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The Detroit Lions are heading to San Francisco to take on the 49ers in the NFC Championship game for the first time since 1992.
DETROIT — The Detroit Lions are heading to the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Jan. 28.
The Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 in a tight game on Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit.
This is the first time the Lions have made it this far in the postseason since 1992, when they defeated the Dallas Cowboys 38-6 in front of nearly 80,000 roaring Lions fans at the Pontiac Silverdome.
Detroit QB Erik Kramer threw for three touchdowns and RB Barry Sanders put the exclamation point on the victory with a 47-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
That game was the first victory the Lions had in the postseason since 1957, but the Lions would go on to lose the following week against Washington in the NFC Championship 41-10.
The postseason run in 1992 is the best showing the Lions have had in the playoffs in the Super Bowl era. The Lions have never made it past the NFC Championship game since the inception of the Super Bowl in 1967.
Now, the Lions are back in the NFC Championship game, looking to break the “Curse of Bobby Lane” and make their first Super Bowl appearance ever.
The last time the Lions took home a championship was in 1957, prior to the first Super Bowl.
The next season in 1958, the Lions traded their Hall of Fame QB Bobby Lane to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The legend of the curse says that Lane cursed the Lions for 50 years, which some believe caused the Lions’ generally poor performances for the majority of their seasons since the NFL Championship.
Even more interesting is the fact that on the 50th anniversary of the curse, the Lions had the worst season in NFL history going 0-16 in 2008.
The Detroit Lions are the only NFC team to never have reached the Super Bowl. Three other teams in the AFC also have never made it to the biggest game of the year: The Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans.
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