Joe Schmidt, who helped Detroit Lions to two NFL championships, dies aged 92

Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.

The Lions said the family informed the team that Schmidt had died Wednesday. A cause of death was not given.

Schmidt was one of the first great middle linebackers in professional football. He played his entire NFL career with the Lions, from 1953 to 1965. He was an eight-time All-Pro and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football draft in 2000.

“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career he was 6-foot-3, but he tackled so many fullbacks that his neck was crushed into his shoulders and he’s now 6-foot-1,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s announcer at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “Anyway, he was listed at 6-foot-1, and as I said, he was marginal for that position. But there are qualities that scouts or anyone drafting a baseball player certainly can’t measure.”

Schmidt was born in Pittsburgh and played college football in his hometown of Pitt, starting out as a fullback and guard until coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.

“Pitt gave me the opportunity to do what I wanted to do and continue to develop myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have has come from that opportunity.”

Schmidt struggled with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted in the seventh round by the Lions in 1953. As defenses evolved during that era, Schmidt’s speed, craft and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s best teams.

Schmidt was selected to the Pro Bowl ten years in a row, from 1955 to 1964. After his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.

In a 1957 playoff game in San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27–7 in the third quarter but came back to win 31–27. It was the largest NFL comeback in postseason history until Buffalo turned a 32-point deficit into a win over Houston in 1993.

“We just decided to go after them, bomb them almost every time,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. If you run into them, you’ll drop both barrels.”

Schmidt became an assistant coach after his playing career ended. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967 to 1972, going 43-35-7.

Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team, unveiled in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial. He had, of course, been inducted into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.

Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.

“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “There were so many people saying I was too small. That I couldn’t play. There were so many negative people saying negative things about me … that it makes you feel good. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”