(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Something happened today in the #20 Lions lounge on Facebook that really ticked me off.

It brought back memories of all the hater fans that I had arguments with over the last 12 years or so while I tried in futility to defend my beloved Detroit Lions against friendly fire.

Back when I had these battles, it wasn’t that I was trying to convince anybody that the Lions were good because they weren’t and I knew it. I just couldn’t understand for the life of me how someone could call themselves a true Detroit Lions fan, but be oh so happy to throw dirt on the Lions and laugh and jeer at their own hometown team.

But never mind the past, here’s what happened today in the Lounge…

One of my fellow Lions fans posed the question “how many wins do you predict the Lions to get this season?” Now of course, having over 800 diehard Lions fans in the #20 Detroit Lions Lounge the answers were quite predictable for the most part. You’re going to see the majority of the guesses and approximations be on the high side, most predictions came in between 10 and 13 wins.

Yes, we are a bunch of slappies but if there is ever a year to be a slappy it’s THIS year!

One member of the Lounge, created a bit of a stir though. One of the members (who shall remain nameless) predicted that the Lions will go 6-10 this year because they have the “worse secondary in the league” and because “these are the Lions.”

What the what???

I can half-way accept the doubt about the secondary, even though saying they will be the worst in the league is reaching, the thing that got my goat was the quote about “these are the Lions”.
Continue reading “Help Me Understand “Hater” Detroit Lions Fans…” »

I despised Warren Sapp when he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, more recently I’ve been entertained and amused by his work on the NFL Network as an analyst and I now feel much gratitude to the guy for enlightening the Lions defensive coordinator.

I just recently wrote about Gunther Cunningham’s lack of creativity with the Detroit Lions defensive scheme. I wanted to see more movement from the defensive lineman. Thankfully Warren Sapp expressed those same sentiments and it seems Gunther Cunningham is listening.

Sapp criticized the Lions D-line scheme at the Super Bowl, saying that they were too predictable in how they used Suh in 2011, when Ndamukong’s sack total fell from 10 down to 4.

As an armchair QB and an overall know-nothing, even I was saying this throughout the 2011 season. I wondered why the Lions abandoned the exotic movement schemes that they unveiled in 2010. Continue reading “Ndamukong Suh To Move Along The D-Line – Thank You Warren Sapp!” »

OK, so with all of the wacky tabacky issues our Detroit Lions have been going through I was a bit hesitant to use the phrase “get off the pot”. I don’t want to confuse you, but this article is not about the Ganja and I’m making no references to the sticky green. Are we clear? Good.

This is all about players who have flashed elite-level talent but that’s all they have given us, flashes. This is about players who need to show up big this year or else get classified as a SO-SO football player. I don’t have to tell you what happens to so-so football players, but I will anyway. Their team starts looking for replacements.

You might get ticked at me if one of your favorite players is on this list but don’t blame me for their consistent level of just better than mediocre! Sheesh….

Oh, and I’m leaving off all players that haven’t shown ANY flashes, like Amari Spievey for example. Players like him aren’t good enough to make this list. Sorry Amari…

On to the players watch list.

1. DeAndre Levy – The 4th year LB drafted out of Wisconsin has been a steady yet unspectacular player even though given tons of playing time at multiple positions. Don’t scream at me, I’m not saying Levy sucks. He is pretty good in pass coverage and he is a good technical player with 109 tackles to show for it last year. That’s all well and good, what…ever.

The problem with DeAndre Levy is that he simply doesn’t make enough big splash plays. Continue reading “The “Piss or Get Off The Pot” Watchlist… Detroit Lions Players Who Need To Step It Up” »

When a basketball team is down by 10 points with 20 seconds left in the game they usually have their best shooters chuck up 3-point shots, not because it’s the highest percentage shot to take but because they have nothing to lose and they are SUNK if they don’t hit a couple big ones.

Martin Mayhew is this Lions organization’s best shooter and he chucked up some 3-pointers in his own way by selecting a few highly-talented players with red flags hanging off of them.

I for one, do not blame the Detroit Lions general manager for doing so. When you’re rebuilding a team that lacked more talented football players than nearly the entire league for about a decade and finally bottoms out at 0-16 you are not put in the normal position of being able to play it safe.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Martin Mayhew didn’t get this team to 10-6 and the playoffs by playing it safe and making sure that all of his draft picks were boy scouts. He made sure that every player he selected was a superior player in his opinion.

BPA stands for best player available not best person available. Continue reading “You Can’t Fault Mayhew For Choosing Highly-Talented “Risk” Players” »

OK, let me be very clear about this so that I don’t get any crazy comments directed towards me. I’m very happy to have Kellen Moore on the team. He’s the winningest QB in NCAA history, boasting a ri-dic-u-lous 50-3 record over his career. That’s awesome and I think he has all of the potential in the world.

He could be the next Drew Brees for all I know, he could also be the next Koy Detmer as well. Whose to say?

Either way I don’t care, I just would hate for him to become Detroit’s own Tim Tebow as far as hype and unwarranted coverage is concerned.

I’m just getting a little bit concerned for my Lions fan brethren and the local Detroit sports media. An undrafted QB brought in to compete for a spot at no.3 quarterback is not truly THAT exciting. But I’m seeing the beginnings of a Tim Tebow-esque style of coverage coming around the corner and I don’t like it one stinkin’ bit.

REAL training camp hasn’t even started yet and my left eye is already starting to twitch at each unnecessary mention of Kellen Moore. Continue reading “Hoping Not To Get “Tebowed” With Media Coverage Of Kellen Moore” »

How did this happen? Where did the narrative that “Gosder Cherilus isn’t that good” come from?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whether it is fans of the Detroit Lions or talking heads in the Detroit sports media, I get the sense that everybody is waiting and expecting Gosder Cherilus to be replaced at the first opportunity, especially now that LT Riley Reiff was drafted. My question for you is simple. WHY?

I don’t know what it is about Gosder, but he doesn’t seem to garner much love from fans or media even though he is a really good player. Do you doubt that? Well then, I have another simple question for you. WHY?

I don’t know whether it’s the fact that Cherilus was a 1st round draft pick that none of us expected, or that he isn’t a Pro Bowl player yet or maybe even it’s that he has a bulbous head and kinda looks and sounds like Biz Markie, but Detroit Lions fans underestimate the big guy greatly.

2010 was the make or break year for him in my eyes because he certainly had underwhelmed in his first 2 seasons. The thing about it is this though… Gosder Cherilus started playing VERY good football in his 3rd year. He was very impressive in pass blocking, he was one of our better run blockers but then he got injured against New England in the Thanksgiving Day game on November 25th 2010.

I remember thinking about how much of a shame it was that he got hurt when he was actually becoming the player he was drafted to be in the 1st round. Well evidently, some of you missed out on that observation and only absorbed the disappointment of the injury and resumed seeing him as the Gosder from years 1 and 2.

The injury Gosder Cherilus sustained required micro fracture surgery, a surgery that has ended MANY professional sports careers. It’s one of those surgeries that some guys simply can’t recover from. So going into the 2011 season, I was simply hoping that the guy’s career would continue and that he’d be able to be on the field for MOST of the season and do reasonably well.

What did Gosder do?
Continue reading “Gosder Cherilus Won’t Be Beat Out At Right Tackle” »

Ahhh, don’t you love the 20/20 view of hindsight? With so many Detroit Lions fans having their panties in a bunch(my Lion-print panties included) over the Lions current draft selections, I began reminiscing to the past years when the Lions drafts were praised and graded as an A almost across the board by fans and media.

Those were the good old days, it seemed that with each Matt Millen draft pick the excitement level would rise, along with my hopes and dreams.

How did you feel about Matt Millen drafting our savior and future Hall-of-Fame QB Joey “Heisman” Harrington? Weren’t you geeked up to get that blazing fast wide receiver named Charles Rogers out of our own backyard? He was going to be great alongside Roy Williams. Who could defend that offense? Remember?

All Talk Millen - (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Who wasn’t excited about the “track team” we were putting together when Millen and the Lions drafted the speedy Boss Bailey in the 2nd round of that same draft? Speed kills had become the mantra in the D! Woo hooo!

Let’s not forget about Kalimba Edwards (known as Kalimbust Edwards in my circle of friends), Mike Williams, and 2nd round “steal” Teddy Lehman!

Most of us were sooooooo excited at these draft selections, Mel Kiper and the other talking heads patted their buddy Millen on the back until they left bruises on the guy, Millen was the draft day guru!

But then the players had to actually play. WHOMP WHOMP…. Continue reading “Matt Millen’s Draft Picks More Celebrated Than Martin Mayhew’s – Detroit Lions” »

Nobody is perfect. That should be understood by each and everyone of us who is currently breathing, but perfection is not needed in order to be exceptional. In professional sports, players, coaches, team executives and team owners are judged by wins vs losses and really nothing else.

Then there are extraordinary circumstances. When the team you take over has just endured the weapon of Mass Ineptitude named Matt Millen and just posted a historically horrible 0-16 record it’s pretty easy to assume that you have a bigger task at hand than most GMs on the first day of work. But fortunately for the bruised and mentally beaten Detroit Lions fan Martin Mayhew was and is up to the task in a major way.

Martin Mayhew was promoted to general manager December 29th, 2008 after the wildly celebrated firing of “All Talk” Matt Millen and reports directly to Mr. Ford on all football matters.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I’ve sifted through Martin Mayhew’s transactions since he took over the team and picked out some of the highlights. I’ve left out some of the more obvious moves like drafting stars Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh in the top of the first round, even though he clearly still deserves credit for not screwing up top draft picks.

If you think not, let me remind you of Joey Harrington, Charles “puff,puff,pass” Rogers and Roy “first doooooown by 30 points” Williams. Even selecting at the very top doesn’t guarantee a marquee player, you must choose wisely.

There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of moves and transactions that I sifted through, you may remember something that I missed but here are a few highlights that took us from league laughingstock to league upper echelon in 3 short years after a DECADE of sheer misery. Some moves have helped long-term and some were the best that could be done at the time and definitely helped.

Here are your Martin Mayhew moves of note:
Continue reading “The Brilliance Of Martin Mayhew: GM Moves That Made a Difference For The Detroit Lions” »

Some “Lions fans” really chap my butt! AARRRGH!!!

I started this Detroit Lions blog to be able to celebrate and talk about our favorite team together as fellow Detroit Lions fanatics and that’s exactly what we will continue doing.

With the team’s recent success though, an interesting thing is happening, as I involve myself in many of the different Detroit Lions fan communities(forums and websites) I run into some of the same disturbing sentiments and statements, it’s happening far too much to be an isolated incident. Let me give you a sampling of the tom-foolery….

“We should TRADE CALVIN JOHNSON for (whomever) and (however many draft picks!)”

“We could get a (whatever round draft pick) for Brandon Pettigrew”

“We should cut (insert productive player that contributed to this year’s success)”

Those statement are just a VERY small sampling the type asinine comments I read ever single day and I just have one major question to ask to you trade, slash and burn type fans.

Do you hate winning that much???

It’s like some Lions fans have Stockholm syndrome and have become so accustomed to the losing that they don’t know what to do with themselves without it, they want their beloved captor back. (Anyone got Matt Millen’s cell number?)

Now I understand, opinions are opinions and everyone has one just like everyone has…ummm… earholes?

But this idiocy has to stop! For ANY FAN that would trade a GENERATIONAL TALENT away like Calvin “Megatron” Johnson away for draft picks, I just don’t know what to say for you.

What exactly do you want to trade for? Trade away a once-in-a-generation type PHENOM for A POTENTIAL talent or talents? Yeah, that makes about as much sense as paying a hundred dollars for a lottery ticket that pays off $100 IF you win. Brilliant!

In case you haven’t noticed we are WINNING BECAUSE OF THE PLAYERS WE HAVE on this team right now! Yes we need to add pieces, yes trades will be made at some point as they have in the past. But talking about “robbing” other teams of players and draft picks for our ALL-PRO superstars is beyond ignorant.

Please stop it, you are embarrassing yourselves and showing that you can’t even see a winner when you have one right in front of your face. This Detroit Lions team is on the verge of being truly great and for a loooong time. We have some of the youngest stars in the league growing together as a team under a bright young coach. Do you mind letting them win or are you more comfortable in the dungeon?

Another thing this ticks me off is how people try to prove their point about a current player on the roster not being as good as they are perceived. You will see these arguments all over the place in Lions website and forums and it’s normal, but why, in trying to prove your point about a player not being as good as everybody thinks they are do you have to HATE the player on your own team? Just to prove your point? Your point is THAT important huh?

Fans start off with a simple statement “I think (whomever) sucks”, OK fine. Inevitably though, there will be someone that has an opposing view and the debate begins, next thing you know you’re degrading and downgrading any accomplishment the player has ever had and talking about how you saw the players wife at the mall and how she smells like onions, it’s ridiculous.

Even talking about an opposing teams players and family in such a way would be in bad taste and usually false or exaggerated, but these are your own teams players. Players on a GOOD TEAM and one headed towards being great. Stop having such a loser’s mentality, all those years of complaining about losing can be put away now, it’s a new day, a new era. We will have plenty to cheer and be excited about as long as none of you ever becomes the GM and trade it all away!

BUT, with all that being said, I know that nothing is going to change, I just needed to rant for a little bit. Smart fans will be smart and dumb fans will be dumb, so is life… GO LIONS!!!

As Detroit Lions fans, we have come to appreciate nearly everything Barry Sanders does and that’s not changing anytime soon. Many don’t know that there is a Barry Sanders Honda dealership in Oklahoma but there is one and they have a brand new commercial that made me chuckle a bit, I am pretty sure you’ll get a kick out of it too.

Barry Sanders has never been a laugh-a-minute kind of guy and even in this commercial he’s Barry-like demure but he manages to play his part as “Jerry Sanders” pretty well. Check it out!

Barry Sanders Funny Car Dealership Commercial

OK Lions fans, all together now chant with me…. “JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!”