Lions are teh Funny!

Ahhh, the Detroit Lions. If you haven't heard, yes, they are still an NFL team. Sure doesn't seem like it if you look at the last 15 years but they still are a pro team. So much has happened this year. New coach, new QB's, new attitude, new team. But after watching the preseason and the first 2 games of the year I have to admit, I see no difference. As my wife said, they might even be worse than last year.

We got a new coach who preaches discipline, focus, professionalism, respect, and hard work. Okay. So why are we committing 14 penalties in 22 minutes in the last game vs. the Bears? Why is your Defensive Line coach getting caught at a Wendy's Drive Thru in Dearborn, MI drunk and naked? We'll address that in more detail later.

We have selected 3 WR's in the 3 of the last 4 years 1st round of the draft. Charles Rogers, Roy Williams, and Mike Williams. They cut Charles this year. They kept Mike though he hasn't played a down yet, and Roy is the main focus of the recent controversy in D-Town.

Let's look at Charles first. Chuck was a great player at MSU. He sadly broke his collar bone early in his rookie season. Then he broke it again the next year early. Last year he got suspended 4 games for toking up which he was in trouble before in the past. Then they stopped playing him and took him to court to get the signing bonus back. Then we get new coaches all around and early on they said he was looking great in practice. But then he never played much in the pre-season and was cut the week before the season started. No real reasons, just didn't think he was good for the team.

Roy Williams is probably the best receiver on the team, though that is not saying much when your second WR is some dude from the Arena Football League and the horrid XFL. Roy has a professionalism problem for sure. He means well but it all comes off wrong. He said last week that the Lions would win against Detroit if they played well. Well duh, Roy. That's how it should work. But the national media took it and cut off the last part and made it sound like he just said, "I guarantee the Lions will win next week..." Ahh, big difference without the "if we play well" part huh? Oh well, nothing new there, gotta make a story out of something. Of course the Lions played one of their worst games in recent history and fell to the Bears 34-7. Trouble is even with the score 24-0 whenever Roy caught a pass for a 1st down he would showboat a little. Now everyone is on him for that. I agree it is the wrong time to do that but I also think that he is one if not the only player on the team with any drive to do well. People are coming down on him hard and I think it might be unfair. As one guy said on the radio this morning, the NFL wants to turn these guys into robots who might break a 89 yrd TD run and afterwards just hand the ball to the ref and quietly go to the sideline. That is not a good thing for the game. Part of the fun of the game is the celebrations and the emotions. Now, being down 24-0 is not a good time to act cocky, but I don't think he was doing it for bad reasons, he just cares and is an excitable kid.

Mike Williams. Now there is a story and one that will grow as each day or week passes. His fellow teammates have stated to the media that they think he is doing well in practice. A lot of them expected him to play on Sunday vs. the Bears. Nope. No go on that. When asked in the presser on Monday you could tell there was some tension regarding Mike. Mike has stated he has no idea what he has done or what he is doing wrong in practice to not get the chance to play. Maranelli claims he has told him and he doesn't really care what the opinions are of the team on whether Mike can or should play. We did just sign Az Hakim last week which tells me that they made the decision to bag Mike but as this organization has shown in recent years, too scared to tell people what is going on without making it some elaborate production that only makes them look like a poorly run organization. If the Lions lose against the Pack this coming Sunday and Mike isn't playing, this issue will get heated really quick. So stay tuned next week to see what happens if you are interested.

Last but definitely not least, Joe Cullen, our wonderful D-Line coach. Mr. Cullen is quite the story around here. Everyday I hear something new about this guy. He was fired from Mississippi in 05 fro public intoxication. He allegedly used to throw up in front of his players to get them pumped up before games. On August 24th he was pulled over for drunk driving and being totally nude. On Sept 1st he was pulled over again when he blew a .12 (.08 is the MI legal limit).

Now, this is a coach. You are trying to get this team of lazy misfits to be more professional, disciplined, and respectful yet this is one of your coaches. Interesting thing is that the media didn't catch wind of this story until a week after his 2nd arrest. His punishment? 1 game suspension. Yup. That was it. Personally I would send him away for help and give him a clothes stipend and thank him for his work till that point. If the media hadn't picked up on this story I don't think the Lions would have done one thing. By the time the Lions reacted it was over a week after it happened and then they laid out the horrible punishment. If you look at what this guy has done and what Mike Williams is going through...how can you take this organization seriously? I don't know. But I am sure I can post more fun blogs about them as the season wears on.

My prediction: 3-13