List of Detroit Lions seasons

View of Ford field from the stands.
The Detroit Lions have played their home games at Ford Field since 2002.[1]

The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the NFC North division. The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. The franchise was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans and joined the NFL on July 12, 1930.[2] After being purchased by George A. Richards in 1934, the franchise was relocated to Detroit and renamed to the Detroit Lions in reference to the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Detroit Tigers.[3][4]

The Lions have won four NFL championships, all of which pre-date the existence of the Super Bowl. The Lions' four championships are tied for the tenth most total championships amongst all 32 NFL franchises;[5] the last of these was in 1957, which gives the club the second-longest NFL championship drought behind the Arizona Cardinals.[6] They are one of four current teams, and the only one in the NFC, to have never played in the Super Bowl.[7] Two of these teams, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans, are expansion teams in the AFC that began play in 1995 and 2002 respectively.[8] Additionally, the Lions have won only three post-season games since 1957.[9][10][11] The Lions lost an NFL-record nine consecutive playoff games from 1991 to 2023, for which they hold the NFL record for worst playoff winning percentage.[12][5]

As of the end of the 2023 regular season, the Lions have an all-time record of 591 wins, 707 losses, and 34 ties in the regular season, with an additional 9 wins and 14 losses in the playoffs. The team has had 39 winning seasons, 49 losing seasons, and 6 seasons with as many wins as losses.[13][2][3] The Lions were the first franchise to finish a full (non-strike shortened) regular season with no wins or ties, since the move to sixteen regular season games in 1978, going 0–16 during the 2008 NFL season.[14]

  1. ^ "About Ford Field". Ford Field. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Team Facts". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Detroit Lions". National Football League. Archived from the original on November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  4. ^ "How did your NFL team gets its name? Origins explained for all 32". ESPN. February 2, 2022. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "List of all the Pro Football Franchises". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  6. ^ Salvador, Joseph (November 2, 2023). "Here Are the Longest Championship Droughts in the Four Major North American Sports". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  7. ^ Janower, Jacob (February 10, 2023). "How many NFL teams have not won a Super Bowl? History of most appearances without a win". Sporting News. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  8. ^ "National Football League Franchise Histories". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  9. ^ "Lions favored to win NFC North, hoping to end 3-decade drought without a division title". AP News. August 30, 2023. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  10. ^ "Detroit Lions Playoff History". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  11. ^ Risdon, Jeff (January 5, 2020). "On this date: Lions crush Cowboys for only playoff win in Super Bowl era". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  12. ^ Hoehn, Jim (January 8, 2017). "Lions Now Have Longest Postseason Losing Streak In NFL History". CBS News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  13. ^ "Detroit Lions Team Records, Leaders, and League Ranks". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on August 13, 2023. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  14. ^ "Lions first NFL team to finish 0–16". ESPN. December 29, 2008. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.