• The mysterious woman that ended up with Rudi Johnson's bags has finally broken her silence on the situation, and her story really contradicts what both Victor DeGrate and Tatum Bell said about what happened.
  

  "Somebody's not telling the whole story," said the woman, who spoke to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity because she did not want to be harassed. "It all lies with Mr. Bell. He's the only one who knows what really happened."
  

  She [the woman] was an acquaintance of DeGrate's and knew Bell through him. The night of Sept. 1, Bell called her and said he had a bag that he had thought belonged to DeGrate but really belonged to Johnson.

  Bell asked her if she could return it to Lions headquarters in Allen Park and gave her the phone number of Cedric Saunders, the director of football operations.

  She asked him why he couldn't return it himself. He said he had to go to Houston to work out for the Texans and didn't have time. (He never worked out for them.) She said OK, and he came over to her house and put the bag in her car.

  The woman denied stealing Johnson's belongings from the bags, but I don't really buy it.  If she knows what happened to the stuff then she needs to say so as this won't go away until Johnson's stuff is returned or at least located.  The fact that her story differs from both DeGrate's and Bell's makes me realize that everyone is trying to clear their own name and that there is nothing but lies being told.  Sure, a few parts of each story may reveal the truth, but considering three people have three different stories, that truth is buried right now.
  
• Lions coaches and the front office reportedly don't agree on how much playing time some of the rookies should get.  I imagine the disagreement is over Gosder Cherilus and Jordon Dizon, the Lions' first two draft picks, as neither is starting.  I hate to break it to the front office, but there's a reason for that: they're not ready.  Throwing them in to start before they're ready is just dumb, and the coaches obviously realize that.
• Steve Mariucci went on The Huge Show yesterday and discussed disagreements he had with the front office when he was the Lions' head coach.  Unsurprisingly, the front office wanted Joey Harrington to play.  Mariucci, on the other hand, wanted to bring someone else in, such as Jon Kitna or, get this, Drew Brees.
• A coverage map for Sunday's game can be found here.  The map for the 1 p.m. FOX games won't be accurate for the local Detroit area if the game gets blacked out as people in and around Detroit won't get to watch the game.
• Matt Vasgersian and J.C. Pearson are the announcers for Sunday's game.  I feel sorry for them as they also had to announce the Lions-Falcons game.  Two Lions games in a row can't be much fun.
• The Lions dropped to 30th in FOX Sports' power rankings.
  
• We all know that Tom Brady's injury has screwed a lot of fantasy football owners over, but in terms of money it is a $150 million shift in prizes.  It is just unbelievable how one play can affect so many different things.
• Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman is out for the season as he has to have knee surgery.
  

Victor DeGrate's mother spoke to the Detroit News on Monday and said her son had no involvement in Tatum Bell's taking of Rudi Johnson's bags.  Today, Victor DeGrate himself spoke on the matter and reiterated that he had nothing to do with the situation and indirectly said that Bell is basically full of it.

“I just know I had nothing to do with it,” DeGrate said today in a phone interview.

“What he did is his business. Why he said what he said, I don’t know. I can’t do nothing for you or for him as far as that goes.”

“The way I just figure, he got caught up in a jam and that was the best thing going at the time, was to say what he said,” DeGrate said.

“When I left there, I left,” DeGrate said. “I had nothing to do with none of it.”
DeGrate did not leave a backpack behind?

“I had nothing to do with none of it,” DeGrate said.

DeGrate went on to say that he doesn't know who the woman that ended up with the bags is despite Bell saying she is a friend of DeGrate's.  Also, DeGrate said he "ain't holding no grudges" against Bell despite being brought into a situation that he allegedly had nothing to do with.

I imagine DeGrate realized that it's time to deny Bell's claims as he has a reputation to protect as well.  Bell is already screwed and likely will have a tough time finding a job in the NFL again, but DeGrate did the smart thing of clearing his own name as there's no doubt NFL teams would take note of him being mentioned in this situation.

• The latest on "bag-gate" pretty much has sealed Tatum Bell's fate.  Victor DeGrate's mother said that her son had nothing to do with the incident and had his backpack with him at home in Texas when Rudi Johnson's bags were stolen.  It appears that Bell's story was 100% B.S., meaning he will be lucky to ever get signed by an NFL team again.
  
• Jon Kitna apologized to the coaches he got in the face of during the first half of Sunday's game against the Falcons.  Kitna called a timeout twice and proceeded to start yelling at a few coaches.  It really looked like he was out of line, so it's good that he smoothed things over with those he yelled at.
• According to Rod Marinelli, Paris Lenon should be okay and probably will practice on Wednesday.  Dan Campbell is apparently getting more tests.  His hamstring injury hasn't gone away and it doesn't seem like it's going to anytime soon.  As far as I can tell, there has been no word on the status of Ernie Sims, who was carted off the field at halftime with an ankle injury.
  
• Dominic Raiola thinks the Lions may have been overconfident heading into the Falcons game.  That's hard to believe considering it is the Lions, but they were coming off of a 4-0 preseason and were expected to beat Atlanta.  If this does humble the locker room as Raiola hopes, then hopefully this team will wake up and realize that they actually have to play some good football to win games.
• Herman Moore is going to be the honorary captain for Sunday's game against Green Bay.
• Prior to the game on Sunday the Lions will be hosting a pre-game tailgate from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  The tailgate will be held on Brush Street and will include the following things: a live broadcast from 97.1 FM The Ticket, the Lions' mascot (Roary), a D.J., an autograph signing with Greg Landry from 11 a.m. to noon, and other things to keep people entertained.  Food will be available as well, but you have to buy it.
• The Lions spent yesterday reviewing film from the Atlanta game and will return to the practice field tomorrow.  I bet that was a fun film session.
• Guard Matt Butler was released from the practice squad by the Lions.  To fill the void created, center Ben Claxton was signed to the practice squad.
• A reporter was trying to get Rod Marinelli to answer a question about if he would publicly blame players for the loss to the Falcons during yesterday's weekly press conference, and Marinelli was having none of that. 
  
  There was a brief exchange where the reporter and Marinelli went back and forth, and from reading the transcript the questions sounded pretty stupid.  Marinelli was asked who he would blame for the loss and answered back with a remark about whether he was talking to the team or the media.  The reporter then tried to get Marinelli to relay what he told the team, and you can guess what Marinelli's reaction was.
• On ESPN there is a page of coach approval ratings, and unsurprisingly Rod Marinelli came in third to last with a dismal 16%.  Imagine how lopsided the poll would be if there was a page for owner or GM approval ratings.
• Following up on yesterday's story about Tom Brady, he is going to have season-ending surgery to fix a torn ACL and has been placed on the injured reserve.
• I've decided to scrap the idea of doing a weekly recap of all the NFL action.  I realized that it would take too much time, especially since I'm also recapping Pride of Detroit's fantasy football league each week.  I will do a weekly recap of how teams in the NFC North did, so expect that to be posted later today.

The Lions announced their 53-man roster today after releasing 20 players and placing 2 on the injured reserve.  The two players placed on the IR were running backs Brian Calhoun and Aveion Cason.  With both Calhoun and Cason done for the year, you would have thought that Artose Pinner would make the team, but he didn't.  That means the Lions will carry only two running backs going into the regular season.

Here is the full list of the players released today by Detroit:

QB Drew Henson
RB Artose Pinner
WR Ron Bellamy
WR Devale Ellis
WR Brandon Middleton
WR Kenneth Moore
WR John Standeford
TE Clark Harris
OT Jonathan Scott
OG Frank Davis
OG Corey Hulsey
DE Victor DeGrate
DE Rudolph Hardie
LB Darnell Bing
LB Buster Davis
LB Leon Joe
CB Dovonte Edwards
CB Kiwaukee Thomas
S Greg Blue
S LaMarcus Hicks

I'll post a full analysis of what all of this means tomorrow.