Dutch Clark never did it. Neither did Doak Walker. Nor did Bobby Layne, or Alex Karras, or Joe Schmidt. Same for Milt Plum and Lem Barney and Charlie Sanders and Barry Sanders.
The Detroit Lions have been card-carrying members of the National Football League since 1934. The Washington Redskins beat them to it, by one year, entering in 1933. It's yet another time that the 'Skins have trumped the Lions.
Yet at no point during these 74 years has a Lions team traveled to the nation's capital, played a football game, and walked off the field a winner. The streak is 20, including three playoff games.
The Lions' drought in Green Bay gets a lot of play in these parts, because the Packers are on the Lions' schedule every year, and so there are annual reminders: no wins in Green Bay/Milwaukee since 1991. Oh-for-Brett Favre.
But at least the Lions HAVE won in Wisconsin. There was a time when it wasn't all that uncommon. An old coot like me can tell you.
The Washington famine is another story. NEVER have the Lions won in D.C. It's by far the longest-running vexation in league history.
Coach Rod Marinelli, speaking at Monday's weekly presser, said absolutely nothing that I didn't expect him to, when the subject of "Winless in Washington" (could be a sequel to "Sleepless in Seattle") was brought up.
"It means nothing," the coach said. "I don't think about where we're playing."
Not unexpected. Also completely untrue.
Of COURSE the Lions will be thinking about the streak. Why else are we here, but to remind them? And that includes Marinelli, who will tell us on Monday that he doesn't think about it, but will undoubtedly preen like a rooster if the Lions pull it off. Who wouldn't want to be the first Lions coach to win a football game in Washington?
Now, it may be that us riff-raff bloggers focus on it more than the players, but I'll bet you a case of Molson Brador that the Lions players will be much more exuberant than usual on the field, if the clock ticks down Sunday and the scoreboard shows the Lions safely ahead.
I'm reminded of another streak that dogged a Detroit sports team, and how at least one of the key players reacted to its breaking.
In the 1990 NBA Finals, an underlying theme was that the Pistons hadn't won a game in Portland since the Nixon administration (1972). And here they were, tied 1-1 with the Blazers after the first two games in Detroit. Some nitwits had the Blazers as new NBA champs, simply because the Pistons hadn't won in Portland in 18 years. What's three more games, in the heart of the Finals?
In the official NBA Finals video, there was a shot of Pistons center Bill Laimbeer on the bench, Game 3 safely in hand for Detroit. He looked at the camera and flashed that famous smiling sneer of his.
"They said we haven't won in Portland since 1972," Laimbeer said, his voice unmistakingly caught by the boom microphone. Then he sing-songed, "Well, I think that streak is about to end!"
The Pistons then started a new streak. They won all three in Portland and flew home with the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Players and coaches are, at the same time, not as oblivious to history as they purport, yet also not as obsessed with it as those watching them perform. Laimbeer's reaction to the end of the Portland streak will, I'll bet, be similar to that of Roy Williams and Company if the Lions manage to scoot out of Washington a winner.
Oh, and they'd be 4-1, too, going into the bye. Not a bad sidebar.
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