Lions Notes: Alphonso Smith Practices; Update On Nick Fairley, Jason Fox

against Heath Evans on Total Access. Check it out when the video gets released…

64 percent!?!?! I see why they don’t need a fullback…

Can you please tell me WTF! is Maryland wearing?

Nike has gone too fucking far, I hope they don’t think they can pull this bull with Nfl jerseys next year.

Let me tell you why. First they have no clue how much money the Lions get for revenue sharing. If I understand the labor contract, the NFL puts all of the revenue outside of I think Ticket and concession sales into a pot. They then split that up by 32 teams. Right now each segment of that pot is split differently. The general number I hear is roughly 48% of the pot is given to the players. That puts about 120 million for player salaries which counters what he lists as only 100 million for players. Not sure where he got that number but its like saying our national budget is only 3 trillion when its 3.5 trillion. (BTW I pulled that number out of my behind.)

Next is what happens to the rest of the money, the 52 percent of revenue. That money is also split per team and that is operations money plus cost for stadiums and upgrades. That is over 150 million dollars per team for operations. So all told the lions are getting over 270 million from revenue sharing.

That 350 million mortgage/bond for Ford Field is nothing IMHO for the impact of the budget. At a bad rate of 7 percent and figure a 30 year bond or mortgage you are looking at roughly a 2.85 million dollar monthly payment. That ends up being a yearly cost of 34.2 million dollars. So I just do not see the Lions hurting at all.

I can deal with numbers a lot faster than most people but a writer of an article needs to do a bit of research before posting numbers that have no bearing in what the actual numbers are. BTW the numbers they posted about the average fan would allow the Lions to pay off the stadium with 20 million to spare for 8 games of sell outs. You should also note that they have 10 games so it really is closer to 62 million per year in revenue in just the games.

Frankly I think this guy is not a NFL fan as he has numbers that make no sense IMHO. I could go on but I think you get the general idea.

I’d hate for a missed hold to be the difference in a game or in the season for this team.

12/28/2010 – PLAYERS TO WATCH: Iowa’s Ryan Donahue is one of the nation’s top punters. He’s averaging 44.6 yards, with 21 punts placed inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1115765

Handled punting duties for all 51 games in his career . . . ranked third in the Big Ten and 15th in the nation with 44.6 average in 2010 . . . Iowa opponents averaged just 3.9 yards on 21 returns in 2010 . . . has five of longest 14 punts in school history, covering 82 (second), 76 (fifth), 73, twice (10th) and 71 (14th) yards.

http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/donahue_ryan00.html

"If you’re ranked in that top three, which I feel that I am, you have a pretty good shot of being drafted," Donahue said. "It’s obviously different with a special teamer. So you just kind of have to hope for the best."

"I think he’s the best (punter) in the country," Bunting said, explaining why. "A four-year starter, punting in the cold and nasty conditions up in the Big Ten, forty yards every year he averaged.

"I just like these consistent punters. He comes from almost a pro-style team. He’s just got a lot of things going for him. He’s a level-headed kid and consistent."

"You kind of have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst," Donahue said. "As a punter, you have to prepare for being a free agent."

http://hawkcentral.com/2011/04/26/punter-ryan-donahue-hopes-for-the-best-in-nfl-draft/

Think the falcons used to run out of the shotgun almost exclusively. Red gun was a variant of the run n shoot.