The 1957 NFL Championship Game was the 25th annual championship game, held on December 29 at

Briggs Stadium Tiger Stadium, previously known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Corktown, Detroit, Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. The stadium was nicknamed "The Corner" for its location at the intersection of U. ...

in Detroit, Michigan. The

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

(8–4), winners of the Western Conference, hosted the Cleveland Browns (9–2–1), champions of the Eastern Conference. Detroit had won the regular season game 20–7 three weeks earlier on December 8, also at Briggs Stadium, but lost quarterback Bobby Layne with a broken right ankle late in the first half. Reserve quarterback Tobin Rote, a starter the previous year with Green Bay, filled in for Layne and won that game with Cleveland, the next week at Chicago, and the tiebreaker playoff game at San Francisco. It was the fourth pairing of the two teams in the championship game; they met previously in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

, and

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. The Browns, idle the previous week, were favored by three points, but the home underdog Lions scored two touchdowns in each quarter and won in a rout, 59–14. Until

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, this was the last time that major professional teams from Michigan and Ohio met in a postseason game (or series) in any sport. As of 2022, this is the last NFL playoff game played in the city of Detroit other than Super Bowl XL in February 2006. The Lions' other two home playoff games since (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

) were at the

Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...

in suburban Pontiac. This also remains as the Lions' fourth and most recent league title and most recent championship appearance (including the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

) as of the 2021 season, starting a sixty-five year championship drought for the Lions.

Starting lineups

Players in the Hall of Fame

Twelve individuals (including coaches and administration) who were involved in this game are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Lions' QB Bobby Layne was injured earlier in the month and did not play.

Detroit Lions

*FB John Henry Johnson *C

Frank Gatski Frank "Gunner" Gatski (March 18, 1921 – November 22, 2005) was an American professional football player who was a center for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL) in the 19 ...

*LT Lou Creekmur *LB Joe Schmidt *DB

Jack Christiansen John LeRoy Christiansen (December 20, 1928 – June 29, 1986) was an American professional football player who became a college and pro coach. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions as a safety an ...

*DB

Yale Lary Robert Yale Lary Sr. (November 24, 1930 – May 11, 2017) was an American football player, businessman, and politician. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979 and was also selected for the NFL 1950s All-Decade Team. He has al ...

*QB Bobby Layne

Cleveland Browns

*FB

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936) is a former American football player, sports analyst and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered to be one ...

*LT/K

Lou Groza Louis Roy Groza (January 25, 1924 – November 29, 2000), nicknamed "the Toe", was an American professional football player who was a placekicker and offensive tackle while playing his entire career for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America F ...

*RT

Mike McCormack Michael or Mike McCormack may refer to: * Michael McCormack (Australian politician) (born 1964), Australian politician and former Deputy Prime Minister (2018-2021) * Michael McCormack (judge) (born 1939), justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court * Mich ...

*RDE Len Ford *Head Coach/General Manager Paul Brown

Game summary

The home underdog Lions were without starting quarterback Layne due to a broken ankle three weeks earlier against the Browns. Backup quarterback Tobin Rote filled in admirably following Layne's injury, winning every game, including a 24-point rally in the tiebreaker playoff over the 49ers the previous week. In his eighth season, Rote threw four touchdown passes in the title game, completing 12 of 19 passes for 280 yards, and also ran for a touchdown. Browns quarterbacks

Tommy O'Connell Thomas B. O'Connell (September 26, 1930 – March 20, 2014) was an American collegiate and professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons. He played in 1953 for the Chicago Bears and in 1956 ...

and

Milt Plum Milton Ross Plum (born January 20, 1935) is a former American football quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns (1957–61), Detroit Lions (1962–67), Los Angeles Rams (1968) and New York Giants (1969) of the National Football League (NFL ...

, on the other hand hit on a combined total of 9 of 22 passes for 112 yards. Taking full advantage of a pass interception and a fumble, Detroit ran up a 17–0 lead in the first quarter. Rookie running back

gave the Cleveland rooters some hope with a 29-yard touchdown run at the start of the second period. Things went from bad to worse for the Browns, hampered by injuries to quarterbacks O'Connell and Plum. The Lions romped for 14 points in each of the last three quarters,Chuck Heaton, ''Lions Crush Browns, 59–14'', Cleveland Plain Dealer December 29, 1957, Plain Dealer Browns' History Database Accessed December 12, 2007, http://www.cleveland.com/brownshistory/plaindealer/index.ssf?/browns/more/history/19571229BROWNS.html and won by 45 points, 59–14. In their final six quarters of play (including their previous divisional playoff), the Lions outscored their opponents 83-17.

Scoring summary

''Sunday, December 29, 1957''
Kickoff: 2:00 p.m. EST *First quarter **DET – FG Jim Martin, 31 yards, 3–0 DET **DET – Tobin Rote 1-yard run (Martin kick), 10–0 DET **DET –

Gene Gedman Eugene William "Gene" Gedman (January 9, 1932 – August 19, 1974) was an American football player, a running back for four seasons with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League, 1953 and 1956 through 1958. The Lions won league titles ...

1-yard run (Martin kick), 17–0 DET *Second quarter **CLE –

29-yard run (

kick), 17–7 DET **DET –

Steve Junker Steven Norbert Junker (born July 22, 1935) is a former American football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions (1957, 1959–1960) and the Washington Redskins (1961–1962). As a rookie, he caught eight p ...

26-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick), 24–7 DET **DET –

Terry Barr Terry Albert Barr (August 8, 1935 – May 28, 2009) was an American football player. He played professional football for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions from 1957 to 1965. He began his NFL career as a ...

19-yard interception (Martin kick), 31–7 DET *Third quarter **CLE – Lew Carpenter 5-yard run (Groza kick), 31–14 DET **DET – Jim Doran 78-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick), 38–14 DET **DET – Junker 23-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick), 45–14 DET *Fourth quarter **DET –

Dave Middleton David Hinton Middleton (November 23, 1933 – December 29, 2007) was an American football end, wide receiver, and halfback. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Middleton played college football as a halfback for the Auburn Tigers in 1953 and 1954 ...

32-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick), 52–14 DET **DET – Howard Cassady 17-yard pass from

Jerry Reichow Garet Neal Reichow (born May 19, 1934) is a former professional American football player. A , 220 lb tight end from the University of Iowa, Reichow was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the fourth round of the 1956 NFL Draft. He was one of ...

(Martin kick), 59–14 DET

Officials

*Referee: Ron Gibbs *Umpire: Joe Connell *Head Linesman: Dan Tehan *Back Judge: Cleo Diehl *Field Judge:

Don Looney John Don Looney (September 2, 1916 – April 5, 2015) was a professional American football end in the National Football League (NFL). He was born in Sulphur Springs, Texas. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 1940 NFL Draft. He played three ...

*Alternate: George Rennix *Alternate: James Beiersdorfer *Alternate: Charlie Berry *Alternate: Chuck Sweeney The NFL had five game officials in ; the line judge was added in and the side judge in .

Players' shares

The gross receipts for the game, including radio and television rights, were just under $594,000, the highest to date. Each player on the winning Lions team received $4,295, while Browns players made $2,750 each.

Lions' last title

The Lions have not appeared in an NFL championship game (including the

) since this title . It was their last postseason appearance until

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, and their last postseason home game and victory until

. 1991 was also the only time the Lions have advanced as far as the Conference Championship game, losing the

NFC Championship Game The NFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the National Football Conference (NFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...

41–10 to the Washington Redskins, who went on to win

Super Bowl XXVI Super Bowl XXVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo Bills to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

Video

YouTube
– 1957 NFL Championship - Lions vs. Browns - Vol. 1
YouTube
– 1957 NFL Championship - Lions vs. Browns - Vol. 2

References

--> {{DEFAULTSORT:1957 NFL Championship Game Championship Game, 1957 National Football League Championship games Cleveland Browns postseason Detroit Lions postseason

NFL Championship Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

December 1957 sports events in the United States 1957 in Detroit Sports competitions in Detroit American football in Detroit