My memory maybe fuzzy on this, but I remember a few years back that either Jon or Graham or both went on a vacation to the south. On The Rivalry, Esq., they did a write up of the different places they visited and I could swear they included a picture of General Sherman in a southern town with a plaque admonishing him for the atrocities he enacted upon the south. So I am wondering if anybody else remembers this, and if I am remembering the Sherman statue correctly, and if so, where is this statue located?

So a friend made this statement earlier and it's an argument I've made a couple of times with friends that are MSU supporters and/or alumni.

Why is it that people want to question Rich Rod's ethics and character, yet commend Dantonio on his. Your players actions are a reflection of the program you are building. How many guys have been arrested on MSU football"s team the last 2 years. He'll probably allow these ass jockeys back on the team too.

I was just curious why you think that Dantonio seems to get a pass for all shenanigans that go on in East Lansing but Rich Rodriguez gets dinged for everything that happens in Ann Arbor, no matter how small. 

Today is 146th anniversary of our favorite Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's occupation of Atlanta. Felt it fitting to mention since College football started today, and Ohio State is destroying a kind of southern school in Marshal ( I know West Virginia broke away from Virginia and sided with the Union during the Civil War). Oh yeah, Sherman was from Ohio too. Just though it might be worth sharing with a bunch of fellow midwesterners/northerners. 

Has anybody else heard about this? I figured this would be one of the better spots to come and find out any extra information. A friend showed me this link a little while ago, does anybody know if its accurate? I can't find info anywhere else right now? I tired all the big sites like SI and ESPN but they didnt have anything. Any  additional information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

 

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2010/07/cklw_reports_that_former_red_w.html

Has anybody ever attended the draft? It's in LA this year, where I live, and tickets(some at least) are free. I was hoping to go, but I didn't know if its worth it or not. I'm interested in the draft itself, but are there other things to do? Is there a good possibility of running into any players? I'm just curious if there are any extra benefits to attending. Thanks

I've been following you guys along with WIngingitinmotown throughout the series.  I just wanted to say congratulations on the season, and I'm sorry you guys couldn't make a better run in the playoffs (but not too sorry). Watching the game on TV your fans at the arena looked great and I like the way you guys kept cheering the Coyotes after the game was over. Good luck with next season and hopefully this was just the beginning of some great things for your team. 

Just this was interesting. I was messing around with Google Maps today and found out the street view for State College lets you "walk down" the tunnel on to the field at Beaver Stadium. I decided to check the other Big Ten stadiums and this seems to be the only one it allows you do this with. I haven't checked any other conferences' stadiums.

Does anybody know if Google is connected to Penn State somehow?

Hello all, I don't post on here very often, but I read it just about everyday and some recent comments made me a little curious. I know that there a couple of members down in Georgia (as mentioned in the If Stafford Fails post, but I was wondering how many others live outside the Detroit/Michigan area. My reason for the question is because I myself live in Los Angeles and people out here know within 10 seconds of meeting me I am from Detroit and support all things Detroit/Michigan.. typically I get made fun of (mostly good natured) and especially for rooting for the Lions. 

So I guess I have two questions. 1. Are there a lot of other readers from outside Detroit/Michigan &  2. If so how do locals react to your support of the Lions. 

Anyway, sorry for this not being team or draft related but thanks for humoring me. 

Peter King put out an article today over at SI.com that goes through teams, players, coaches and others in the NFL over the last decade. Rightfully so he names the Lions the worst team of the decade and this is what he had to say about them:

WORST FRANCHISE: Detroit Lions
They had one winning season -- 9-7, in 2000. Since then, in nine seasons, the Lions have won 33 games and ruined the reputations of four football men (Matt Millen, Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci and Rod Marinelli), one piano-playing quarterback (Joey Harrington) and three receivers (Charles Rogers, Roy Williams and Mike Williams).

I don't disagree with calling my beloved Lions the worst team, they are what they are and I love them still. But to say the Lions ruined the reputations of those people mentioned in his article does irk me a little. Before Millen the Lions were OK, not great but not the dregs of the league either. They were consistently in the playoffs and only missed them by a field goal the year before he got there. Maybe Mornhinweg and Mariucci weren't given the fairest of chances but I also think most of their failure falls on them. Marinelli, as much as I liked him, brought in a bunch of his guys and seemed to regress as his tenure advanced.  Out of the players listed, Harrington is the only one who didn't give up or screw up where the blame doesn't fall squarely on his shoulders. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like all of those listed helped to ruin the Lions more than the other way around. You cna read the whole article at the link below.

Peter King's Best and Worst of the 2000s

I was hoping for a blowout but I'll settle for the nail-biter. Congrats to all of you Longhorn fans, I'm hoping you guys play a lot better against Alabama and go 3 for 3 in Pasadena in January. I've said it before, but outside of Michigan and few others, there isn't a team I'd root for if they're playing Texas (you guys [as in the fans] earned a lot of respect from me at the Rose Bowl in 2005), so I'm hoping you guys get to celebrate bringing home that crystal football for the second time in 5 years. 

http://affiliate.kickapps.com/_Irish-player-punched/video/784982/48860.html


I read about Weiss complaining about this the other day, and that he had video he was sending to the Big Ten to review, but I think that if this is what they are reviewing, it's pretty weak. There was a link to this on the Detroit News this morning and the "punch" may have been deliberate, but it does not seem like much anything to me when I watched it. I just thought I would share it with everybody else though and see what you thought.

I like a lot of the optimism I've been reading in some of the recent posts. I know we have all been fooled before, especially over the last 9 years. This year however, does genuinely feel different. I am hopeful for the possibility of more wins than loses in our future, even if they come slowly. 

With that being said, i live in California, and rarely, if ever, make it home to Detroit during football season, but I've made sure its okay with the wife if the unthinkable happened and the Lions made the Superbowl, that I could pay just about whatever for a ticket home to Motown to watch with friends in family .

Now my question to everybody on here is this, if the Lions somehow make it there( obviously not this season, and probably not next) would you rather be at the game, enjoying it in person, or would you rather be home (or if its not your home, Detroit) to be part of the party that would take place if they actually won the Lombardi trophy? 

I feel like Detroit would be crazier than I could ever remember it being after the championships I have been there for. What are your thoughts? 

 

 

Looks like you guys have got a lot done in a short time here. Keep it up, it looks great. 

I look forward to visiting here alot to keep up on all things Spartan related. I know the profile says Michigan Wolverines, but I still root for you guys when you're playing any other team (except for the WMU Broncos, which doesn't happen to often.)

So good luck in whatever season it is, I look forward to some civil conversations in the future.

I don't know if I missed this at some point, but how is it that Sherman came to be the secondary logo or guardian  to this page. Is it a jab at the SEC and and how he tore up the South, the fact that he was Ohio born, is it both? Just curious. He is one of my favorite figures from the Civil War and I love that he is prominantly figured on the  site, but I never quite understood why?

Anyways, keep up the good work on the page.

The Detroit News is reporting the Clemons is transferring out from U of M.  Apparently he is unhappy about playing in the spread offense that Rodriguez uses and would like to better utilize his talents somewhere else. The good thing is that he wants to play outside of the Big Ten, which may be out of respect for Michigan as he said that his first love is still U of M.

Clemons Transferring from Michigan

I remember a little while back a bunch of you posted your own take on what the new Lions logo should  or would look like if you had the opportunity to design it yourself. I don't know if anybody saw that the Detroit News ran a contest to design one(maybe that is where the original post here came from?) but they posted the winner on their website along with a gallery of other entries. Some of them are pretty cool, some not so much. The winning design is actually really nice except for the shade of blue it uses. Anyway I'm posting a link to the contest winner and there is a link on that page to look through the gallery of the other entries. Enjoy!

 

Detroit Lions Logo

I knew it would happen today. i knew that Detroit would not get their only win of the season in Green Bay, there was noway two streaks could end today. I have even been contemplating whether or not this would be a good thing because it might actually lead to real change for a team I have grown up loving. 

Yet, here I am hours after 0 - 16 has become a reality,  and it still feels like somebody sucker punched me in the gut. Somewhere deep down inside my stomach and in the parts of my brain that (evidently) don't work so well, I think I still felt that they might pull it out. Thats the only way I can explain this shocked(although I don't think that is the proper word) feeling. 

As much as I want to say I have had enough, I will be back next. I will watch Ford make another bad decision. I'll allow myself to get duped by some seemingly hope filled instant in which the Lions will look like a real NFL team. and come next December I suspect I will once again have a feeling very similar to the one I have at this moment. I think my only solace is knowing that I do not suffer alone. 

So to the other faithful on here, enjoy the off season and lets hope for a better Lions team next year. 

I am honestly not as up to date on the Lions as most who post here are, I get only what is published nationally or in the News and Free Press online additions because I live out of state. But I have been hearing alot of things from people about how Marinelli is a good guy and a good coach and he was dealt a bad hand in Detroit and will do better elsewhere.

I don't buy it.

1. He knew what he was getting into when he took the Detroit job, if he didn't, then he is not as smart as people give him credit for. People in Detroit had been calling for Millen's ouster almost since he took over, and the press had repeatedly written about how bad of a GM Millen was, so Marinelli knew what the front office was like, stop using that as an excuse for him.

2.  Injuries...I'd buy it if other teams with key injuries weren't continuing to stay in the playoff picture.

3. Nepotism, there should not be any room for it on the staff of a multi-million (billion) dollar business. Especially when Joe Barry sucks at his job.Not that I think Coletto is any better.

4. Stanton...why would he ever want to play for Marinelli...I get that he is probably not the future of this team (Iwould bank on that), but to give a guy who has the playbook for like 2 days the nod ahead of him just seems counter productive, but I could be wrong.

 

Anyways, I jsut had ot throw that out there, for what is worth.. which is probably not much. I just getting annoyed with all of these people from outside of Detroit say how good Marinelli really is.

Ok so I am a Wolverine fan, but I have a ton of respect for your program (which I have said numerous times on here). So please, please , please follow whatever superstitions you have and keep your Penn State Gods happy and beat the Trojans. If there is one game I want the Big Ten to win it is the Rose Bowl, and if there is a team I desperately want to see lose it is the Trojans ( conversely I want really want to see you guys win). 

I'm getting sick of everybody (I live in LA) talking about how USC is going to win this game by 3 scores and that Penn State doesn't have a chance. If I recall, you guys had a pretty good defense this year (maybe not as good as USC's) and a hell of a better offense (they were held to 28 points by UCLA). and the two like opponents you both had, you guys beat while they lost to one. 

 

I don't know what my point is, but just beat USC!!!!

So does anybody else find it interesting that  Mark Dantonio is more concerned about getting invited back into the homes of Buckeyes than he was for the possibility of his team possibly making their first Rose Bowl appearance in 20 years. Sure Michigan State was a long shot to beat Penn State and Michigan was a longer shot to beat the Buckeyes, but if I'm a MSU fan I'm wondering if Dantonio is just waiting for the chance to jump ship and replace Tressel should the Vest ever leave tOSU. 

Maybe I am way off base here, but I know if I were a coach I would be rooting for a rival to win if it meant I would get my conference championship and a chance to go to Pasadena.

I am not a Georgia fan (not a hater, just not a fan) but I found this great little tidbit of information on ESPN about the game with Florida. Apparently so many teachers from a particular district in Georgia skip school for this game the district has decided to cancel school on the Friday beforehand.

The actual article can be read at the site below.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3674820

 

I just have to tip my hat to that kind of fan dedication. One of the things I really do love and respect about you SEC folk, is your loyalty and dedication to your teams.

I was excited for a little while Saturday then you guys had to go do what everybody was expecting and whooop us bad. I hope you guys can pull out the W in Columbus and that Alabama falls sometime between now and December. I would llike to see you guys playing Texas in January and then lifting the crystal football high above your heads. I think Joe Pa deserves it, and I think the Big Ten does too.

Good luck with the rest of season!

 

A humbled Wolverine fan

One of my favorite traditions under Bo and Lloyd was that they had the team learn the words to and how to sing The Victors. I would hate to learn that this tradition has passed, so does anybody know if Rodriguez has continued with this or not? I know he had some mix ups with the number 1 jersey and and that Braylon Edwards made sure he was corrected in his mistake with the jersey, but I've never heard anything on this one.

Clearly Millen is right, never mind that for the 3rd straight game we have already lost the contest before half time. We managed to slow an offense down enough so that it took long than 15 minutes to score 21 points, that is definitely a foundation for something great. 

I never thought I would look back on the Wayne Fontes era as great period in Detroit Football. It's a sad time to be a Lion's fan.