Lions Notes: Talking Practice, Kid Rock, Big Hits And More

by Sean Yuille on Oct 21, 2010 3:16 PM EDT in Detroit Lions Notes

The 18 players that missed practice yesterday also missed practice today. Turk McBride was the 19th player out today, although he did get some work on the sidelines along with a few other players.
Julian Peterson was wired for sound against the Rams, but the best parts of the video don't even involve him. Before the game, Jim Schwartz was talking to the team in the locker room and called Stefan Logan's kick return, saying that they were going to break one that day. Then after the game, Kid Rock spoke to the team while wearing a Louis Delmas jersey and the team played sing-a-long to one of his songs.
Zack Follett said in an interview with The Detroit News that his injury is "definitely not just a stinger" and that he will be back in a couple of weeks. He went on to say that he has a history of neck problems, so he is planning on seeing a specialist today for further evaluation.
In case you missed it, the NFL announced earlier this week that they will now start suspending players for "devastating hits" and "head shots." The point of the rule is to prevent serious injuries, which is good, but I fear this will be another case of rules being interpreted differently and inconsistently from week to week.
Louis Delmas said that he isn't going to change the way he plays one bit, because it's impossible to go out there and think about potentially being suspended when you're in the middle of a game. Things happen, and Delmas said that he was simply taught to get a guy to the ground by hitting him hard. He can't change that. Ndamukong Suh echoed a similar sentiment, although the possibility of a suspension shouldn't affect a D-lineman very much.
Matthew Stafford said in an interview that he hopes the stricter enforcement of the rules "will clean up the game a little."

Guyism interviewed Stafford earlier this week. Perhaps the best response from Stafford was when he was asked a question about Randy Moss and Tom Brady supposedly getting into an argument over hair. Stafford said, "I must be doing something right with AXE, nobody has a problem with my hair."
Apparently the Cowboys wanted to trade Bobby Carpenter to Detroit in the Roy Williams deal a few years ago, but the Lions weren't interested.
Jeff Horton, the Minnesota Golden Gophers' interim coach and former Lions quarterbacks coach (from last year) threw Scott Linehan's name into the mix for the Minnesota job. Linehan declined to comment on it, and it's probably unlikely he will pursue a college head coaching job anyway.
The Lions reportedly worked out defensive back Cord Parks earlier in the week and defensive back Ralph Brown today.
Interesting stat from Tom Kowalski: Eight of the Lions' 11 penalties against New York were before the snap, after the whistle or away from the play. The Lions really need to be more disciplined going forward, because most of these penalties are just bonehead mistakes.
SI.com ranked Jim Schwartz's playing career as the 23rd-best of all NFL head coaches.
As if you needed more proof that the NFL is king in America, just look back at Monday's ratings. The crappy Monday Night Football game between the Titans and Jaguars actually did better in the ratings than game three of the ACLS between the Yankees and Rangers.