Yes It Is, It’s True: Stafford still trying to beat curse

EDITOR’S NOTE: I wrote this column two years ago, and I think it’s still relevant and creepy. I’m not a man given to believing in astrology, magic or lucky whale’s teeth. But now that the Chicago Cubs have defeated the Curse of the Billy Goat from 1945, the Lions’ Curse of Bobby Layne is the longest running streak in sports.

While watching the Detroit Lions’ dramatic comeback victory over Atlanta in London Sunday morning, an eerie feeling came over me about QB Matthew Stafford.

I’m keenly aware it’s early yet, but I’m beginning to wonder if Stafford actually is possessed by the “Ghost of Bobby Layne.”

Long suffering Lions fans, of which I am one, remember those golden years in the 1950s when Detroit was in three championships, and the quarterback was indeed old No. 22, blood-and-guts Bobby Layne. He wasn’t really there in winning the last Lions title in 1957 because he suffered an ankle injury in the game before, but he was the unquestioned ringleader of those glory days.

And one of the center pieces of my “Curses” lecture I used to give to middle school and high school students, was about “The Curse of Bobby Layne,” the second-longest sports curse still in effect.

The story is that Layne just before the start of the season in 1958 was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. His reaction was apoplectic astonishment and laced with rage. The Lions were his team, he argued, and he had done great things for them. And this was the thanks he was getting?

The Lions’ brass in the front office thought Layne was headed toward the downside of his career, especially with that injury in the last year. Furthermore, they were exasperated with Layne’s notorious drinking bouts and embarrassing arrests for drunken driving.

So when he was told to pack his bags, he was reported to have stormed out of the office, telling everybody, “The Lions won’t win for 50 years.” Thus was born the curse.

Detroit proceeded to fashion the longest Super Bowl drought, winning only one post-season playoff game. And it was eerie that in the 50^th year since Layne’s departure the Lions were a perfect 0-16.

Superstitious fans still believe that Layne’s curse has kept the Lions out of the Super Bowl for more than half a century. Many believe, however, the man who will lead them to the Promised Land is Stafford, who eerily graduated from very same high school as Layne.

Adding to the intriguing lore is that Stafford now has led Detroit to 14 victories (now 25) in the last quarter after his team has been trailing. One of Layne’s greatest claims to fame is that he was the inventor of the two-minute drill, snatching victories from the jaws of defeat. One sports writer once said, “Bobby Layne never lost a game. He just ran out of time.”

Layne’s blood and guts approach to the game and his uncanny leadership skills made him a legend, but so did his extra-curricular exploits. He showed up to play Sunday morning either still drunk or hung over.

It concerned the Pittsburgh Steelers so much during a playoff game in 1960 that his teammates tied him up in his hotel room so he couldn’t go out drinking the night before the big game. The sober Layne that Sunday proceeded to play perhaps his worst game ever in a devastating defeat.

But the legend, irony and the curse are not over. I heard the announcement Sunday in London that Stafford threw a TD pass to break the Lions’ all-time record. That record had been held for more than 50 years, by Bobby Layne.