Lyons's playing career with Dublin GAA club Kilmacud Crokes ended early due to a persistent knee injury.
Lyons managed Kilmacud Crokes to an All-Ireland Club SFC on Saint Patrick's Day, 1995.
Lyons was announced as senior Offaly county football team manager in late 1996.
Lyons risked bringing in a lot of inexperienced players, such as Ray Cosgrove, Alan Brogan, and John McNally.
When the standard of the team's performances dropped in 2003, the media game Lyons had played came back to haunt him.
In 2008, Lyons mentored Glenda Gilson as she "managed" Crumlin for RTÉ's Celebrity Bainisteoir.
Lyons, one of a string of former Dublin managers never to have won an All-Ireland SFC title, bit into Martin McHugh ahead of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, charging McHugh with "being the cute auld hoor".