The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.

The franchise was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio as the Portsmouth Spartans and joined the NFL on July 12, 1930.[1] Amid financial struggles, the team was relocated to Detroit in 1934.[6] The team was also renamed the Lions in reference to the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Tigers.[7]

The Lions won four NFL Championship Games between 1935 and 1957, all prior to the Super Bowl era. Since the 1957 championship, the franchise has won only a single playoff game during the 1991 season and holds the league's longest postseason win drought.[8] They are the only franchise operational for the entirety of the Super Bowl era to not appear in the Super Bowl.