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The Detroit Lions are an American football team based in Detroit , Michigan . Originally based in Portsmouth , Ohio and called the Portsmouth Spartans, the team began play in 1929 as an independent professional team, one of many such teams in the Ohio and Scioto River valleys. For the 1930 season, the Spartans formally joined the NFL as the other area independents folded because of the Great Depression. Despite success within the NFL, they could not survive in Portsmouth , then the NFL's smallest city. The team was purchased and moved to Detroit for the 1934 season.

The Lions have won four pre-Super Bowl NFL Championships, the last in 1957, and have yet to qualify for the Super Bowl.

NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA'S BLOG: Lions' security director Ricky Sandoval dies (Detroit Free Press) Ricky Sandoval, the Detroit Lions’ director of security, died early this morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He had just reached a goal Tuesday: to celebrate his 49th birthday.

NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA'S BLOG: Lions' security director Ricky Sandoval, 49, dies of cancer (Detroit Free Press) Ricky Sandoval, the Detroit Lions' director of security, died early this morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 49. Earlier this week the Lions named their indoor practice field "Sandoval Field" in his honor.

Lions director of security Ricky Sandoval dies after three-year fight with cancer (The Flint Journal) In the end, Ricky Sandoval succumbed to pancreatic cancer, just as more than 90 percent of the people diagnosed with the disease. But the Detroit Lions director of security fought blow away the prognosis he was given on May 30, 2006, when doctors told him he had three to six months to live.

Jacksonville Jaguars trade Dennis Northcutt to Detroit Lions for Gerald Alexander (ESPN) The Jaguars have traded receiver Dennis Northcutt to the Lions for safety Gerald Alexander.