1957 NFL Championship Game

The Detroit Lions (8–4), winners of the Western Conference in a playoff the previous week,^[7] 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.^[8][9] 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.^[7]


It was the fourth pairing of the two teams in the championship game; they met previously in 1952, 1953, and 1954. The Browns, idle the previous week, were favored by three points,^[10][11][12] but the home underdog Lions scored two touchdowns in each quarter and won in a rout, 59–14.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}


Until 2006, this was the last time that major professional teams from Michigan and Ohio met in a postseason game (or series) in any sport. This was the last NFL playoff game played in the city of Detroit other than Super Bowl XL until 2024 as the Lions' other two home playoff games prior (1992 and 1994) were at the Silverdome in suburban Pontiac. This also remains as the Lions' fourth and most recent league title and most recent championship appearance (including the Super Bowl) as of 2024, starting a sixty-seven year championship drought for the Lions.