Five great players whose careers have been killed by the Detroit Lions
4. Jason Hanson
Jason Hanson is one of the greatest kickers in NFL history. He spent 21 years with the Lions and was the model of consistency for NFL kickers. He kicked in plenty of playoff games, but each of those times the Lions were eliminated in the Wild Card Round.
His name should be mentioned with the likes of Adam Vinatieri, but because of the lack of postseason success for the Lions and plenty of bad seasons mixed in, he doesn’t truly get the credit for how good of a kicker he really was.
He was recently named to the Pac-12’s All-Century team for his time at Washington State, where he quickly became one of the best kickers in the nation.
He holds multiple NFL kicking records and also holds the records for most time spent with one team in league history. He has the most field goals from beyond 40 yards in NFL history, tied for the most beyond 50 yards, and is the only player in league history to score 2,000 points with one franchise.
Those are things that people would normally remember right off the top of their head. However, because of the failures of the Lions, Hanson won’t be remembered as well as he should be in NFL history.
Next: 3. Herman Moore