The 1954 Detroit Lions season marked the franchise's 25th year in the National Football League (NFL), including four initial seasons as the Portsmouth Spartans. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 10âÂÂ2, winning only nine games. They qualified for the championship game for the third consecutive season.
The Lions drafted 32 players in the 1954 NFL draft. Their first-round pick was Dick Chapman, an All-American defensive tackle out of Rice. Chapman never played a snap for the Lions, electing to return to Rice and finish his degree in physics. Their second-round pick, Michigan State center Jim Neal, also never played a snap after "marrying a girl whose religion prohibited him to play football on Sundays."
According to the team, a total of 28,553 season tickets were sold by the Lions for the 1954 campaign. The Lions played their home games in Briggs Stadium (Tiger Stadium), which had a regular listed seating capacity of 46,194, with an additional 7,000 bleacher seats for football to bring total capacity to 53,194.