Detroit Lions: 30 greatest players in franchise history
. Kicker. (1980-1991). Eddie Murray. 19. player. 50
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and drafted out of Tulane, Eddie Murray handled the kicking duties in Detroit for 12 seasons. Over the course of those dozen years, he was exemplary in his performance. An All-Pro kicker as a rookie, Murray won the Pro Bowl’s Most Valuable Player award in 1980 after a five field goal performance. He remains the only rookie to have ever received the Pro Bowl MVP honor.
During the regular season of 1980, Murray set a Lion franchise record after his 27 made field goals. He was also able to lead the entire National Football Conference (NFC) in total overall scoring with his 116 points on the season. In 1981, Eddie scored 121 points which would stand as his highest point total in Detroit.
1982 was Murray’s first year averaging more than 90 percent in made field goals with his average of 91.7 percent. The other two times in his career that he kicked for greater than 90 percent in his field goals came in the back-to-back seasons of 1988 and 1989. During those two years, he tied an NFL record for single-season accuracy as he made 95.2 percent of his kick attempts.
Murray played for 174 games in Detroit. For his first decade with the team (1980-1989), he led the franchise in scoring. Upon the completion of his final full season as a Lion in 1991, Murray departed as the organization’s all-time leading scorer with 1,113 points scored.
Though he was waived by the team in 1992 in order to make room for his eventual successor, Murray and his 75.1 percentage of made field goals was quite an impactful player for Detroit. He currently stands as the Lions’ second-highest scorer in team history.