Lions Notes: Kevin Smith Named NFC Offensive Player Of The Week

By Sean Yuille Nov 23, 2011, 11:56pm EST

Thanks to his monster game against the Panthers, Kevin Smith has been named the Week 11 NFC Offensive Player of the Week. According to Tim Twentyman, Smith is the first Lions running back to win this award since Barry Sanders captured it in 1997.
The Lions' Play 60 commercial that will air on Thanksgiving can be seen here.
According to Dave Birkett, the Lions have signed linebacker Slade Norris to their practice squad. Linebacker Aaron Lavarias was released to make room for Norris.
The last time the Lions welcomed a 10-0 Packers team to Detroit on Thanksgiving was in 1962. Detroit racked up 11 sacks on Bart Starr and won the game by a score of 26-14.
Nate Burleson said earlier this week that Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback and the Packers are a good team. In fact, Burleson is so impressed that he might do the "discount double check" if he scores to give Rodgers a shout out.
When Rodgers was asked earlier this week about what the Lions did to limit him in last year's game at Ford Field, he jokingly said this: "Gave me a concussion."

After the Broncos released quarterback Kyle Orton on Tuesday, it looked as though the Bears suddenly had a chance to upgrade their situation at quarterback. They put in a waiver claim for him, but so did the Chiefs. Since Kansas City has a worse record and higher waiver priority, Orton is now a Chief.
After missing out on Orton, the Bears decided to sign Josh McCown, a Mike Martz favorite and former Lion.
Troy Aikman is a fan of Matthew Stafford's gloves. He talked about how the gloves in his time never worked well for him, but he said he would probably wear the ones Stafford is using if he was still playing.
Jon Gruden did a mock "NBA-to-NFL player draft" during Monday Night Football this week. In it, he had LeBron James playing wide receiver for the Lions. That would certainly be interesting.
Barry Sanders was recently honored as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's "Hometown Hall of Famer" series.
Acme Packing Company took a look back at the Lions-Packers rivalry by doing a post about games in Detroit and games on Thanksgiving.
How ridiculous is the NFL sometimes? The league fined Panthers cornerback Captain Munnerlyn $5,000 because the shoes he wore against the Lions had "too much blue."
Both the Packers and 49ers could clinch a playoff spot this week.

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