Matthew Stafford Has the Bobby Layne Swagger: Can He Reverse the Curse?

"It's probably about time we find a replacement for Bobby Layne," said Lions head coach Jim Schwartz before drafting quarterback Matthew Stafford in 2009.

The Lions spent five decades of nostalgic futility not wanting to replace Layne.  He even left a curse in his wake—a 50-year thorn in the paws of Lions fans. 

The Lions managed a couple of playoff appearances, but they were eight fleeting visits to the postseason.   After a frozen tundra Lambeau loss in 2008 left them feeling like a block of cheddar, they rightly earned the top pick in the 2009 draft.

They needed a quarterback like Layne, who had swagger. 

But, drafting a quarterback with the first pick is kind of a coin flip.  And, we know how Detroit is with coin flips—just ask Marty Mornhinweg.  And, we know how Detroit is with selecting quarterbacks in the first round—just ask Matt Millen who tabbed Joey Harrington.

Schwartz was insistent that a new quarterback could lead by example, make plays and throw touchdowns with pizazz.  Detroit knows pizazz; owners like Tom Monaghan and Mike Illitch made a living selling pizazz.  Heck, they became sports owners because of pizazz.  

But, while they were turning out pizazz, the quarterback position in Detroit was more like a shish kabob.  Names rotated on the skewer like Jon Kitna, Joey Harrington, Scott Mitchell, Ty Detmer, Charlie Batch, Mike McMahon, Andre Ware, Rodney Peete, Jeff Komlo, Bill Munson, Greg Landry, Earl Morrall and Milt Plum.

That is a throat-clearing list that leaves any NFL historian searching for a glimmer of success.  Landry had an amazing season in 1971, when he passed for over 2,000 yards, threw 16 touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl.  No Lions quarterback has been to the Pro Bowl since.

With that first pick in the 2009 draft, the Lions selected Matthew Stafford, a can't-miss kid out of the University of Georgia.  A kid that actually went to the same high school as Bobby Layne.  He even lived on the same street as Layne, growing up in the Highland Park section of Dallas.

With the pick came Peyton Manning-like expectations.  But, he struggled to stay on the field as he battled injuries.  He showed swagger, but it was more like a tease because injuries kept him on the sideline.

Now, Stafford has thrown nine touchdown passes in the first five games—to the same player.  He's having a Greg Landry kind of year after five games, and the team hasn't started 5-0 since Layne.

But, before the Lions and Stafford reverse the curse, they need to embrace the past.

When Layne joined the Lions in 1950, he led them to back-to-back NFL championships in 1952 and 1953.  In 1954, they narrowly missed a three-peat, losing to the Cleveland Browns.  

Layne's fire smoldered in the late 1950s, and he was traded from the Detroit Lions to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Sports scribes during that era penned that Layne said the Lions would not win again for 50 years.  

As far as sports prophecy goes, he was right.

Before that, in 1944, Coach Rusty Russell's Highland Park High School team made the State Championship in football.  Led by quarterback Bobby Layne and running back Doak Walker, the team lost to Port Arthur, 20-7.  

The two players returned to the State Championship game in 1945, and they battled Waco to a 7-7 tie at the Cotton.  Sixty years later, a Scot player named Matthew Stafford led the team to a 59-0 win over Marshall in the 4A Division I state championship.  He went on to Georgia and was selected by the lowly Detroit Lions in 2009.  

Does anybody find it eerie that both players, from the same high school, went to the same NFL franchise?  Curse or not, that kind of serendipty belongs on Oprah, not the gridiron.  

Stafford himself would tell anyone he hasn't done anything—yet.  After all, he has only played in just over one season's worth of games over two seasons.

The time is now for the Lions and Stafford to reverse the curse.  It's that bewitching time of year when ghosts and goblins make their way into America's mindset.  

And, something feels different in the city of Detroit. 

There seems to be a determined attitude in the air, to keep churning out wins like an assembly line.  Unfortunately, Detroit knows cars better than it knows quarterbacks.