl wasn’t established until 1967 — came down to defense and a couple of key plays from Layne and his Texan teammate. Layne opened the scoring in the second quarter with a 2-yard run. Then Walker broke a 67-yarder in the third quarter en route to a 17-7 win and the franchise’s first NFL title in 17 years.

Layne and the Lions followed it up again in 1953, going 10-2 and winning the NFL’s Western Division outright. With no tiebreaker, the Lions advanced right to the championship and once again beat the Browns.

This time, the Lions leaned on Walker. He scored a 1-yard touchdown and kicked a 23-yard field goal to set up a 10-10 tie going into the fourth quarter. Trailing 16-10 with four minutes to play, the Lions drove 80 yards in eight plays, culminating with a 33-yard pass from Layne to Jim Doran in the end zone. Walker hit the extra point to take the 17-16 lead. Otto Graham tried to lead the Browns back down the field but was intercepted by Carl Karilivacz to end the rally.

The Lions were on track for a three-peat and once again ran into the Cleveland Browns in the 1954 NFL championship game. This time, it was Graham’s time to shine. The eventual Hall of Famer went 9 for 12 passing for 163 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 27 yards and three more scores in a 56-10 win.

In 1955, Layne, Walker and Bob Hoernschemeyer were each limited by injuries and the team stumbled to a 3-9 record, but they bounced back the following year for a 9-3 season, missing out on the playoffs by half a game.

That set up the 1957 season, which in hindsight was a banner year for the Lions, but the beginning of the end for Layne’s time in the Motor City.

MOVING ON

That season, for the first time since joining the Lions, Layne split time with another quarterback. Layne played in 11 games and started seven, but Tobin Rote got the start in four others.

Layne’s numbers were down that season. He completed just 48% of his passes, down from 53% two years earlier. His interceptions remained high: He threw 12 in 179 passes, a 6.7% pick rate. But ultimately, the stats had little to do with it. The aging Layne got hurt and Rote got his chance to take over in earnest.

In a must-win Week 11 game against the Browns, Layne was caught in a pileup and suffered a gruesome leg injury. Rote stepped in, scored a touchdown and led the Lions to a 20-7 win.

Detroit ended the season with an 8-4 record, beat San Francisco 31-27 in the divisional tiebreaker and manufactured their own chance for revenge against the Browns on football’s biggest stage. The Lions got their it and Rote got the spotlight. He threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another one in the 59-14 rout.

The Lions started the 1958 season 0-1-1 and decided some major changes were needed. Instead of committing to Layne, a 31-year-old coming off of a bad injury who also had his fair share of off-the-field issues, the Lions worked out a trade.

George Wilson, the former Lions coach who was now leading the Steelers, was happy to bring Layne to Pittsburgh. In exchange, the Lions received two high draft picks and former Michigan State quarterback Earl Morrall, the second overall pick from the 1956 NFL draft.

Layne was irate about the trade, but Lions fans may have been even more upset. He was a fan favorite and many critics felt the trade showed the team was throwing in the towel for the season. Even the local newspapers panned the move. Following their Week 3 loss to the Rams, the Detroit Free press ran a headline saying, “Lions Goof Up Again.”

In a 1971 interview, Layne confessed that it wasn’t just that he was traded, but rather how the Lions went about the trade that upset him. He complained that he learned of the trade from the Steelers and never got a face-to-face meeting with Lions front office officials.

And so the eccentric Layne gave his famous quote, telling reporters that the Lions would eventually regret the trade, saying the Lions “would not win for 50 years.”

The rest is history. The Lions finished 4-7-1 in 1958 and went another 12 seasons without making the playoffs. Even with stars like Barry Sanders and Herman Moore, the Lions never came close to sniffing a Super Bowl.

In 2008, the year when Layne’s infamous curse was supposed to end, the Lions became the first NFL franchise to go 0-16 in a regular season.

They remain the only NFC team to never appear in a Super Bowl and one of four teams in the entire league. Two of those teams, Houston and Jacksonville, are recent expansion teams. The other is the Lions’ nemesis in Layne’s championship runs: the Cleveland Browns.

Though the curse came from a place of hate, it appears Layne’s animosity was short-lived. Layne’s son told the Detroit Free Press in 2017 that he never heard his father “speak ill” of the Lions and only learned of the “curse” from his mother.

Layne died in 1986. He was 59 years old. He was posthumously inducted into the Pride of the Lions, a small group of former players who have their names displayed inside Ford Field and the Lions’ home locker room.

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