![]() They’re going give it another go on Sunday. Yet in 80 years of being in the NFL, the Lions are 0-for-Washington. But that is ballyhooed because the Lions play the Packers twice every year. Much is made of the Lions inability to win in Green Bay, where they haven’t won since 1991. The aforementioned 1991 Lions were 12-4, and one of those four losses was in D.C. So why has a professional football team been unable to win in a particular city for 80 years? Even the 10-4 Lions of 1970, one of the best football teams assembled in Detroit, suffered a loss in Washington-and the Redskins were a mediocre team in 1970. Race relations have made more progress than the Lions have made in Washington. Even the Washington Generals have beaten the Harlem Globetrotters a few times while the Lions have been losing to the ‘Skins on the road. They were losers in the capital then, and they are losers now. The Lions started playing in Washington when FDR was president. It’s the country’s longest-running comedy show, starting in the days of radio and continuing in the days of Internet streaming. Will it be a pick-six on overtime? A bombardment of long touchdown passes for the Redskins? A mistake-filled afternoon by the Lions? An inability to stop the run (by the Lions, of course)? Will it be a blowout? A close-but-no-cigar affair?Īll of the above have happened to the Lions in Washington, and more. The question isn’t will the Lions lose in Washington, but by how much and how. Watching the Lions play in Washington is, as the late great sports writer Jim Murray would say, like watching a man walk into a noose. The stadium plays a funeral march when the team takes the field. The Lions team bus is accompanied by vultures. The gridiron in Washington hasn’t been a football field for the Lions, it’s been a graveyard. They got outscored, 86-10, in the process. So in 1991, the Lions book ended their season with losses in D.C., just to freshen things up a bit. Some 18 weeks or so later, the Lions returned to the scene of the slaughter, to participate in the NFC Championship Game.Īfter playing with the Redskins for a half, the Lions got run roughshod over after the intermission, losing 41-10. It was yet another loss in Washington, and on this occasion the Lions didn’t even belong on the same field as the ‘Skins. In the opening week, the Lions, playing without RB Barry Sanders, laid a 45-0 egg against the Redskins. Of all the seasons of losses in Washington, 1991 is perhaps the oddest. Now, they’re beaten before the ink dries on the schedule. Then they were beaten when the plane landed. Then the series evolved to where the Lions were beaten on the bus trip to the stadium. When the Lions first played at Washington in 1939, they were beaten on the field. ![]() Charlie Brown kicking from the hold of Lucy. The Lions at Washington is like the Italian Army in any war. It’s mattered even less who’s quarterbacked the Lions. True, Detroit doesn’t play there every year, but they have done so 21 times, and not once have they come away as winners.įrom Sammy Baugh to Sonny Jurgensen to Joe Theismann to Doug Williams to Mark Rypien to Jason Campbell-it doesn’t matter who QBs the ‘Skins, they always win. The Lions have never won in Washington, in some 80 years of being members of the NFL. Take the loss and get ready for the Chicago Bears on Sept. Even in the years when the Lions were the superior team, the final score always had Washington on top, when the game was played in the shadow of the Monument. It’s not like the Redskins have always been world beaters.
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