Former Detroit Lions Defender Has Died

Former Detroit Lions defensive end Jackie Cline, who spent a portion of the 1990 season with the team, has passed away at the age of 66 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Born Jackie Wayne Cline on March 13, 1960, in Kansas City, Ks., and raised in Alabama, Cline brought a measure of hard-nosed experience to the Lions’ defensive line during a transitional year for the franchise.

Cline arrived in Detroit late in September 1990 after stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins, where he had developed into a reliable rotational player under Hall of Fame coach Don Shula.

Signed by the Lions on September 27, he appeared in five games that season. Though he did not start, Cline contributed meaningfully in limited opportunities, recording one sack and one fumble recovery. His sack came in a memorable 34-27 road victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 7, a game that highlighted the emerging brilliance of running back Barry Sanders and offered a glimpse of the potential that would later define the early 1990s Lions.

That 1990 campaign, under head coach Wayne Fontes, was one of rebuilding and growing pains. The Lions finished 6-10, yet the defense, featuring standouts like Jerry Ball, Chris Spielman, and Bennie Blades, worked to find consistency while the offense revolved around Sanders’ explosive running.

Cline, a 6-foot-5, nearly 280-pound lineman out of the University of Alabama, where he had helped win a national championship under Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1979 and earned second-team All-SEC honors in 1982, added veteran depth and a professional work ethic to the rotation.

His earlier success in the USFL with the Birmingham Stallions and solid production in Miami, including four sacks in 1988, prepared him for the physical demands of the NFC Central.

For Lions fans who followed the team through the lean years of the late 1980s and the gradual climb that followed, Cline represents one of the many journeyman contributors who filled important roles without fanfare.

His brief time in Detroit was not marked by gaudy statistics, but by the quiet reliability that every roster needs. After his NFL career ended following that 1990 season, Cline returned to Alabama, where he lived a grounded life as the owner of Greenpond Grocery in McCalla, spending time with his wife of 45 years, Vickie, their two children, and later their four grandchildren.

Those who knew him remembered a man defined less by his football achievements than by his character, grit, and perseverance, qualities that shone especially bright during his final fight with cancer.

Though his stay in the Motor City was short, Cline remains part of the franchise’s long history of defensive linemen who competed with toughness and professionalism.

His legacy endures as a reminder that every player who wears the uniform, for however many games, contributes to the ongoing story of the Lions.