The Detroit Lions are back in the NFC championship game, and the world sure is a lot different than their last appearance.
The date was Jan. 12, 1992. Detroit faced Washington for the chance to advance to the Super Bowl, but it was dominated in a 31-point loss to the eventual league champion. After that, the Lions went 31 seasons without ever reaching the championship round or winning another playoff game. But with wild card and divisional round wins, Detroit is back to being one win away from the Super Bowl.
In that time between NFC championship appearances, the world has drastically evolved, so look back on what it was like that last time Detroit was playing for a conference title:
What was the No. 1 song last time Lions were in NFC championship game?
Billboard’s No. 1 song in the U.S. was ‘Black or White’ by Michael Jackson. At the 1992 Grammy Awards, ‘Tears In Heaven’ by Eric Clapton would win record and song of the year.
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What was the No. 1 movie last time Lions were in NFC championship game?
The No. 1 movie in the U.S. was ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.’ At the 1992 Academy Awards, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ would win best picture, with Anthony Hopkins taking best actor and Jodie Foster taking best actress for their roles in the movie.
What was technology like the last time Lions were in the NFC championship game?
You couldn’t even text anybody when the Lions made the NFC championship game during the 1991 season. Text messaging was even a thing until December 1992. Even crazier, the flip phone was still four years away from being introduced.
You also wouldn’t have been able to just look up the Lions; Google was six years away from being founded. If you wanted to play with the Lions team in a video game, you needed a Nintendo Entertainment System to play the iconic football video game of the era — Tecmo Super Bowl — or the Sega Genesis to play John Madden Football ’92, which was just the second installment of what would become the premier annually released video game franchise.
How old were the Lions’ coach, players the last time Lions were in NFC championship game?
Current head coach Dan Campbell was just getting his high school football career started at Glen Rose High School in Texas.
As for the current stars of the Lions, they weren’t even around to watch the last Detroit NFC title game. Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs and Aiden Hutchinson weren’t born yet. In fact, long snapper Jake McQuaide is the only player on the current roster that was alive when Detroit last made the conference title game.
The NFL only had 28 teams
The NFL wasn’t the same league people know then. Only 28 teams existed, the Houston Oilers were still around, the Raiders were in Los Angeles, the Cardinals were known as the Phoenix Cardinals and the NFC West was made up of the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints.
The last time the Lions were in the NFC championship game, the Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans didn’t exist yet.