- 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."
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.
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.
- 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.
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Wednesday Notes: Steve Mariucci Speaks on Disagreements With Front Office
By
Sean Yuille