Saturday Notes: Smith Denied Number Change Request

Sean Yuille — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:20:41 -0000

And now for your daily Tatum Bell "bag-gate" update... Bell went on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday to defend himself and really didn't come out looking any less guilty. His story seems like it could be true at some points, but as Patrick said, there are too many loose ends. Bell easily could have grabbed Rudi Johnson's bags thinking they were Victor DeGrate's, but that doesn't explain what happened to everything in the bags. If Johnson's stuff turned up then this story could be put to rest, but that doesn't exactly seem like it's going to happen anytime soon.
One other note from the Tatum Bell interview is that The DP Show tried to get Rudi Johnson to come on, but he wasn't available according to the Lions. I don't doubt that the Lions likely want Johnson to keep quiet regarding this entire situation so it doesn't become a bigger distraction than it already is, but even if they don't care Johnson is probably spending his free time studying the playbook anyways.
Kevin Smith wasn't allowed to change his number to 24 after the league denied his request. Smith is #34 right now and asked safety Dwight Smith if he could take over the #24 jersey, but the NFL wouldn't let him as Smith's rookie cards and jersey sold to the public read #34.

After Greg Blue, who was #24, was cut a week ago, there have been a few number changes. Dwight Smith apparently took Blue's old number before switching back to #26, and Kalvin Pearson then took #24 over to leave #32 open for Rudi Johnson.
Drew Stanton's cast was "reconfigured" to allow him to at least hand the ball off should he absolutely have to come into a game. That would mean that both Jon Kitna and Dan Orlovsky went down with injuries, so let's hope Stanton doesn't have to play in a situation like that.
Barry Sanders is still getting asked questions about why he retired when he did.

Lions Release 20, Place 2 on IR to Trim Roster to 53 Players

Sean Yuille — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:39:01 -0000

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.

SB Nation - Greg Blue

Saturday Notes: Smith Denied Number Change Request

Lions Release 20, Place 2 on IR to Trim Roster to 53 Players