This Is Not Your Father's Lions' D-Line, But It May Do

The photograph is signature, perhaps the most famous of all snapshots taken of a franchise that hasn't sniffed a championship in 50 years. You'll find it in the team offices, in the media lounge at Ford Field, and probably in Bill Ford Sr.'s bedroom, for all I know. Packers quarterback Bart Starr IS in there, believe it or not. He's the one being swarmed and turned into a wrap for some hungry Lions defenders. It was Thanksgiving Day, 1962, and the Lions were hosting the Pack -- the putrid smell of their last-second loss to the Packers a month or so earlier still lining their nostrils. It was a loss so great that no less than Alex Karras theorized that it may have been the single most destructive force behind the Lions never again returning to championship caliber. The Lions, with the ball, a 7-6 lead and the clock showing under two minutes remaining, needed only to punt and pin the Packers deep and seal the victory. But on third down, QB Milt Plum tried a pass,...