Tweet
Did they release Jerry Jacob’s?
-
Monkeys don't sell bananas. -
-
Putting him on the IR. He has some sort of knee injury.Originally posted by Wellington_beefhouser View PostLast edited by froot loops; January 11, 2024, 07:02 PM.Comment
-
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
Good lord please keep Madonna’s tragic ass far away from this game.Comment
-
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
More free non-paywall articles, this time from the Detroit News:
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
More free non-paywall articles, this time from the Detroit Free Press:
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
A paywall article of note. Enjoy!
Off to better start as GM than mentor Snead, Lions' Brad Holmes now chasing same pinnacle
Justin Rogers
The Detroit News
Allen Park — While the national spotlight has been understandably centered on the quarterback matchup heading into this weekend's playoff tilt between the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams, there's another significant organizational overlap worthy of attention.
The game will pit franchise roster-builders — mentor and mentee — Rams GM Les Snead and Lions counterpart Brad Holmes.
Holmes was already several years into his time with the Rams when Snead arrived in 2012 to serve as the team's general manager. The two had known each other previously, having frequently crossed paths in Atlanta, where Holmes was based as a regional scout for the Rams and Snead had worked his way up the Falcons' front-office ladder to director of player personnel.
Brad Holmes and Detroit Lions in Tampa 2023 season.jpg
"This is when I'm a Falcon and Brad is a Ram," Snead shared in a social media post after the Lions hired Holmes. "NFS (National Football Scouting), which runs the combine, they scout the players for the first time. Basically, in the spring, a lot of teams that are part of NFS go down and they hear the draft board for the first time. That's a tough job because no one has said this player is good or bad or the star of the show. It's these young scouts, cutting their teeth for the first time, presenting the draft board to a lot of GMs and VPs in the audience.
"There was a young man, Brad Holmes, first time presenting, (did an) unbelievable job," Snead continued. "At that point in time, Billy Devaney was GM of the Rams and I remember texting Billy after hearing Brad present and saying, 'Hey, that young man is special.'"
And Snead quickly established, through words and actions, how much he believed in Holmes when the two began working together in St. Louis, where the team was still located. When another NFL team tried to poach Holmes with the promise of a promotion, Snead blocked the interview request and opted to elevate Holmes to the Rams' director of college scouting, in 2013. That's the role he would hold until the Lions came calling with their GM opportunity in 2021.
In his opening remarks during his introductory press conference in 2021, Holmes noted he had learned more under Snead than anyone else during his career. And while Holmes never has gone into expansive detail on all those lessons, the Detroit GM has sprinkled some of them in during his media sessions throughout his three-year tenure with the Lions.
"Les Snead, can’t say enough great things about him," Holmes said in 2021. "Obviously, had learned under him the longest, and I want to stress the word 'learn.' He taught me so much. But one of the biggest things is he kept teaching me how to keep the main thing the main thing: It’s football. He also taught me how to be concise, so I won’t rattle off every single thing he taught me, but he invested very heavily in my development, and I’m very grateful for all he’s done for me."
Among the other lessons Holmes has acknowledged during media sessions through his tenure in Detroit are the importance of intangibles and identifying a player's "superpower," cross-training your pro and college scouting departments to get more complete player evaluations, how to balance all the added responsibilities that come with being in the GM's seat, and being willing to think outside the box. With that last one, Holmes specifically referenced the Rams' unique scouting process under Snead, which large portions have been ported to Detroit.
Holmes also learned, through osmosis, how to work within Detroit's unique leadership structure, which is headed by a proactive owner, with a head coach and cap specialist he didn't choose. That's similar to the way the Rams are structured. The team hired Jeff Fisher as coach a month before they hired Snead, while COO Kevin Demoff long had been in place before either arrived.
"I was interviewing with multiple teams, (and) the setup here, if you call it the setup, it would be very similar to how it is in Los Angeles, in terms of the structure and everything," Holmes explained to The Detroit News in 2021. "The general manager will have these responsibilities, but may not have these responsibilities. Obviously, that was what I was used to, so I was like, 'OK.'
"Obviously, I saw, and was involved with somewhat, in terms of the structure with Les, Kevin Demoff and (vice president of football and business administration) Tony Pastoors and (coach) Sean McVay, just that whole structure. "And I said, 'Wow, that's kind of always worked for Les.'"
That knowledge and experience allowed Holmes to hit the ground running in Detroit with an executable vision, which also has helped him supersede the results from the early stages of Snead's tenure in L.A.
Both Snead and Holmes were hired when they were 41 years old, asked to take over franchises in desperate need of being rebuilt. The Rams were coming off a 2-14 season and fired both coach and GM, while the Lions went 5-11 the year before Holmes arrived, but were equally in need of a roster refresh.
Both pulled off significant, early trades to replenish their draft assets and accelerate those rebuilds. The Rams used the No. 2 pick they held in that offseason's draft to acquire a pack of picks from Washington. Holmes, meanwhile, worked with Snead to swap starting quarterbacks, shipping Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles and Jared Goff to Detroit, along with a trio of premium draft selections.
But here's where the two diverge. The Rams missed more than they hit in the draft during the early years of Snead's tenure, while Holmes has managed to build a competitive foundation through that avenue, adding high-level contributors such as Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Alim McNeill, Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch, Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs.
So, while the Rams failed to get above .500 in the first five years of Snead's tenure, the Lions reached that benchmark in two, going on to win their division and earn a home playoff game in Year 3.
A lot of that credit goes to Lions ownership, which has seemingly hit home runs with both their coach and general manager hirings in 2021, while Snead got paired with Jeff Fisher, a respectable, but less-than-exciting option prior to the franchise making the bold and far superior hire of McVay, who had been working as Washington's offensive coordinator, in 2017.
That was the missing piece that helped the Rams turn the corner, going 11-5 in McVay's first season, making the Super Bowl in his second and finally winning a championship after the 2021 season. It took a decade and a lot of patience for Snead to snag his crown.
Securing that Super Bowl title required Snead to orchestrate one of the most aggressive going-all-in seasons of all time. In addition to Stafford, the Rams sent two first-round picks to the Jaguars two years earlier for cornerback Jalen Ramsey, traded two Day-2 picks for edge rusher Von Miller midseason and cleared cap space to add wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in November.
The bet clearly paid off, but also left the team lacking the draft picks to sustain their success. Still, it spurred Snead to comically show up to the Super Bowl parade wearing a shirt with his face and the phrase, "F--- them picks."
It's difficult to imagine Holmes embracing that mantra, abandoning his draft-centric focus to building a roster. But who really knows as the Lions inch closer to Super Bowl contention? Remember, Snead had a similarly aggressive wave of acquisitions that led to the team's earlier Super Bowl appearance, including moving up 14 spots in the draft to select Jared Goff No. 1 overall in 2016. It's possible enough time hasn't passed for us to see Holmes attempt to apply this lesson yet.
Ultimately, the goal for Holmes is to bring a Lombardi Trophy to Detroit the way Snead did for Los Angeles. And while that can't be accomplished Sunday, the Lions can take a step closer than they have in more than three decades. That's a credit to both the teacher and the student.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
@Justin_Rogers
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
A paywall article from The Athletic.
As Lions eye playoff success, former team greats cheer them on: ‘Seize the moment’
1991 and 2023 Detroit Lions.jpg
By Colton Pouncy
Jan 11, 2024
DETROIT — The banner hangs quietly from the rafters, inconspicuously tucked away in the corner, out of sight and out of mind.
It represents what could’ve been, some 30 years ago. An era of success — but not true greatness. Those who lived it look back with fond memories, proud of what they ultimately achieved together with the hand they were dealt. But even they’ll tell you they let a golden opportunity slip away.
A chance to be remembered in NFL history. But, more importantly, a chance to change how the world views the Detroit Lions.
In the 1990s, the Lions made the playoffs six times in 10 years, but a roster with talent all over the field couldn’t get it done when it mattered most. Instead, Dallas became the team of the ’90s — earning three Super Bowl titles and re-establishing the Cowboys as America’s team in the process.
Those Lions teams? They have a pair of titles from the NFC Central — a division that no longer exists — and a single playoff win from the 1991 season to show for the franchise’s greatest run of the Super Bowl era. Thirty-two years later, it remains the last playoff win in franchise history.
Lions fans have waited patiently for the next team to emerge. They’ve seen elite talents, from Barry Sanders to Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford. They’ve also seen quick exits and long rebuilds. What they’ve rarely seen, however, is a team capable of sustained success.
They could be witnessing the start of one, though.
“It’s a special group,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said of his team, which went 12-5 in the regular season and won the NFC North. “This is just the beginning. We feel that way.”
Sunday night, they’ll host the Los Angeles Rams in an NFC wild-card game, and collectively embark on what they hope will be the first of many playoff appearances with the core in place.
There’s nothing former Lions greats would love more than for the current group to accomplish what they couldn’t.
Lomas Brown, in many ways, is the bridge between Lions past and present.
A Gator Boy hailing from Miami, Brown knew little about Detroit before the 1985 NFL Draft. It was the center of the automotive industry. It was also cold in the winter. Other than that, it was all foreign to him.
But that would soon change when the Lions, fresh off a 4-11-1 season, made Brown a cornerstone, selecting the Florida offensive tackle sixth overall.
“And I’ve been up here ever since,” Brown said on a late December evening, almost 39 years later.
What Brown quickly learned is that Detroit loves its Lions, and that Michigan is a football state. This is a player who touched down in Detroit when the Tigers were still riding the highs of their 1984 World Series title, when the Detroit Pistons were building a core that would win two NBA Finals during the Bad Boys era, when the Detroit Red Wings were entering an era of sustained success that eventually led to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.
His Lions, at the time, weren’t coming close to those accomplishments. When Brown was drafted in 1985, the Lions hadn’t won a playoff game since the 1957 NFL Championship. For a player used to winning in the SEC, it can be difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel when you’re that far removed from what you once knew. And yet, the fans still showed up. That spoke volumes to him and other players from this era, fueling their motivation to turn things around.
“They used to tell us in the locker room, they love the Pistons, they love the Tigers, they love the Red Wings, but they said if the Lions ever won the Super Bowl, they will own the state of Michigan,” Brown said. “And that was being said way back when we were in the locker room. So we know how important football was here. This was a blue-collar, hard-working state. We knew our people took football serious back here.”
That’s a common sentiment when you talk to former players. But wins were hard to come by in those early days. Just ask Kevin Glover.
A second-round pick out of Maryland in 1985, Glover joined Brown as future cornerstones of winning teams, but first, had to take their licks. And there were many to take.
The Lions went 33-62 from 1985 to 1990. They did not make the playoffs during that span. Brown and Glover were roommates when they first entered the league together. They used to talk about one day leading a winner, as they endured losing. There was a shared feeling between Glover and Brown that they were failing their veterans, as well as the city of Detroit. They so desperately wanted to be the ones to help turn things around, and not being able to do so in those early years was a tough pill to swallow.
But they could feel the tide turning.
“Before we got to that point, we kind of felt it was coming and felt we can compete with other teams,” Glover said. “It’s just a matter of executing well, keeping key guys on the team healthy and then kind of relying on utilizing the talent we had.”
“I think the biggest thing was resilience,” Brown said. “You learn that. You learn how to go through some hard times, you know? You learn how to respond when you hit rock bottom. I think those were the things. The lessons that we kind of got out of it as a team is you can get knocked down, but you gotta get back up. You’ve got to stay in the fight, and the only way to stay in the fight is to get up and keep fighting. And that’s all we could do. You had to depend on the organization to bring in the right people, to bring in the right coaches, but the only thing we can control as players was what we did out there on the field.”
Brown and Glover, great friends back then and still to this day, had every reason not to like it in Detroit. And yet, they embraced the challenge of staying the course and figuring it out. There’s something gratifying about taking your medicine, so to speak. Those losing years made winning taste that much sweeter.
Winning for this franchise, in particular.
Players are so often at the mercy of the decision-makers above them. It’s why this Lions franchise has seen so many great talents failed by their front office and even ownership. Those in charge have not been able to field rosters capable of competing year in and year out. But in the ’90s, the Lions came the closest to achieving that in the Super Bowl era.
Of course, it didn’t happen overnight. It took time and the right people in place — something this franchise has not always had. The losses start to add up after a while. So, too, did the draft picks. Eventually, the Lions would turn a corner, building through the draft and letting their players grow together.
Sound familiar?
Brown and Glover arrived in 1985. Others would follow. Defensive back Bennie Blades, a No. 3 pick from Miami. Defensive lineman Jerry Ball, a third-round pick from SMU. Linebacker Chris Spielman, a second-round pick from Ohio State. Wide receiver Herman Moore, a first-round pick from Virginia.
Oh, and a young running back from Oklahoma State by the name of Barry Sanders.
“You bring in top talent and you get players that you’ve drafted in high draft picks years before that are now maturing and coming into their prime like Lomas Brown, Chris Spielman, Mike Cofer, Jerry Ball, Kevin Glover — you have this mixture of guys that are right on the cusp of being perennial All-Pro or Pro Bowlers,” Moore said. “Now we have the mentality of what it takes to set the tone for what we come to expect in terms of work ethic.”
The team kept adding to a core that was heading in the right direction, finally ready to win. The 1991 season was the first taste. It remains the most successful season of the Super Bowl era for this franchise. Sanders and the 1991 Lions went 12-4 in the regular season. They won the NFC Central Division. They took down the Cowboys in the playoffs, their first postseason win since the 1957 NFL Championship, before ultimately losing to Washington in the NFC Championship Game.
The window was open. The city was buzzing. You couldn’t leave your house without seeing Honolulu Blue. The Silverdome was one of the NFL’s loudest stadiums. Deafening, even. The loyalty of this fan base was never questioned. The team just needed to give it something to believe in.
“They were so proud to stick out their chest and say they were Detroit Lions fans because of how well the team was doing and how exciting we were the watch,” Brown said. “We’re on national TV. We were a good product. We had some household names on our team. It was just a different era of football.”
However, those Lions teams of the 1990s serve as a cautionary tale for how quickly windows can shut. They would continue making the playoffs — six times in 10 years. But they couldn’t advance. They lost to the Packers in 1993, at the hands of Brett Favre and Sterling Sharpe, then to Green Bay again the following year. More first-round playoff losses followed to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1997 and Washington in 1999. Veterans like Spielman, Glover and Brown — who won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers — were not retained. Sanders retired in 1999, still in his prime. An era of Lions football with so much promise when it began ended with little to show for it.
continued..."I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
The players from those teams want more for the next generation.
“I look back at my career,” Moore said, “I look back at the opportunities we had as an organization. You can’t help but think about the ‘what ifs’ and the ‘why nots.’ But with what’s happening with the team now, you almost want to make sure you continue to press upon them: Don’t lose this opportunity. Make the most of this opportunity, this moment. You don’t know when this may come back around. You don’t know. Seize the moment.”
In many ways, the current Lions are mirroring their ’90s predecessors. But the way in which they’re doing it suggests they’ve learned from the past.
It starts with ownership. Sheila Ford Hamp, who took over in 2020, runs a collaborative ship. She hired Spielman as a special assistant to the owner later that year. She relied on his instincts, as a player who has seen the failures of the organization firsthand, to help lead a coaching search and ring in a new era of Lions football.
That led the franchise to Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes. Hired three years ago with a vision in mind, they tore a bad and aging roster down to the studs, and built it back up. Their first season would lay the foundation, at 3-13-1. A taste of losing to fuel eventual wins.
Those wins would be led by young players like Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson and other building blocks added via the draft. The roster would be supplemented with outside veterans like Jared Goff and Alex Anzalone, adding to a core of players who knew nothing but losing, and wanted nothing more than to be part of the turnaround.
The Lions entered the year with visions of what they’ve accomplished. They saw their young talent figure it out in real time, now ready for what’s next. They finished 12-5, tying the 1991 team’s mark for most regular-season wins. And that NFC Central Division champions banner hanging in Ford Field? It has company now, thanks to the 2023 Lions.
“Y’all saw that banner out there,” Goff said to his teammates in the locker room after Sunday’s regular-season finale versus the Vikings. “We got more of those f—ing things to win now. Let’s go to work.”
Of course, the Lions have more to accomplish. Their postseason journey begins against the Rams and Stafford, the former face of the franchise. Poetic, in many ways.
But this is about the bigger picture. Detroit has been to the playoffs three times (in the 2011, 2014 and 2016 seasons) since those appearances in the 1990s, and lost in the first round every time. These Lions want that ever-elusive playoff win. They want to one day hoist the Lombardi Trophy — something that’s never been done in franchise history.
“The expectations are to win a Super Bowl,” Spielman told The Athletic before the season. “If it’s not, then we’re all just wasting time. That’s the expectation and that’s our standard. And if it’s not, then I can’t be here. I don’t want to be here.”
In the meantime, though, there’s something special about the city of Detroit when the Lions give their fans something to root for. They have taken over entire stadiums in opposing cities, drowning out home crowds with “Let’s go, Lions” chants by the fourth quarter. Former players back for games at Ford Field marvel at the environment. It reminds them of the Silverdome back in the day. They can’t help but smile when they watch the current players, and how they’re doing it.
“I think they’re setting their own path,” Glover said. “I think that’s more important than following in our footsteps. They’re setting their own path and doing it the right way. That’s impressive. … The city deserves it. The fans deserve it. The organization deserves it. For us who played there and competed there, we’ve always had great pride in the organization and the city.”
Glover is now the director of player development at the University of Maryland, his alma mater. He still watches Lions games when he can, and he told his wife months ago he’d be in town for a Ford Field playoff game.
Moore keeps close tabs on the Lions, too. When he goes to games, he’s there to interact with a fan base that supported him through the years, sharing stories of his playing days and doing his best to give back.
Brown gets a front-row seat to the action each week, watching games as the Lions’ radio color analyst. He keeps in touch with former teammates and has the respect of current players. He is one of the most beloved figures in team history, a universal force that unites the present and the past. He was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor this season, with former teammates flying in from all over the country to celebrate him.
That’s the sort of brotherhood that comes with playing for the Detroit Lions. They’re protective of it. They want the best for those who wear the colors. And as the next wave sets out on its own path, the former players want to see a new era of Lions accomplish what they couldn’t.
“As alumni, you bleed Honolulu Blue and silver,” Brown said. “We want to see those guys do good. Man, it gives you a sense of pride. It makes you stick your chest out to say that you’re a former Detroit Lion player, that you played for the Detroit Lions, especially now that they’re doing good. Now that they’re the talk of not just the state — they’re the talk of the nation. They are relevant again, and that’s how it should be. That’s how you want it to be. That’s how any alumni base should want it to be for their team, their former organization, to be relevant.”
(Top photos: Jeff Kowalsky / AFP via Getty Images and Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Colton Pouncy is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Detroit Lions. He previously covered Michigan State football and basketball for the company, and covered sports for The Tennessean in Nashville prior to joining The Athletic. Follow Colton on Twitter @colton_pouncy
Last edited by whatever_gong82; January 11, 2024, 11:37 PM."I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
-
You do not have permission to view this gallery.
This gallery has 1 photos."I ain't the type to bitch, I ain't the type to cry, I will sit at your red light and wait for your shit to go by."Comment
-
Why are Lions beat writers so damn incompetent? Among a long list of fuck-ups, they have it in their heads that LaPorta has 86 rec, 859 yds, 10 TD... all while repeatedly showing a photo of a fan at the last game holding a sign that lists LaPorta as going into the game with 81 rec, 860 yds, 9 TD. So... he got 5 catches for -1 yds and a TD? He has 889 yds, not 859. Someone seemingly typed it in wrong on the number pad and no one has ever fixed it, as they've touted 859 yds repeatedly. It shows that they don't check their own sources and they are willing to let mistakes perpetuate. Oh and the constant grammar and spelling errors always make for a difficult read. Just... why? Why can't they write a single damn article that has no errors? For fuck sake I proofread my own Facebook posts more than they proofread the shit they're paid to print."Yeah, we just... we don't want them to go. So that's our motivation."
Dan Campbell at Green Bay, January 8, 2023.Comment
-
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
Comment