Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: What year was the Detroit Lions team formed?
The history of the Detroit Lions, a professional American football franchise based in Detroit, Michigan, dates back to 1929 when they played in Portsmouth, Ohio as the Portsmouth Spartans. Currently in their 89th season, they are one of the National Football League's oldest franchises.
Regular season games are broadcast regionally on Fox, except when the Lions play an AFC team in Detroit, in which case the game airs regionally on CBS. The Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit is always televised nationally on either Fox (odd-numbered years) or CBS (even-numbered years). The Detroit Lions were the last NFC team to play on NBC's Sunday Night Football since the network got began airing Sunday night games in 2006 (the Lions at Saints game on December 4, 2011 marked their 1st appearance; Sunday night games are aried on WDIV). The Lions' official regular season pregame show is "The Ford Lions Report".
Since moving to Detroit from Portsmouth, Ohio in 1934, the Detroit Lions have only had one official cheerleading squad before the current one. The Detroit Lions original cheerleading squad formed in 1963 and continued until 1974. Promoters of cheer squads had contacted the team's front office several times only to be met with rejections. In August 2010, a group formed the Detroit Pride, which became the unofficial cheerleaders for the team. 
New Detroit head coach George Wilson stood up and said "I was going to say something, but that's what they think of you" then sat down. On the first play of the second half San Francisco running back Hugh McElhenny broke off a 71-yard run to the Detroit 9 yard line but the Lions held the 49ers to a field goal, San Francisco's last points of the day. Bobby Layne had been lost to injury three weeks prior but Lions backup Tobin Rote led Detroit to 24 unanswered points and a 31–27 come from behind win. The next week, in the NFL Championship Game, Rote threw for four touchdowns and ran in another as the Lions routed Cleveland 59–14 and claimed their third championship in six years and to date their last.
At the start of the 1933 season the Lions added star runningback Ernie Caddel to the roster but despite a strong 5-1 start the team fell apart in the second half of the season finishing 1–4 for a final record of 6-5 which was only good for the second spot in the Western Conference. After the season the financially struggling Spartans were purchased by a group led by Detroit radio executive George Richards for $7,952.08 and moved to Detroit where they were renamed the Detroit Lions. Richards chose the name as a nod to the Detroit Tigers and because he said the Lion is the monarch of the jungle and he wanted his team to be the monarch of the NFL.
As a CBS O&O, WWJ-TV broadcasts CBS Sports telecasts, including CBS's coverage of NFL football. Although most regular season Detroit Lions games air on Fox because the team is in the NFC; from 2008 to 2010, WWJ-TV was the flagship station of the Detroit Lions Television Network in place of sister station WKBD-TV. The station also aired the weekly program "The Ford Lions Report", produced by the Detroit Lions during the regular season, and also aired pre-season games for the team (by NFL rules, all cable games are required to be broadcast by a local television station in the team's primary market). In 2010, WWJ-TV had broadcast all Lions preseason games in high definition. The rights to broadcast Lions preseason games and other team-related programming moved to ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (which as a result, replaced WWJ-TV as the flagship of the Detroit Lions Television Network) beginning with the 2011 season.
The Detroit Lions season was the franchise's 62nd season in the National Football League, their 58th as the Detroit Lions. It stands as the team's best season since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. 
On June 12, 2016, the Lions announced their decision to add official cheerleaders to the Lions organization. The team also announced that Rebecca Girard-Smoker, formerly the director of the Detroit Pistons dance team, would be the coach of the cheerleading squad. It marked the first time in over 40 years the team had an official cheerleading squad. The cheerleading squad will be a part of the entertainment during football games, and active at community events.
After Barry Sanders retired, the Lions shockingly found their way to the 1999 NFL Playoffs with an 8-8 record, before being dispatched by the Redskins 13–27 in the wild card round. The team actually improved in the 2000 season finishing at 9–7, but because of a stronger conference they missed the playoffs. Following the season, the Lions hired Matt Millen, a former player and broadcaster, as team president and CEO. Detroit fell apart in 2001, leading many people to believe they might become the first team to go 0-16 in a season. After starting 0–12, the Lions finally managed to win a game on the December 16th by defeating their rivals, the Minnesota Vikings. After 2 more losses, the Lions played their final game of the 2001 season on January 6, 2002. In what was to be the final game played at the Pontiac Silverdome, the 1-14 Lions hosted the 5–10 Cowboys. Despite there not being much hype or any playoff implications to the game, 77,512 fans came out to watch the Lions defeat the Cowboys 15-10.
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are currently a member of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The franchise has had a total of 27 head coaches in team history, which includes its existence as the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans (1930–1933). In the 1934 NFL season, the franchise moved to Detroit and changed their name to the Lions.
In 1939, Detroit's first year without their superstar players the Lions only managed to win 6 games, a disappointing season that set the tone for the next decade. The 1940s were not a high point of the Lions history. They won a total of 35 games, for an average of 3.5 a season, including going 0–11 in 1942. The 1942 team's offense was so bad, it scored only 5 touchdowns all season and never scored more than 7 points in a single game. With the 1st overall pick in the 1943 Draft the Lions drafted Frank Sinkwich from Georgia, who won the NFL Most Valuable Player award in 1944 while leading Detroit from a 1-3-1 start to 5 wins to end the year with Detroit's first winning record since 1939. On November 7, 1943 the Lions and the New York Football Giants played to a 0–0 tie at Detroit – to date the last time an NFL game has ended with a scoreless tie.
The 2008 Detroit Lions season was the franchise's 79th season in the National Football League (NFL), and their 75th as the Detroit Lions. The season is notable for being only one of four winless (0–16) seasons in American football history. The Lions entered their third season under head coach Rod Marinelli. Entering the season with high hopes thanks to their 7–9 record the year before, their best since the 2000 season, the Lions instead suffered one of the worst seasons in NFL history. The Lions finished 0–16, joining the expansion 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only other team to finish a full season winless since the AFL–NFL merger, as well as the first to do it since the schedule was expanded to sixteen games in 1978. Ironically, the NHL's Detroit Red Wings had won the Stanley Cup earlier in the year and were on their way to competing for the cup again when this occurred. This season combined with the Lions' 2–14 record the next year was the worst two season record since the merger. 
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and called the Portsmouth Spartans, the team began play in 1928 as an independent professional team. The 2015 season was their 88th in the NFL.
Lewis was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the sixth round (73rd overall pick) of the 1958 NFL Draft. He played seven years with the Lions form 1958 to 1964. He led the team in 1962 with 488 rushing yards and again in 1963 with 528 rushing yards. He was the first African American to lead the Lions in rushing. At the end of his career with the Lions, he ranked fourth in franchise history with 2,698 rushing yards.
Statistics site "Football Outsiders" summed up Detroit's season thus: "The Lions were one of the most inconsistent teams of the year, which is what happens when you win 12 games but lose 45–0 (to Washington) and 35–3 (to San Francisco). Otherwise, it's a little hard to tell why they ended up only 17th in [efficiency]. The Lions didn't have too many super-close victories, but did go 4–0 in games decided by a touchdown or less. They didn't particularly take advantage of long plays ... with only four gains of 50 yards or more. They did benefit a little extra from fumbles on defense, recovering 15 of 23. They also benefitted from poor opponent special teams..."
A 3–8–1 season in 1959 meant the Lions closed out their most successful decade in disappointing fashion and going into the 1960s the Lions decided to go with a new rebuild this time centered around defense. Detroit started by trading defensive end Gerry Perry to the St. Louis Cardinals for cornerback Dick "Night Train" Lane. Lions hall of famer Joe Schmidt later called it "One of the greatest trades that will ever be made in any sport". This was a good move as Lane made three Pro Bowls and four All Pro selections as a Lion. Detroit also drafted star defensive tackle Roger Brown to pair with Alex Karras, Sam Williams and Darris McCord, forming one of the most fierce defensive lines in pro football history. The Lions also still had 50's stars Joe Schmidt and Yale Lary as well as cornerback Dick LeBeau who the team signed in 1959. Despite a 0-3 start in 1960 This defense helped the Lions put together a 7–2 record to end the year at 7–5 overall. Detroit finished 2nd in the Western Conference and earned a trip to the Playoff Bowl against their rivals the Cleveland Browns who finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference.
He was signed by the Detroit Lions on December 26, 2013 to the team's practice squad. During a workout with the Detroit Lions Isles ran a time of 4.22 seconds in the 40-yard dash, the fastest time recorded that year.
Detroit improved on that record in 1945 finishing 7–3, 2nd in the Western Division behind the Cleveland Rams. The Lions were less successful in the latter half of the decade; in 1946 Detroit only managed 1 win all year long and in 1947 only won 3. The Lions fortunes began turning around in 1948. With the 6th overall pick in the 1948 NFL Draft the Lions drafted quarterback Y.A. Tittle however he never signed with the team instead joining the San Francisco 49ers. In the same draft, three picks before the Lions drafted Tittle, the Chicago Bears drafted Bobby Layne, who built a hall of fame career in Detroit just three years later, and later Detroit picked up tackle Les Bingaman and defensive back Don Doll who became Pro Bowlers.
The 1985 Detroit Lions season was their 56th in the National Football League. In Darryl Rogers first year as head coach, the team improved upon their previous season's output of 4–11–1, winning seven games. The Lions beat four playoff teams at home, Dallas, San Francisco, Miami, and the N.Y. Jets, but lost to Tampa Bay and Indianapolis on the road. Despite the improvement, the team went winless in December (0-3) and missed the playoffs for the second straight year with a 7-9 record.
On March 13, 2014, Tapp signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Lions. Tapp was released on August 30, 2014, from the Lions. On March 2, 2015, the Lions re-signed Tapp to a one-year contract. Tapp was named in 2015 the Detroit Lions-Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association-Pro Football Writers Association (Detroit Chapter) Media-Friendly Good Guy Award winner.
In 1958, after he had led the Lions to three NFL championship games and provided Detroit nearly a decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season, and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh, Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years." Since this time, the Lions have not won another championship and the franchise's subsequent years of (mostly) futility has been labelled "The Curse of Bobby Layne." Without Layne Detroit finished 4–7–1 for one of the worst title defenses in NFL history.
The 1951 Lions had compiled a 7–4–1 record and finished in a tie for second place in the NFL National Conference. The 1952 team was a veteran group, including quarterback Bobby Layne (fifth year in NFL, third in Detroit), fullback Pat Harder (seventh year in NFL, second in Detroit), halfbacks Doak Walker (third year in NFL, all in Detroit) and Bob Hoernschemeyer (seventh year in NFL, third in Detroit), ends Cloyce Box (third year in NFL, all in Detroit) and Leon Hart (third year in NFL, all in Detroit), defensive linemen Les Bingaman (fifth year in NFL, all in Detroit), John Prchlik (fourth year in NFL, all in Detroit), Thurman "Fum" McGraw (third year in NFL, all in Detroit), and defensive backs Don Doll (fourth year in NFL, all in Detroit), Jack Christiansen (second year in NFL, both in Detroit), and Bob Smith (fifth year in pro ball, fourth in Detroit).
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.
Christensen played professional football in the National Football League for eight years for the Portsmouth Spartans (1931–1933) and the Detroit Lions (1934–1938). He started in 74 of 95 games that he played. He was selected as a first-team All-NFL player in 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1936, and a second-team All-NFL player in 1932 and 1935. He was also the captain of the first Detroit Lions professional football team in 1934 and was a starter on the 1935 Detroit Lions team that won the 1935 NFL Championship Game. Teammate Glenn Presnell recalled, "George Christensen was a good tackle, he weighed about 230 and was the biggest man on the team."
The 1967 Detroit Lions season was the 38th season in franchise history. On August 5, the Lions played the Denver Broncos in an exhibition game. The Broncos beat the Lions by a score of 13–7 and became the first AFL team to beat an NFL team.