Underdogs or Dead Dogs? Bobby Layne's Curse Expires in Detroit

(Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

This article is the first in an occasional series evaluating the seemingly most hopeless underdogs, looking for any sign of life.

The Detroit Lions surprised no one by making University of Georgia Bulldogs QB Matt Stafford their number one pick.

To his underdog credit, before the draft, Stafford said he was excited and enthused about the prospect of going to Detroit. In fact, he preferred to go there, money not withstanding! 

Good for him. We like his underdog spunk. Perhaps he identifies with the underdog spirit himself since he was not a consensus choice as top pick or even as NFL quarterback material.

Stafford has much to prove and might as well prove it lifting the worst team in NFL history out of the cellar. (Assuming he has significant playing time this season.) But, if he and the Lions are to get off our obit page, they will have to do more than just claw their way out of the cellar. Nothing short of a playoff spot within two years and continued success after that will do the trick.

There is a connection between Detroit's last and only notable quarterback, Bobby Layne, and the potential new quarterback.

After leading the Lions to three NFL championships in six years, Layne was traded to the Steelers after week two of the 1958 season. The Lions had lost their first game, and tied the second game 13-13. Bobby Layne was known as a "swashbuckler" and it was thought the Lions exploited the opportunity of the slow start to dump him in favor of a more family-friendly quarterback Tobin Rote.

Who? Exactly!

And on his way out of town, Layne was quoted as saying, "The Lions won't win for fifty years." And, as it happened, they pretty much haven't, culminating in a perfectly un-victorious season on the fiftieth (and final?) year of the curse.

So has Layne's curse saved the worst till last, going out with a heavy thud? And if so, will their latest best hope at the same position be the key to post-curse recovery?

Only time will tell, but we like Stafford's attitude.

Every once in a while, a patient does come back from the dead. It couldn't happen to a nicer city-- and team.

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