From inside the Lions den: A conversation with former member of the Detroit Lions

From inside the Lions den: A conversation with former member of the Detroit Lions

I have been a passionate Detroit Lions fan for almost 12 years and I have always wondered why Detroit has always struggled to be successful. Recently I had the pleasure of talking to former Detroit Lions Kick/punt returner and wide receiver Stefan Logan, Stefan and talked about what it was like playing in Detroit and what the possibilities could be for the team now. Stefan played three years in Detroit, 2010, 2011, and 2012 all three years under Head coach Jim Schwartz and General Manager Martin Mayhew. I asked Stefan what the atmosphere was like in the facility through out the course of the season. He described to me a happy group of friends in the locker room. He said that all the players got along and became friends, but not all things were great between the players and the coaches. There was no great riff between players and coaches, but a great number these players don’t like these coaches and those coaches don’t like these players. Coming off of that I asked Stefan what it was like to play under Head Coach Jim Schwartz. As a fan I always saw Schwartz as a hardnosed, very stern, kind of mean coach, but Stefan described him to me as not always the best guy, but a nice guy and a hard-working coach that wanted the team to do good. Stefan brought up a very interesting point that I have never considered before, when Stefan played for Schwartz, he was new at being a Head Coach. Jim Schwartz was getting his feet wet trying to figure out how to be a successful head coach. Logan added that if Schwartz is hired to be a HC again, Schwartz would be a much better coach then he was in Detroit.

In the three seasons that Logan Played in Detroit, they Lions were 6-10 in 2010, 10-6 in 2011 with a wild card appearance and 4-12 in 2012. Those were three of Jim Schwartz’s five season as head coach the other two, 2009 and 2013 which were also losing seasons. When the lions made the playoffs in Schwartz’s third season, it was the first time the Lions saw the playoffs since 1999. I asked Stefan if making the playoffs in 2011 saved Jim Schwartz’s job as the head coach. Much to my surprise Stefan told me that if the team did not make the playoffs that year Jim Schwartz would have surely been fired after the season. With him saying that moved to talking about the team after he had left, I asked Stefan what he thought of Jim Caldwell and if he thought Caldwell was pushed out of Detroit too soon. Jim Caldwell was brought in 2014 and was let go from the team after the 2017 season. In Caldwell’s first season as head coach the Lions went 11-5, making the playoffs, but losing in the wildcard round to Dallas due to a very controversial pass interference no call. The went 7-9 in 2015, then in 2016 went 9-7, making the playoffs for the second time under Caldwell. The Lions lost in the playoffs to Seattle in 2016 26-6 and with a 9-7 finish and failing to make the playoffs in 2017 Caldwell was fired by the Lions. Jim Caldwell’s overall record with Detroit was 36-28(.536). He was the first coach that coached more than one season in Detroit to have a winning record since Joe Schmidt (’67-’72). Caldwell also had the best record for Lions head coach since Buddy Parker in the 1950’s.

In 2017 when the Lions fired Jim Caldwell, I personal thought that the team was making a mistake and that the progress that Caldwell was making with the team did not warrant getting fired. When I asked Stefan about this, he also felt that Detroit pushed Caldwell out to soon. Stefan made an interesting comparison to me, he compared the results of Caldwell seasons to Marvin Lewis, former head coach of the Cincinnati Bangles. Marvin Lewis coached the Bangles for 15 years, making the playoffs 7 times and all 7 of those times the Bangles lost in the wild card round. So, Stefan brought who could a mediocre coach like Marvin Lewis get 15 years at the helm of the Bangles but yet Caldwell who was Detroit most successful coach in 60 years only got 4 seasons. Stefan also added that Caldwell’s Lions had the success that they did with their only reliable form of offense being their WR group and he thinks that if Caldwell was still the Lions head coach with the current group of players the team would be doing much better than they did from 2014-2017. Looking at the past three Detroit head coaches, Jim Schwartz, Jim Caldwell and the current coach Matt Patricia. Schwartz and Patricia are defensive minded coaches were Caldwell is an offensive minded coach and out of the three, Caldwell being the offensive minded coach had better success than Schwartz and Patricia. So, I asked Stefan if he thought which type of coach Detroit would be better off with and he said that it doesn’t really matter weather they are defensive or offensive minded, what matters the coach’s style or system is. Jim Caldwell coached for awhile before Detroit, he had a coaching style and system that worked, just not the proper personal. Matt Patricia on the other hand has the personal but not his own style or system. Matt Patricia was the defensive coordinator for New England for so long and Stefan pointed out the because of that Patricia is trying coach using the Bellichck system, but that’s not going to work. For Matt Patricia to be a good coach in Detroit he needs to find his own style of coaching.

After talking about the coaching, I want to talk about the players and we started with Matthew Stafford. Stafford was drafted in 2009 to be the face of the franchise and Stefan got to play with Stafford early in his career. Now 11 years in to his career Mathew Stafford is the face and leader of the Lions. I wanted to know if Stafford jumped right into to the leadership role or if he grew into the leadership role. Interestingly Stefan believes that it is time for both Stafford and the Lions to move on from each other. Stefan told me that Stafford wanted to learn and grow into be the starting QB and the leader of the team, but Stafford did not have the luxury to do so. Stefan said that Matthew was pressured into that role by management and the coach. Stefan told me there was situations and play calls in both games and practice that Stafford did not feel ready to undertake being young players that the coaches forced him into. Stefan described it as Stafford wasn’t ready and the coaches knew he wasn’t ready, but wanted to push him anyway. With that Stefan went on to talk about how the coaches push a lot of the players into positions they did not want to be. Stefan specifically talked about Jahvid Best, Best played for Detroit the same three years that Stefan did. Jahvid was brought in by Detroit to kick start their run game that struggled for years. Coming to the Lions Jahvid was a scat running back, quick, fast for long runs, not made break through groups of people to pick first downs from a few yards out. The lions wanted Best to be a three-down, the team tried to make Jahvid a bruiser back to smash through defenders to pick two, three yards at a time. With the Lions not utilizing Best as the type of running back that he was, Best got hurt a lot and led to a short stay in Detroit.

Stefan went on to talk about how the Lions either under utilizing or over utilizing players were an issue that plagued the team. Stefan talked about his personal experience of how he was not use properly in the offense. Stefan was a running back in college and after proving his wroth on special teams, he was integrated into Detroit’s offense though as a wide receiver, not a running back. Stefan did not know why Lions Offensive coordinator Scott Lenahan was making these nonsensical decisions that was hurting the offense. Stefan went on to tell that the lack of building a proper offense in Detroit lead to the retirement of one of Detroit’s greatest. Calvin Johnson was drafted in 2007 and the retried from the NFL in 2015, Johnson had 731 receptions, 11,619 yards and 83 TDs in his career. Johnson also broke Jerry Rice’s single season receiving yards record in 2012. Calvin Johnson rose to be one of top wide receivers and considered one of the greats, so it was a complete shock when he retired in 2015. Stefan talked about that with no cohesion, the Lions offense always went to Calvin. And the more they went to Calvin, the more he got hit. The More Calvin got hit, quicker his body started breaking down, the less Calvin wanted to put in for a team that could not find success. Calvin Johnson got so frustrated that the team keep losing and that the coaches and GM would not listen to his suggestions and ideas. So, with a lot of frustration and a lot of acing bones Calvin decided to retire after Detroit would not trade him.

From injuries to frustrations with play calling and personal groupings, the Detroit Lions could not pull it together on Sundays. Detroit had a capable team of players on both offense and defense to get the job done and win more games, yet the failed to do so. Stefan told me that the lack of cohesion on the offensive side of the ball was the team’s biggest issue. The team could not establish a run game, the offensive line could not get into a rhythm, and the tight ends were unreliable, among other things. The issue with the offense is not just that they could not score, it was also the fact they could not stay on the field. Stefan described from game to game, the defense would get a stop forcing the opponent to punt, then the offense would take the field and in two minutes the Lions would be punting, bring the defense back on the field. Though the Lions defense was a solid defense, the lack of rest due to the offense’s inability to stay on the field, the defense would break and they would loss by huge margins. This led to the fans starting to turn on the Lions, Stefan recalled a game when he was sitting on the sidelines in Ford Field and heard all the Lions fans booing them, Stefan looked around baffled that they were getting booed by their own fans.

Though as much as the team tried to fix the issues, Stefan told me that no matter would the team did, if it was mid game adjustment or trying new things in practice, the team just could not figure out how to fix their issues. From what Stefan told me, finding the solutions to the team’s issues did not seem like the front office’s biggest priority. Between all the coaches and members of the front office, no one that a good idea unless it was their own. There was a lot of bickering in the front office and they just could not agree on anything. The coordinators could not find an agreement with the head coach about play calling and personal grouping. The Head coach and the GM could not agree on opinions of players to keep on the team or bring in to the team. With all that bickering in the management and coaching staff the team never found the solutions they were looking for. I thought this was very interesting because how Stefan was describing this, it was something that was a detriment to the team, but all this unrest in the team seemed to be kept lowkey. I asked Stefan if there’s a similar thing going on in Detroit today, especially with what happened last season where out of no where the lions Traded Quandre Diggs and then in the offseason traded away the star of the defense Darius Slay after his relations with Matt Patricia broke down. Stefan told that he sees some degree of dysfunction in the administration of the Lions today, but as far as personal movement such as with Slay a coach wants to build his team with his guys. Darius Slay and Quandre Diggs were part of the Lions before Patricia was the coach and something that Stefan said throughout are conversation, when a head coach comes into a team, they bring in the people they want and that means pushing out players that were left from the previous head coach.

Seeing all the things happening within the organization that affected the team’s ability to win, I asked Stefan if the division that the Lions played in had an effect on the success of the Lions. The Lions play in the NFC north with the Green Bay Packers, the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. The NFC North is considered on of the toughest divisions in the NFL, especially over the last ten years. Stefan put it this way, what is the number one objective of the team for any season? To make the playoffs. What is the one way that grantees a playoff spot? Winning the division. When a team is building for the upcoming season, the teams wants to build to win the division. The Lions do need to build their team to beat the Saints or the Seahawks, they may need to game plan for those teams, but they need to build to beat the Packers, Bears, and the Vikings. Over the last few years, the Lions have struggled to win the division. The last time the Lions won a division title was 1993. Looking at it, the fact that the Lions are in the NFC North has an effect on the team’s success season to season. To end our conversation, I asked Stefan if the Lions could be a winning team. Stefan believes the Lions could one be a winning team if they could bring in the right people at the right time.

The Lions have always been known as a bad team and it was interesting get insight in to how and why the team has struggled. Because Stefan played in Detroit eight years, I wasn’t sure how or even want to recall his days in Detroit. Stefan Logan shared a lot of interesting insights, and let us all look into a lot of cool and interesting things about what is was like playing for “one of the worst teams in the NFL”.

The NFL is not having a full season in 2020

The NFL is not having a full season in 2020

The NFL season is my favorite time of the year, I look forward to it more than Christmas, more than summer vacation and even more than my birthday. There is nothing else in this world that I putt more attention and energy into for almost five months a year than the NFL regular season. In this year of 2020 where the world has been putt in shambles; now as we enter the second half of the year and things are begging to reopen and start up again, but this die-hard football fan does not see the NFL playing a full sixteen game season starting in September.

As the COVID-19 infection curve flattens in the United States sports leagues such as the NBA and MLB have started up training camps to continue their seasons. Though in the efforts to restart or just finish the season many players though out these different leagues have contracted COVID-19, including 31 MLB players and 25 NBA players. Not only has 56 athletes from two leagues that are restarting have gotten the virus, but during the offseason many NFL players and staffers have come down with the Coronavirus. In June it was reported that nearly half the players from both the Houston Texas and Dallas Cowboys came down with the virus. Though many players did not experience the full extent of what the virus van do to a person, probably due to the fact that these people are professional athletes and their general health is higher than the average person. Even though these athletes get the virus and two weeks later their feeling better, there is still a public health concern of the virus spreading. There is a possibility that during the season one person on a team gets the virus and the whole team gets and they have to cancel that week’s game.

Now I’m not saying to delay the season, I would love to see a full season. Though I can just see with the continual number of pro athletes contracting the virus and with how the politics of the sport business works. There is a lot of variables that can come in play by the end of August that could affect the plan for the season. The league officials could decide that the season is not worth the potential health risk to the players. The team owners could vote not to postpone the season on the same grounds that the league office would, or the players association could decide that it won’t be worth the risk to play a full season. Now all of this is speculation and it doesn’t seem that the NFL are currently planning to postpone the season. Right now, the NFL are taking precaution, such as no organized team activities, players are not allowed to workout in groups, and team meetings have been conducted over zoom. The league is taking these measures in an effort to proceed with the season as originally planned.

And why wouldn’t the league want to go through with the season considering what an exciting offseason that happened. The G.O.A.T left the dynasty in Foxborough to start a new in the red and pewter down in Tampa Bay. Philip Rivers getting out of LA and moving to Indy and Teddy Bridgewater replacing Cam Newton in Charlotte. The Jaguars dumped Nick Floes $80 million contract on Chicago and put MinshewMania at the helm. After an exciting free agency came an exciting draft with Joe Burrow become the face of the Bengals, Miami drafted the Lefty from Oahu, and Green Bay shocking everyone by drafting QB Jordan Love while they Still have Arron Rodgers. I’m sure excited to see how my boys in the Motor City do this season after reinforcing their defense in the offseason and Matthew Stafford coming back from his broken back last season. There is a lot to look forward to for the upcoming season and there is a lot to keep an eye out for as the COVID situation continues.

Heavyweight title picture moves forward at UFC 252

Heavyweight title picture moves forward at UFC 252

Tuesday June 9, 2020 the UFC announced that the Heavyweight Championship will be defended once again as Stipe Miocic will defend against Daniel Cormier. This fight will complete the epic Heavyweight trilogy between Miocic and Cormier. The two first fought at UFC 226 in 2018 which Cormier won the Heavyweight championship with a first round KO/TKO. Then Miocic vs. Cormier II came just over a year later at UFC 241 where Miocic gave Cormier his only loss at Heavyweight and recaptured the Heavyweight championship from Cormier. Neither Miocic or Cormier has fought since their last bout and since then the direction of the Heavyweight title was going to be Miocic vs. Cormier III. Since we entered 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic Cormier and the UFC were ready to go and make the fight. The issue with moving forward to make the fight was the champion Stipe Miocic. Miocic is based out of Ohio and like the rest of the country in April and May everything was shut down so Miocic had no where to train. As well as not having a gym to train in, Stipe is also a fire fighter and has been busy with fighting the Covid-19 outbreak. With the country shut down there was no real rush to have Stipe fight until after UFC 249 in May when #2 Heavyweight Francis Ngannou knocked out #6 Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds of round one. This was Ngannou’s fourth straight first round knockout, solidifying him as the next challenger for the belt after Cormier. With the future of the division unknown Ngannou and his camp put pressure on UFC management to push forward with the title picture. Ngnanou even pleaded with UFC management to make his bout with Rozensuik an interim title fight, but that request was denied. Now that the country is reopening and Miocic vs. Cormier III is happening, the big question is now what will happen in the division after the fight.
After this fight Daniel Cormier will retire from fight and focus on commentating for the UFC and working on his ESPN show with Ariel Helwani. So, with DC retiring after this title fight what will happen if Cormier wins the belt. If DC wins, he rides off into the sunset as Heavyweight Champion and the title will be vacated. The fight at the top of the list to make would be #2 heavyweight Francis Ngannou vs. Former champion Stipe Miocic. Or UFC could pit Ngannou against any other of the top ten heavyweights, tough the issue with that is Ngannou has already beaten the rest of the top heavyweights. In the case that DC wins the belt, the bout of Miocic vs. Ngannou would probably be the best route to go. UFC could also go the route of a lit tournament of sorts to determine who will face Francis Ngannou for the vacant belt. As with is DC wins there are also many possibilities to move forward if Stipe retains. If Miocic retains then his next challenger will be Francis Ngannou. That match will be a long waited for rematch, as the two clashed in January of 2018. their first bout when the distance and Stipe won by the descion. It will be interesting to see what Francis has learned from the bout and how he will adapt for his next title fight. Though Miocic vs. Ngannou II is the most likely thing to happen next if Stipe retains, there is a possibility that Stipe Miocic could retire if he retains against Cormier. If Miocic retires then the UFC will be at cross road they would be if DC wins, what to do next with the belt. No matter what happens as the #2 Nagnnou is getting the next title shot, so if Stipe retains then retires, Ngannou would probably face Curtis Blaydes. Like Ngannou, Blaydes is on a four-fight win streak and is rising up the ranking. There are many if, ands, and buts the match makers are going figure out in the future. One thing I can say for sure is that Miocic vs. Cormier III at UFC 252 on August 18th is going to be one hell of a title fight.
WWE uses Jeff Hardy’s Substance Abuse to Advance Smackdown Storyline

WWE uses Jeff Hardy’s Substance Abuse to Advance Smackdown Storyline

The May 29th episode of SmackDown opened with a chaotic scene in the parking lot of the WWE performance center, with paramedics attending to Elias and a car totaled in the background. With paramedics, police, and backstage officials trying to sort things out, Jeff Hardy was being hauled of in handcuffs seemly intoxicated. In storyline this was this a poly by King Corbin and Shamus to get their respected rivals taken out of the Intercontinental Championship tournament. WWE has done angles with arrested and substance abused before, but the issue with this angel is that WWE is using Jeff Hardy’s very real and on-going alcohol abuse issues to advance a storyline. Jeff Hardy has had many WWE wellness policy violations, was arrested for drug possession in 2009, showed up to TNA Victory Road PPV in 2011 intoxicated and unfit to wrestle in his main event match against Sting, was arrested for public intoxication in July of 2019 and arrested for DWI in October of 2019. It is very distasteful for WWE to use Jeff’s addiction issues for a soap opera like angle to progress a storyline, consider his addictions issues have ended many of the storylines he has been involved in.

Substance abuse is a hard problem to shake and is one that is found often with pro wrestlers. Wrestling legends such as Jake “the Snake” Roberts, Scott Hall, X-Pac, William Regal, Mr. Perfect, Lex Lugar, and Kurt Angle have struggled with substance abuse. Umaga, a cousin of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson had his career and life cut short by substance abuse. Within Professional wrestling a such as substance can be cause by the fame and success of a wrestler and/or injury. Stars like William Regal and Umaga never reached their full potential in the ring as the money, fame, and crazy lifestyle of pro wrestler lead to constant partying and nights of drinking and doing drugs to the point that they dependent on the substances. Though professional wrestling is scripted and practiced to avoid getting the athletes injured, but with any sport serious injury can be unavoidable. With serious injury comes major surgery and with major surgery comes with rehab usually involving power narcotic painkillers. One of the biggest stars of the late 90’s early 00’s, Kurt Angle has had several major surgeries including four neck fusion surgeries which lead to Angle’s sever painkiller addiction. Angle’s addiction got so bad that his children became terrified of him, his wife no longer wanted to be around him, and he damaged his relationship with Vince McMahon which lead to Angle leaving WWE and going to TNA.

Jeff Hardy’s addiction has formed out his lifestyle combined with personality and injury from wrestling. Hardy and his brother Matt were WWE’s most creative and inventive Tag Teams, with Jeff being the highflying daredevil of the duo. Hardy has jumped off and through ladders, tables, cages, and chairs, leaving is body in ruins after years and years of doing such things. Jeff channels his creative through art work as well as his wrestling, he uses his personal demons, visions, and dreams to create some nightmarishly interesting works of art that represent the mental and emotional turmoil Jeff deals with. Jeff’s mental and emotional state combined with major injuries lead to Hardy’s ongoing issues with Drugs and alcohol. Issues that WWE realizes are hurting Hardy and after his most recent arrest have provide the services and resources to help him with his addiction. After helping Hardy and a history of big stars’ careers being cut short due to substance abuse, WWE still sees it fit to exploit a troubled soul’s addiction issue for a soap opera like angle to progress a storyline. There has been backlash from critics and fans alike about this angle, even Hardy’s brother Matt who recently left WWE for AEW spoke out on social media to show his disapproval. Substance abuse is major issue that effect millions of peoples’ lives all over the world. It is disgusting and low down for WWE uses Hardy’s past in a storyline and display it in trivial manner for the world to see.
Sami Zayn stays home and stripped of Intercontinental Championship

Sami Zayn stays home and stripped of Intercontinental Championship

In mists of the COVID-19 pandemic WWE are allowing their wrestlers to not work during the pandemic if they do not feel comfortable without any consequences. WWE said this back at the end of March and now in May, WWE is going back on their word. The WWE Intercontinental Champion, Sami Zayn did not feel safe travel back and froth from his home to the WWE Performance center. Zayn choose to take up WWE on their offer to not work during the pandemic, the company did not take to kindly to one of their mid-card champions opting out of work so they stripped him of the Intercontinental Championship. WWE announced on Monday, May 11th that the Intercontinental Championship was vacated and starting on Smackdown on Friday May 15th there will be a tournament to crown a new champion. WWE said that the title was vacated due to the champion not being able to defend the title. This is hypocritical of WWE, not only because they said there would not consequences for those who choose not work, but there is another champion in the company that currently can not defend his championship.
The NXT cruiserweight champion Jordan Devlin is currently stuck in his home country of Ireland and can not come to the US to defend his title on NXT. The company decided to have a tournament, but not to crown a new champion. NXT is currently holding a tournament to crown a new Interim Cruiserweight champion. This is a neat idea for the WWE to do and hopeful something they do in the future. The company has a history of champions get hurt or sick for a few months and having to vacate and then usually never get a chance to reclaim the title. Continuing to use the interim champion model in future, the WWE would more mirror the UFC and give WWE a more real sports feel. The WWE is currently using the interim championship as a way to keep the Cruiserweight championship on NXT TV, while being fair to the undisputed champion Jordan Devlin. So why is WWE not doing the same for Sami Zayn? Plain and simple, Sami Zayn choose to put his personal health and safety over defending his championship. WWE said that there will be zero consequences to those that do not want to work during the pandemic, though their actions towards those that chose not to wrestle show otherwise.

Along with Zayn, Smackdown’s Roman Reigns and NXT’s Leo Rush decided to not do the taping during the global health emergency. Reigns pulled out of his WrestleMania 36 match against Goldberg for the Universal Championship and has not been seen or heard from on WWE TV since before Mania. You can read all about the fallout between Reigns and WWE here. Leo Rush was the first Superstar to go public about not wanting to wrestle during the pandemic. Before WrestleMania Rush made his decision to opt out of wrestling during the pandemic then was released as part of WWE’s mass releases a few weeks after WrestleMania. Reports are now coming out that Rush was released because of his public opinion of not wrestling during the outbreak. It seems that the “zero consequences” statement from the WWE was a PR move with no intentions of honoring the statement. The WWE has a history of pulling shady moves like this and Sami Zayn has felt the wrath of WWE management before.

Being striped of the IC title is the most recent bump in the road of Sami Zayn’s relationship with WWE management. Sami Zayn has had many start/stops pushes due to disagreements with Management, the biggest disagreement being over the WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia. In 2018 the WWE signed a huge ten-year deal with the Saudi government to do two shows in the country a year. Superstars such as John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and Kevin Owens along with Zayn disagreed with the company’s deal with the Saudi government. Zayn is of Syrian decent and was not allowed into Saudi Arabia because of the bad blood between the two countries. Because of this and he his public disagreement with WWE, Zayn’s push was halted. Just like then Zayn has now publicly spoken out against the company and his push as champion has ended. WWE has done this too many in the past and will continue to do it in the future. This makes me wonder how much longer Sami Zayn will tolerate this abuse from the WWE management.