Brandon Pettigrew Apologizes For Penalty Against Saints

by Sean Yuille on Dec 6, 2011 10:19 PM EST in Detroit Lions News

Detroit Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew released an apology today for the personal foul penalty he received in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints. Pettigrew was penalized for contacting an official who was trying to restrain him from getting into it with Saints safety Roman Harper. Pettigrew was flagged 15 yards for the penalty and added to Detroit's list of self-inflicted mistakes during the game.

Via the Lions, here is Pettigrew's apology:

"I want to sincerely apologize to my teammates, my coaches, the Lions organization, fans and the NFL for my actions during the game on Sunday," Pettigrew said Tuesday. "In the heat of competition, I allowed my emotions to get the best me. I know better and my unintentional mistake cost my team."

"I’ve never acted this way before and it won’t happen again," he said. "I am fully committed to helping the Detroit Lions win with class and in a manner that our fans will respect."

Pettigrew may not have learned from Ndamukong Suh's incident against the Packers in terms of avoiding costly penalties, but his apology certainly came off better than the one Suh issued. Then again, it doesn't change the fact that he did take an awful penalty, so I suppose it doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. The best way to truly apologize is to learn from the mistake and not let it happen again, and that goes for the entire team at this point.

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into the game

whether a fan watches the Lions game and posts here, MLive, or somewhere else … whether the fan is an all world fantasy league player or Madden elitist … one thing fans cannot experience is being in the “heat of battle” of a professional sport. Whether its hockey, football, baseball, soccer, whatever … we the fans cannot appreciate all the little nuances within the game at the professional level, that go into winning and losing.

The Lions have been down so long that they are sick and tired of being sick and tired of losing. There aren’t a whole lot of guys in the Lions lockerroom that have experience in a playoff race, especially guys that have that experience in a Lions uniform.

“Imported from Detroit,” implying “built tough” maybe was the mindset of the Lions since Suh did the Chrysler commercial earlier in the year. Maybe what we are seeing in the “built tough” attitude is a team that is not just going to roll over and stick a fork in it upon the coin toss? Is “immaturity” or “not playing smartly” or “letting emotion dictate game play” affecting the Lions right now? No doubt, they are, but this Lions team like many before hasn’t played a meaningful, playoff determining game for a while, so maybe the fans should cut the Lions some slack?

These 2011 Detroit Lions are learning today, what hopefully next year will be put to use in post season play. Learning that playing smartly when the other teams get all the little ticky-tacky calls and the Lions don’t get even the blatant penalties is the main objective of the fall/winter semester of the Lions 2011 season. Hopefully the Lions will put into use what they have learned this year, offense, defense, special teams, coaches, coordinators, interns, the GM … all in the organization.

It is almost irrelevant what happens from here on out this year, because next year and beyond is what the Lions are building for. Playing meaningful games the second week in December that have playoff implications … I’ve put this year into the Win column.

by 5Bakerstreet on Dec 7, 2011 12:21 AM EST reply actions 2 recs

Good post

Did you guys see the size of that chicken?

by studmo on Dec 7, 2011 9:41 AM EST up reply actions

Some good points here

I definitely agree that the Lions want to keep building and learn from their mistakes, and that it is a process. However, it’s hard to keep the pieces of a successful team together (next year is Megatron’s contract year, right?), so I wouldn’t be quite as satisfied with just playing meaningful games in December as an accomplishment. This should be a year where we make the playoffs and we’re in good position to do so. I don’t expect to be Superbowl champs, but playoff experience would be really helpful in making a run next year

I guess my main point is antics that we’ve seen the last two weeks shouldn’t be happening. Yeah, “Heat of Battle” and all that stuff, but silly fouls like these are probably the most controllable aspect of being an elite team. Certainly much easier than the lengthy process of acquiring talent. Maybe Schwartz needs to rethink his “chip on the shoulder” mentality that he essentially endorsed with this Harbaugh confrontation, because while you could argue that it’s helped us get to a pretty good record, it’s also been hurting us the last two weeks.

I still think we got a great shot at the postseason with just a little more composure and a “been there before” attitude.

by eyerunthis on Dec 7, 2011 10:55 AM EST up reply actions

the good

http://www.detroitlions.com/news/article-1/TE-Brandon-Pettigrew-takes-Boys-and-Girls-Club-kids-on-a-Christmas-shopping-spree/e32b377b-c7d0-475d-a8b9-6c8b351cbae0

by redwingxviii on Dec 7, 2011 10:35 AM EST reply actions

Notice how he didn't apologize to the referee,

who didn’t have the integrity to call the penalty on the saints player, which would have ultimately negated the penalty for the push that Pettigrew gave.

What would Earl Boykins do?

by FMFDOC8404 on Dec 7, 2011 10:44 AM EST reply actions

Thanks 'Grew

Pettigrew may not have learned from Ndamukong Suh’s incident against the Packers in terms of avoiding costly penalties, but his apology certainly came off better than the one Suh issued. Then again, it doesn’t change the fact that he did take an awful penalty, so I suppose it doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Means a bit to me, and other fans, I think. Especially since it didn’t read