The Detroit Lions are an American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL), and play their home games at Ford Field in downtown Detroit.

Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and called the Portsmouth Spartans, the team began play in 1929 as an independent professional team, one of many such teams in the Ohio and Scioto River valleys. For the 1930 season, the Spartans formally joined the National Football League (NFL) as the other area independents folded because of the Great Depression. Despite success within the NFL, they could not survive in Portsmouth, then the NFL's smallest city. The team was purchased and moved to Detroit for the 1934 season.

The Lions have won four NFL Championships, the last in 1957, giving the club the second-longest NFL championship drought behind the Arizona Cardinals, who last won in 1947 (as the Chicago Cardinals). The Lions have yet to qualify for the Super Bowl. The team has qualified for the playoffs only nine times in the 50-plus years since winning the 1957 championship and has won only one playoff game in that span.

The 2008 Detroit Lions became the only team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular-season games, going 0-16 in the 2008 season; they had won all four pre-season games. They are only the second team to go winless without a tie (next to the 0-14 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers) since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.

Early football in Detroit before the Lions, 1920–1928

Main: 1920 Detroit Heralds season Main: 1921 Detroit Tigers (NFL) season Main: 1925 Detroit Panthers season Main: 1926 Detroit Panthers season Main: 1928 Detroit Wolverines (NFL) season

Detroit had four early teams in the NFL before the Lions:

• 1920–1921: The Detroit Heralds (renamed Tigers for 1921) were the first NFL team in Detroit from 1920–1921 before folding.
• 1925–1926: From 1925–1926, the Detroit Panthers played in the league before folding in much the same way.
• In 1928, the Detroit Wolverines were a city owned NFL franchise that lasted only a single season before folding.

Meanwhile, the Ohio-Kentucky-West Virginia tri-state area was becoming well known as a center of football excellence. The Ironton Tanks played NFL member teams annually throughout the 1920s with considerable success.

Early Thanksgiving Day games

While the Lions are well known for playing on Thanksgiving Day, the other Detroit teams had a history of playing on Thanksgiving Day as well:

• 1920 Heralds at Dayton Triangles (lost 28-0).
• 1921 Tigers, merged with the Buffalo All-Americans, at Chicago Staleys (won 7-6).
• 1925 Panthers vs Rock Island Independents (lost 6-3).
• 1926 Panthers vs Los Angeles Buccaneers (lost 9-6).
• 1928 Wolverines vs Dayton Triangles (won 33-0).