GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — When the Detroit Lions take the field at Levi's Stadium on Sunday, it will have been 11,704 days since their last appearance in the NFC Championship Game.
By then, 32 years and 16 days will have passed between Jan. 12, 1992 and Jan. 28, 2024.
In other words, it's been a long time.
As you can imagine, the world looked a lot different back then. Here's a glimpse into life back then to truly paint the picture about how long it's been, as if Lions fans needed any other reminders:
ONLY TWO PLAYERS ON LIONS' ACTIVE ROSTER WERE ALIVE
Jake McQuaide, the team's long snapper, was born on Dec. 7, 1987. He was the only player on the active roster alive during the team's last appearance in the NFC Championship, until the Lions went out and signed Defensive Lineman Tyson Alualu from the practice squad to the active roster on Wednesday. Alualu was born on May 12, 1987.
There are two other players on the team's practice squad who were born before Jan. 12, 1992. That would be newly-signed Tight End Zach Ertz, born on Nov. 10, 1990 and Offensive Lineman Michael Schofield, born just five days later on Nov. 15, 1990.
NFL ONLY HAD 28 TEAMS
Not only did the world look different, the NFL did too. Four of the league's current teams didn't exist. That would be the Carolina Panthers, incorporated in 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars, also incorporated in 1995, the Houston Texans, incorporated in 2002, and the Baltimore Ravens, who were originally the Cleveland Browns before moving to Baltimore in 1996.
Additionally, the Tennessee Titans were still the Houston Oilers at that time, before moving to Tennessee in 1997.
MOST POPULAR SONG
At the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts was "Black or White" by Michael Jackson.
COLD WAR HAD NOT FORMALLY ENDED
While the collapse of the Soviet Union happened in Dec. 1991, U.S. President George H. W. Bush did not meet with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin to formally bring the war to a close until Feb. 1992.
WHAT'S AMAZON?
That's right, hard to imagine a time when Amazon, the world's leader in e-commerce, didn't exist. However, the company didn't launch until 1994.
WORD OF THE YEAR
American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 1992 was "Not!"
Also, voted Most Likely to Succeed was "snail mail" -- yes, as in mail that's physically delivered, rather than e-mail.
If only they knew...
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Win or lose on Sunday, let's hope we aren't waiting another three decades until the next time the Lions play to appear in the Super Bowl. If not, we'll update this article in 2056.
