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Former Lions linebacker and coach Joe Schmidt acknowledges the crowd after receiving a Pro Football Hall of Fame ring on Oct. 18, 2015, in Detroit. (Jose Juarez / Associated Press)
Joe Schmidt’s voice, which once commanded the Detroit Lions defense, is quieter now, softened by his 92 years of living.
“Thank you for remembering me,” the Hall of Fame middle linebacker said from his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
His sincere humility was disarming, considering Schmidt was a legitimate NFL star in his day, the centerpiece of a championship defense. Undersized and overachieving, he was Dick Butkus before the football world knew who Dick Butkus was.
“He was the only defensive player that people would buy tickets just to see him play at that time,” said longtime coach Jerry Glanville, who grew up an ardent Lions fan and was a teenager in the stands when Detroit won its most recent NFL championship in 1957.
The Lions’ Joe Schmidt is carried off field by fans after winning the NFL championship in 1957. (Marvin E. Newman / Getty Images)
“People would buy tickets to go see a quarterback or go see a running back. But if Joe Schmidt was coming to town, people would buy tickets to go watch him play.”
In the 1950s, Detroit and Cleveland basically handed the championship trophy back and forth, the Lions winning it all in 1952, ’53 and ’57, and the Browns winning in 1950, ’54 and ’55.
There were others — the Rams in ’51, New York Giants in ’56, Baltimore Colts in 1958 and ’59 — but Detroit and Cleveland were the embodiment of grind-it-out grit.
Who could have guessed that more than six decades later, the Lions and Browns would be two of the four franchises who have yet to reach the Super Bowl?
Read more: NFL conference championship picks: Which teams will go to the Super Bowl?
Detroit intends to change that Sunday when it plays at San Francisco in the NFC championship game, just the second conference title appearance by the Lions in the Super Bowl era. The…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/last-time-lions-won-nfl-110130993.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-01-28 11:01:30
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