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Detroit News, December 10, 1938
LIONS PLAY FOR NFL CHAMPIONSHIP TOMORROW
Detroit Takes on Brooklyn Dodgers, Champions of the East
NEW YORK--Tomorrow at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, the National Football League will crown its champion for 1938. The Western Division champion Detroit Lions will seek to recover the form that carried them to victory in each of their first seven games. Their opponents, the Brooklyn Dodgers, will certainly give the Lions all they can handle.
Both division champions enter the game with 9-2 records. Without the services of star tailback Ace Parker, who was recovering from a sore hamstring, the Dodgers lost their final regular season game to their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 16-0. Parker will be back at full strength for tomorrow's game.
The Lions, too, struggled as their passer fought off the effects of an injury. Mike O'Farrell missed most of the Lions' last two games--a loss to the Chicago Bears and a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles--with a sore leg. O'Farrell has also recovered fully, and the Lions will welcome his ability to pile up yardage on the ground and through the air.
The weather is expected to be clear and cold, ideal conditions for the Lions' stable of rushers. Detroit was second among the twelve NFL teams, averaging almost 160 rushing yards per game. Four Lions backs--Ace Gutowsky, Bill Shepherd, Lloyd Cardwell, and O'Farrell--ranked among the league's top twenty ballcarriers during the regular season.
They will undoubtedly find the going tough against a stout Dodgers defense, led by tough tackle Frank "Bruiser" Kinard and rugged linebacker John Golemgeske. Look for O'Farrell to pass more often against the Dodgers than he has during much of the season...
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