Wednesday Notes: The Curse of Bobby Layne Is Over

by Sean Yuille on Oct 8, 2008 1:16 AM EDT in Notes Comment 0 comments

The Curse of Bobby Layne came to an end recently. Layne was a quarterback for the Lions and helped the team win three league championships during his time in Detroit. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and really was the main cause of the Lions' success in the 50's.

Despite his Hall of Fame career with the Lions, the team decided to trade him in 1958, which upset Layne greatly. As a result, the quarterback supposedly said something about the Lions in October 1958 that would turn out to be 100% accurate.

Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years"
It has been 50 years since that statement was made, so maybe the Lions will get their act together and at least win their first game of the season. I wish it was as simple as that and the only problem was a curse, but the Lions have many other problems to worry about. As long as the current coaches and players are around and the owner of this franchise is William Clay Ford, this trend of not winning will continue.
Lions COO Tom Lewand made the strange decision to show up at the press conference following the loss to the Bears this past Sunday. He even answered questions and had nothing but good things to say about Rod Marinelli. It's not like anything else should be expected, but I really don't understand why Lewand felt the need to show up in the first place. I suppose it's nice that he is being upfront with the media, but the more he gets behind Marinelli, the more he puts his own job on the line.
Like it or not, Dan Orlovsky will be ready to play on Sunday against the Vikings. He played the entire second half for the Lions against Chicago and did a very poor job. During his time on the field, Orlovsky suffered a couple different injuries, but none of them are too serious. Should Kitna not be ready for some reason or get re-injured, then it still looks like Orlovsky would be the man to replace him.
Former Titans general manager Floyd Reese openly discussed the Lions GM job earlier this week on ESPNews. Reese first praised Lions fans and William Clay Ford before again saying that if he was offered the job, he would be in Detroit as soon as possible.