When was the last time the Detroit Lions won a playoff game?

To date, John F. Kennedy has only missed one Detroit Lions playoff victory. The last President of the United States of America to be assassinated left us in November 1963. Detroit has won one playoff game in the 60 years since. Even that playoff win was incredibly long ago. George H.W. Bush was in the White House. Smells Like Teen Spirit was all the rage. The internet was more of a construct then.

With Dan Campbell's team hosting the Lions' first home playoff game since Detroit won the old NFC Central way back in 1993, what happens if Detroit wins? While Detroit has been to the postseason a few times this century, the Lions have the longest active playoff win drought of any team in the league.

If they were to beat the Los Angeles Rams at home on Sunday night, the Miami Dolphins would then have the longest active playoff win drought in the NFL. Miami has not won a playoff game since 2000.

Detroit Lions playoff win drought: How long has it been really for Detroit?

They have not won a playoff game since beating the Dallas Cowboys back in 1991, 38-6.

Wayne Fontes was the Lions' head coach and Barry Sanders was early into his career as Detroit's star running back. Detroit was unable to back up its divisional round blowout of Dallas in the NFC Championship, as the Lions lost to eventual Super Bowl champion Washington in the conference title bout. Since falling to Washington in 1991, the Lions have lost nine NFC playoffs games in a row, man...

For much of the Lions' non-winning ways in Detroit, their playoff victory drought was masked by the utterly toothless Cincinnati Bengals for nearly three decades. Until Joe Burrow and the 2021 team won the AFC, Cincinnati's most recent playoff win came in 1990 over the then-Houston Oilers when Boomer Esiason was still their quarterback. Detroit has been in sole possession of this since 2021.

Detroit also holds the record for the longest active drought when it comes to conference title bout appearances. The Lions are tied with Washington, who haven't made it that far since the 1991 NFL season. While the Cleveland Browns have not played for a conference title bout since 1989, keep in mind that they did not exist for a few years as a franchise. They were reborn as a franchise in 1999.

According to math, it has been 32 years since the Lions last won a playoff game or appeared in a conference championship. Along with Cleveland, they are one of four NFL franchises to have never played in a Super Bowl. The other two are younger franchises out of the AFC in the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans. Jacksonville is 0-3 in AFC title bouts. Houston has never been.

The Lions had a proud history as a franchise, but most of us were not alive to see it in the 1950s.