Daughter told Joe Schmidt to have Bobby Layne lift Lions' curse when he got to heaven

Kerry Schmidt had one request for her father, legendary Detroit Lions linebacker Joe Schmidt, before he passed away this week.

"They always say that people can still hear you, so it’s one of the things I said, 'Hey Dad, when you get up there and see Bobby Layne, ask him to remove the curse for us,'" Kerry Schmidt told the Free Press on Thursday.

Joe Schmidt died Wednesday at the age of 92.

A Hall-of-Fame linebacker who spent his entire 13-year playing career with the Lions and later coached the team, Schmidt helped the franchise win its last two NFL championships in 1953 and 1957, when he was teammates with Hall-of-Fame quarterback Bobby Layne.

Layne started at quarterback most of the 1957 season, but broke his leg late in the year and was replaced by Tobin Rote before the championship game. The Lions traded Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers early in the 1958 season, when legend has it Layne cursed the team to bad luck.

MORE SCHMIDT READING: Joe Schmidt fondly remembered 1957 Detroit Lions and revealed what made them special

Joe Schmidt said at a 60-year reunion of the 1957 team hosted by the Free Press that he believed in the curse.

"I think it was pretty bitter," he said. "The guy was (in) the championship (in) '52, '53, '54, and all of a sudden now they’re going to trade him? Bobby was sort of a tough guy on the outside but inside he (was) sort of sentimental and he liked his teammates and loved his teammates, loved the game. I think he had that attitude, which is right, that, 'Hey, I brought all these championships to you and now you’re going to broom me and go someplace else.'"

Kerry Schmidt said her father and the rest of her family – Joe Schmidt is survived by his wife, Marilynn, and five children – remained rabid Lions fans long after his playing career.

The family routinely attended Lions' Thanksgiving games before Joe and Marilynn moved to Florida, and Kerry Schmidt said she hopes her father and Layne can work their magic again in heaven to help the Lions win their first championship since 1957 this winter.

"He will. I know he will," Kerry Schmidt said. "I’m convinced. If anyone can, he can."

The Lions plan to honor Joe Schmidt with a moment of silence and video tribute before Sunday's game.

"It was before my time a little bit, but I know enough to know that, Hall of Fame player, heck of a coach – both player and coach," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "It’s a heck of a life. He will have seen it all, that’s for sure. So obviously I think he embodies everything that this city’s about and that this team is about, well ahead of his time and where we’re at. So just thinking about his family, too, as well, in this time. It doesn’t matter how long that life is and how good it was, it’s still – it’s a passing, so I know that’s tough on the family.”

Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline." Preorder it now from Reedy Press .

Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Daughter told Joe Schmidt to have Bobby Layne lift Lions' curse when he got to heaven