1963 Detroit Lions season


The 1963 Detroit Lions season was their thirtieth in Detroit and 34th overall. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle indefinitely suspended Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras and Packers' halfback Paul Hornung for placing bets on NFL teams. Five other Lions players were fined $2,000 each for betting on games that they did not play in. The Lions franchise was fined $2,000 each on two counts for failure to report information promptly and for lack of sideline supervision. The gambling controversy proved to be a big distraction on the field as well, as the Lions could not build on the success of the previous season, finishing 5–8–1.
On Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, the Lions met the Packers for the thirteenth consecutive season. The game ended in a tie, the first for the Packers in five years, and it was the end of the holiday series for Green Bay. Their visit to Tiger Stadium the following year was on a Monday night in late September, and the visiting opponent for Thanksgiving was rotated, starting with the Chicago Bears.

Offseason

NFL Draft

Preseason

Paper Lion

Paper Lion, published in 1966, is a non-fiction book by prominent American writer George Plimpton.
Plimpton pitched to a lineup of baseball stars in an All-Star exhibition, presumably to answer the question, "How would the average man off of the street fare in an attempt to compete with the stars of professional sports?" He chronicled this experience in his book, Out of My League. In Paper Lion, Plimpton joins the training camp of the 1963 Detroit Lions on the premise of trying out to be the team's third-string quarterback. Plimpton, then thirty-six, showed how unlikely it would be for an "average" person to succeed as a professional athlete. When finally inserted at quarterback for a series in a scrimmage conducted in Pontiac, Michigan, Plimpton managed to lose yardage on each play, convincing many in the crowd that he was a professional sports clown inserted for amusement purposes, not someone who was genuinely giving his best effort.

Regular season

Schedule

WeekDateOpponentResultRecordAttendance
1September 14at Los Angeles RamsW 23–21–0
49,342
2September 22at Green Bay PackersL 10–311–1
45,912
3September 29Chicago BearsL 21–371–2
55,400
4October 6San Francisco 49ersW 26–32–2
44,088
5October 13at Dallas CowboysL 14–172–3
27,264
6October 20Baltimore ColtsL 21–252–4
51,901
7October 27Minnesota VikingsW 28–103–4
44,509
8November 3at San Francisco 49ersW 45–74–4
33,511
9November 10at Baltimore ColtsL 21–244–5
59,758
10November 17Los Angeles RamsL 21–284–6
44,951
11November 24at Minnesota VikingsL 31–344–7
28,763
12November 28Green Bay PackersT 13–134–7–1
54,016
13December 8Cleveland BrownsW 38–105–7–1
51,382
14December 15at Chicago BearsL 14–245–8–1
45,317

Week 1

Standings

Roster

Awards and honors