"But actually, it hurts me," Layne added. "I guess they always work out for the best." "It's just one of those things," he said. Layne eventually spoke to the press while packing for a late-night flight to Pittsburgh. "Luckily, I was able to reach him at the airport just before the announcement of the trade was made." "I thought I would see him earlier in the day when he stopped in the office for his paycheck, but he didn't show," Wilson said.
Layne, the beloved leader of the team, was partying his way through training camp and (reportedly) road trips.Īccording to the Free Press, Layne heard about the trade while he was at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, waiting for his wife to arrive from their Texas home. The Lions were so friction-racked that their longtime coach quit on them during training camp a year earlier. His backup/challenger, a younger veteran with a solid resume, beat the team's arch-rival twice to win a championship.
In summary, Layne was a 31-year-old quarterback coming off an arrest and two straight seasons that ended with injuries. Wilson criticized both quarterbacks' play-calling after the game the Detroit News would later report that Layne showed up for a team meeting intoxicated the Saturday before the game and that a rift had grown between Layne and Wilson. Rote relieved Layne in a 28-15 loss to the Colts in the season opener, and then both quarterbacks played in a 13-13 tie against the Packers. Wilson entered the 1958 season planning to platoon Layne and Rote again. Rote then beat the Bears, then the 49ers in the playoff game and then the Browns again by a 59-14 score for the Lions' third NFL championship of the decade. Rote relieved him and led the Lions to a 20-7 victory. The rotation system ended when Layne broke his leg early in an important late-season Browns game. Wilson rotated Rote and Layne based on which quarterback had the best week of practice it's easy to read between the lines and assume that Wilson started whichever quarterback had the most sober week of practice. In addition to a coaching controversy and a drunk-driving controversy, the Lions had perhaps the NFL's first truly great quarterback controversy on its hands. Again, 1950s football takes some getting used to.
According to Detroit Athletic Co., Layne later claimed that he "only" drank six highballs that night and that the officer mistook his Texas drawl for slurred speech.