For over sixty years, being a Detroit Lions fan wasn't just about football. It was about penance. You didn't just watch a game; you participated in a slow-motion car crash that seemed to repeat every Sunday for decades. People talked about bad drafting. They talked about the Ford family. But in the dark corners of every sports bar from Corktown to Dearborn, the real reason was whispered: The Curse of Bobby Layne.
Then came 2022.
Jeff Daniels, a man who has played everything from a bumbling idiot in Dumb and Dumber to a high-stakes news anchor, decided he’d had enough of the "Same Old Lions." He didn't write a stern letter to the front office. He didn't call for a coaching change. Instead, he teamed up with Peyton Manning, grabbed a bathtub, and headed to the end zone of Ford Field to perform an exorcism.
The Bathtub, the Whiskey, and the Exorcism
The Jeff Daniels curse of Bobby Layne ritual wasn't your standard PR stunt. It was weird. It was gritty. It was uniquely Detroit. During an episode of Peyton’s Places on ESPN+, Manning and Daniels dragged a clawfoot bathtub onto the turf. Now, standard curse-breaking spells apparently call for water and salt.
Daniels knew better.
"Bobby Layne would have preferred whiskey," Daniels famously noted. So, they filled that tub with 100 cups of whiskey.
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Standing in the end zone, Daniels donned a blue "22" jersey and recited a "mystical incantation" that Manning had prepared. It wasn't Shakespeare. It was better. The spell invoked the holy trinity of Detroit culture: "In the name of Motown, Eminem, and Ed McMahon." They called upon the "creatures of earth and whiskey" to cleanse the franchise and "restore the roar." At the time, the Lions were 1-6. They were a joke. People laughed at the segment because, honestly, what else could you do?
Then the weird part happened. The Lions started winning.
Why Everyone Blamed Bobby Layne in the First Place
To understand why a bathtub full of booze mattered, you have to go back to 1958. Bobby Layne was the guy. He was a hard-partying, cigarette-smoking, legendary quarterback who delivered three NFL championships to Detroit in the 1950s. He was the soul of the city.
Then, two games into the '58 season, the Lions traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The legend says that as Layne was clearing out his locker, he looked back and snarled that the Lions "would not win another championship for 50 years." For half a century, it held true. In 2008—exactly 50 years later—the Lions became the first team in NFL history to go 0-16. It was poetic in the worst possible way. But the 50 years passed, and the losing didn't stop. The curse had seemingly mutated. It wasn't just that they didn't win championships; it was that they found new, excruciating ways to lose.
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Did the Ritual Actually Work?
If you're a skeptic, you'll say the Lions got better because of Brad Holmes’ drafting and Dan Campbell’s "knee-cap biting" philosophy. But the timeline is spooky.
Immediately after the Jeff Daniels curse of Bobby Layne segment aired, the Lions went on a tear. They won eight of their final ten games in 2022. They knocked the Packers out of playoff contention in the final game of the season.
In 2023, the momentum exploded.
- They won their first division title in 30 years.
- They won their first playoff game since 1991.
- They made it to the NFC Championship game.
The "Same Old Lions" tag was officially dead. Daniels even went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform an original song about it. He played his guitar and sang about how he and Peyton "felt the pain" and finally sent the ghost of Bobby Layne packing.
The Uncanny Connection: Matthew Stafford
There’s a detail in this whole saga that sounds like a rejected Hollywood script. Matthew Stafford, the quarterback who finally broke the playoff drought (albeit for the Rams after being traded), grew up on the same street as Bobby Layne in Dallas. They went to the same high school.
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Some fans believe the curse wasn't fully lifted by the whiskey tub, but by the Lions finally doing right by a superstar. When they traded Stafford to a contender instead of shipping him off to a basement dweller like they did to Layne, the cosmic scales balanced out.
But if you ask the folks in Michigan, they’ll give the credit to the guy from Escanaba in da Moonlight.
What This Means for Fans Today
So, is the curse gone? The Lions haven't won a Super Bowl yet, but the atmosphere has shifted. The dread is replaced by expectation.
If you're looking to apply this "voodoo" to your own life or fandom, there are a few takeaways. Sometimes, the "rational" explanation—bad management, poor coaching—isn't enough to explain a culture of failure. You have to change the energy. Whether it's a bathtub of whiskey or just a complete shift in organizational belief, the "ritual" marked the moment Detroit stopped expecting to lose.
Practical Steps for the Superstitious:
- Acknowledge the History: You can't fix a "curse" if you're pretending the past didn't happen. The Lions leaned into their misery to move past it.
- Find Your "Jeff Daniels": Every group needs a vocal believer who is willing to look a little crazy to spark a change.
- Watch the Ritual: If you haven't seen the Peyton's Places episode (Season 3, Episode 7), go watch it. It's the moment the vibe changed.
The Lions are currently one of the heavy favorites in the NFC. The whiskey is long gone, the tub is probably in storage, but the roar is definitely back. Bobby Layne can finally rest easy.