Notes
Friday Notes: Matt Millen Now Ruining Football for Lions Fans Three Days a Week
- The Lions' official site has a great write-up of what to expect from the team's new coaches this coming season. It's a very interesting read.
- On top of haunting Lions fans on Monday Night Countdown and NFL Network games, Matt Millen will also be ruining Saturday afternoon college football games on ABC.
- Georgia reported a secondary violation to the NCAA because Matthew Stafford received four free tickets from Jay Cutler to a Falcons-Broncos game last November. Secondary violations don't usually result in much trouble and normally aren't a big deal, and considering Stafford knew Cutler in high school, this really seems like a joke of a violation. Regardless, the four players that used the tickets had to donate the worth of the them to charity (only $40 each), which has apparently resolved the issue.
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Thursday Notes: Lions Release Alex Lewis
- The Lions released linebacker Alex Lewis today. Lewis was a fifth-round pick in 2004 and started in fours game last season. The trade that brought Julian Peterson to Detroit put Lewis' spot on the team in jeopardy, and now the Lions decided to simply let him go.
- The site Katomic Snitch has 20 screenshots of the Lions in Madden NFL 10. (HT: MLive Detroit)
- The NFL once again will not be able to suspend Pat and Kevin Williams until their case is final. This means that the Lions likely won't avoid the "Williams Wall" when the play they Vikings in Week 2 of the season.
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Wednesday Notes: Mariucci Recalls Memories of Sandoval
- Around 500 people attended Ricky Sandoval's funeral mass yesterday in Troy. Former Lions coach Steve Mariucci delivered the eulogy and shared a story about the last time he spoke to Sandoval.
Mariucci's voice wavered as he relayed his last conversation with Sandoval. It was on the phone, and Sandoval was in the hospital, near death.
Matt Millen couldn't make it to the funeral but attended a service on Monday night. He is actually the person responsible for bringing Sandoval to Detroit. In all seriousness, that was probably the best move he made in his entire tenure with the Lions.
When Mariucci asked how he was, Sandoval replied: "Coach, I'm doing great. How are you? How's your family?"
Mariucci said: "Here's a man on his death bed saying, 'I'm doing great.' That was Ricky, the eternal optimist, always looking on the bright side of things." - Cliff Avril said in his latest blog entry that his second training camp will be different in the sense that he has a general idea of what to expect.
- Can Brett Favre make it any more obvious that he will be a Viking sometime in the near future?
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Tuesday Notes: Lions Legend Lou Creekmur Passes Away
- Lions Hall of Famer Lou Creekmur passed away at the age of 82 on Sunday. Creekmur played left tackle for the Lions in the 50s and was a member of all three of the Lions' NFL championship teams in that decade. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996, honoring a remarkable career that included eight consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl and six appearances on the All-NFL team.
- Terry Foster interviewed Jim Schwartz recently and touched on many subjects. The most interesting topic of discussion by far was how Schwartz really gets the fans and how he wants to win for them. We all know how he has been to a Tigers game, a race at MIS, and two Red Wings playoff games, but I did not know about this until reading the interview:
I was watching Game 7 of the Red Wings playoff game against Anaheim in my hotel room. It was an exciting game so I said I don't need to be watching this in my hotel room. I snuck out or I thought I was sneaking out to a sports bar to watch it with fans. They figured out pretty quickly who I was and it was exciting to watch it with them. I think the Red Wings scored with like three minutes left and the place went absolutely nuts.
He is truly a man of the people.
One of the guys leaned over and said coach when the Lions win it; it's even going to be better. That's going to be hard to believe because of the excitement they generated when they won that series. It was impressive to watch. - The great SB Nation tech team has released its latest creation: mobile commenting. If you thought you were addicted to the site before, just imagine how it will be now that you can comment from your cell phone.
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Monday Notes: Lions Give Indoor Practice Field a New Name
- The Lions' indoor practice field has been named after Ricky Sandoval.
- Funeral arrangements for Sandoval can be found here.
- In an interview with FanHouse, Phillip Buchanon explained why he signed with the Lions.
- Eric Hicks' connections to his former Chiefs and current Lions coaches played a big role in him coming to Detroit.
- The Lions' offensive line is going to play a key part in getting things turned around for this team.
- Caleb Campbell's NFL career may be on hold, but he is now training with the United States bobsled team in hopes of making the 2010 Olympics. He had never been in a bobsled prior to the start of his training, so it would be pretty remarkable if he actually is able to make the Olympics.
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Thursday Notes: Ricky Sandoval Passes Away
- Lions director of security Ricky Sandoval passed away today at the age of 49 after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. My condolences go out to the Sandoval family.
- I chimed in with my thoughts on when Matthew Stafford should play on the Washington Post's website.
- Dennis Northcutt is "excited" about playing for Detroit, so much so that he is coming in with the attitude that the Lions won the Super Bowl last season.
- Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez have remained good friends and hung out quite a bit at the rookie symposium.
- In a ranking of franchises from the four major pro sports leagues, ESPN The Magazine had the Lions at No. 119 out of 122 teams. The Red Wings came in fourth behind the Los Angeles Angels, Carolina Hurricanes, and Pittsburgh Steelers. If the Wings had a new arena, they'd probably top the list.
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Wednesday Notes: Trade with Jaguars Finalized
- My prayers go out to Ricky Sandoval, the Lions director of security who just celebrated his 49th birthday yesterday. Unfortunately Ricky is in the hospital and is "beginning to slip away." He has battled with pancreatic cancer for the last three years.
- The Gerald Alexander-Dennis Northcutt trade was finalized on Tuesday. Alexander was surprised by the trade, as were most Lions fans. I'm really only surprised that the Lions dealt him for Northcutt, as him being moved isn't too shocking. As Tom Kowalski explains, the chances of Alexander making the roster weren't all that great, so the team obviously figured it would get something out of him rather than just cut him after training camp.
- Patrick Hayes of It's Just Sports recently spoke with Otis Wiley, getting an update on the former Spartan's status with the Lions.
Now, where are you at right now, you're with the Lions right?
Wiley would have been on the Lions after the draft if he hadn't failed his physical, so it sounds like he will get another shot at joining the team when training camp begins. Considering he hasn't been able to spend any time on the team so far, I would put his chances of making it past the first round of cuts fairly low. The safety position, as we learned from the above-mentioned trade, is pretty much set in stone barring an injury.
Yeah, with the Lions. In July I go back and tryout again and if I get on the roster, it'll be a nice little smooth sail after that. - The NFL Network caught up with Matthew Stafford and Brandon Pettigrew at the rookie symposium.
- Thousands of people, including Jared DeVries, attended the funeral of Iowa high school coach Ed Thomas.
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Monday Notes: Lions Play Host to Former Season-Ticket Holders
- Jon Jansen sounds like he is open to playing any position on the offensive line if it means he will get playing time. All backup offensive linemen need to be versatile, as that allows the Lions to keep fewer linemen on the team and active during games. Jansen is no exception, and although he will primarily be a right tackle (likely backing up Gosder Cherilus), he will probably get time at every other position on the O-line as well.
- Around 120 former season-ticket holders attended practice on Wednesday of last week. More than 6,000 were invited, and there were only 60 or so left by the time practice was over. The numbers may not seem all that impressive, but at the end of the day the Lions sold 30 season-ticket packages, meaning the event was a success in that sense. The invite was a way for the Lions to reach out to ex-ticket holders, hoping to get them back in the team's good graces. I doubt this will be the last effort to do that, as Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz seem committed to getting the team to be more open to the fans, especially the ones that dish out money for tickets or used to do that.
- Pontiac still hasn't sold the Silverdome, and unless some unforeseen sale is made, it looks like the former home of the Lions will be put up for auction sometime in the future.
- Former Lion Reggie Rogers was sentenced to two years in jail for two different DUI cases. Both of these came after he killed three teenagers in an accident where he ran a stop sign back in 1988. That accident led to the end of his career with the Lions, and the latest two incidents have led to an end of his freedom for a couple years.
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