Broderick: Thankful the curse on the Detroit Lions has been lifted — I think

What am I thankful for this year?

What are all Detroit Lions fans thankful for as we get ready for Turkey Day?

If you haven't been paying attention, I'll tell you.

The curse is over!

As we sit around our bounty, celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with the Lions getting ready to kick off, we can enjoy our meal in the knowledge that the curse legendary Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne put on his former team in 1958 has now been lifted.

The Detroit Lions can prepare to finally win a championship ... some day ... hopefully ... not in the too far distant future.

How did this happen?

Thank Peyton Manning, who once threw for six touchdown passes against the cursed Lions on Thanksgiving Day.

Manning's ESPN streaming show Peyton's Places did a segment on the curse that Layne put on the Lions that aired on Sunday Oct. 30. This Thanksgiving Day column is all about me, and on my timeline, and I didn't watch the episode until after Detroit lost to Miami that day. Since viewing that the Lions have not lost a game.

The show explained how Layne led the Lions to its last NFL championship in 1957, but was traded early the next season. He then infamously cursed the organization, saying the franchise would never win a championship again. He actually said the Lions wouldn't win for 50 years, but never sounds about right when you are a Lions fan.

Then, with the help of lifelong Lions fan and movie star Jeff Daniels, Peyton proceeded to end the show with a ceremony at Ford Field to lift the curse. And, following that, Detroit has done the improbable, won three straight. That has to be a sign that Layne has forgiven Detroit and we can all start planning that Super Bowl parade, even if it still is a few years away.

And that, for sure is something to be thankful for as we start off our annual Thanksgiving column with a Pumpkin Pie Award for Manning and forgive him for beating up on the Lions in 2004.

For more than two decades, the Enquirer has handed out awards to people in the sports world. A Golden Turkey Award to those who have offered up somewhat "turkeyish" behavior that has frustrated us, upset us. And a Pumpkin Pie Award for things that made us smile. Lions wins, of any order, do that for a desperate Honolulu Blue crowd.

And as tradition would dictate, the current Lions football coach gets our first award. Usually a Golden Turkey, or what was renamed the Matt Patricia Award for a short time, would go to the leader of Detroit's NFL franchise. But Dan Campbell is getting some Pumpkin Pie to chew on to keep him away from any kneecaps that are within reach. His star turn on HBO's Hard Knocks and the recent winning streak has us drinking the blue Kool-Aid.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a Golden Turkey Award ready to be presented to a football coach in this state. Michigan State coach Mel Tucker might not be impressed with anything gold, as he has a newly signed $95 million contract, but he is getting one anyway. It took just part of one season to forget the 11 wins from a year ago and Peach Bowl appearance, but that's what a series of embarrassing outcomes at Spartan Stadium will do to a fan base.

And talk about embarrassing. What has happened to former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford? One of our favorite former players won a Super Bowl last year with the Los Angeles Rams. So, despite the aforementioned curse, it felt like Detroit fans earned a piece of that trophy after rooting for Stafford for so many years. And now, he and his new team are nowhere near in contention to win another. But no Golden Turkey here for that. For winning last year, and for tanking this year and making the draft pick the Lions received for trading Stafford all that much better, a Pumpkin Pie Award for him that he can share with his twin daughters.

Even though fans of baseball in this state would like to forget about the past season, we just can't do that here. A nice parting gift in the way of a Golden Turkey goes to former Detroit Tigers General Manager Al Avila. The rebuilding of the Tigers never happened, despite promises that better days were just around the corner. Another cold September and October of meaningless baseball was all that was presented to Tigers fans in 2022 leading to the firing of Avila. But we do have a Pumpkin Pie Award waiting in bubble wrap to hand over to new Tigers President Scott Harris for when he delivers a winner as soon as next year (we hope).

And we could talk about the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings, but both can't figure out if they are ever going to be good again and worth our attention. We will wait until each are relevant to waste some good hardware on them.

So we will end this year's column with this. We all have to be thankful that we are set for a "normal" Thanksgiving once again. Gone are the days where we had family members missing from the table because of COVID concerns, or games or seasons canceled due to the pandemic. We can all be thankful that 2020 seems a lot further away than the two years it's actually been.

As we look around and see 110,000 people at the Big House at the University of Michigan, throngs of students in the Izzone without masks, the sports world that we all enjoyed before the pandemic as been returned to us nearly 100 percent. And that should make every sports fan smile, despite any Golden Turkeys that are awarded to their favorite team.

Stay healthy, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Contact Bill Broderick at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter @billbroderick

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Broderick: Thankful the curse on the Lions has been lifted - I think