Old Mother Hubbard: Stocked and Loaded

“We’re free! We’re free!” shouted Rashied Davis, as twenty-six new and returning Lions veterans rushed onto the field, donning their helmets as thousands of Lions fans cheered them on. Released from the locker room by the ratified CBA, the new NFL League Year began with a roar. The Grandmaster suggested a horn:

“I’ve never been in the army or anything else, but when the cavalry comes, you feel good,” Schwartz said. “If we could have had a horn blowing, that would have been good, put somebody on horseback and bring them out. We needed it. It added so many to our lines, just stretching.”

For the first time yesterday, all of the 2011 Lions fit to play were out on the field in full pads, practicing without limitations, restrictions, or artifice. As I write this, Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith are signing the new 10-year collective bargaining agreement with pomp and circumstance normally reserved for Israel-Palestine peace treaties. Season tickets went out, including to a friend of mine (who supplied the above glamour shot). All is finally officially right with the Detroit Lions’ world.

Good.

Now, to work.

Martin Mayhew held a rare press conference at this morning’s practice. Clearly, the kid gloves have come off:

"I think we're at a point now where we expect to challenge for our division, and that's what most good teams expect to do," he said before Friday's practice. "We're at that point."

"We're here to win football games. We're here to be productive. There's no need to talk about it. It's time to stop talking about winning, and it's time to start winning."

Sorry, Martin, I’m going to keep talking about it. Let’s assess the shopping Mr. Mayhew did, starting from our original Old Mother Hubbard needs list:

• An impact two-way defensive end to rotate soon, and develop for 2012.
       [Lawrence Jackson]
• An athletic, pass-rushing OLB to rotate soon, and develop for 2012.
       [Bobby Carpenter/Doug Hogue]
• A field-stretching #2 WR.
       [Titus Young]
• A power back to complement Jahvid Best.
       [Mikel Leshoure]
• A credible backup middle linebacker.
       [Levy, Durant, Tulloch]
• An athletic, pass-rushing OLB ready to start right away.
       [Justin Durant]
• An athletic cover corner, ready to take over one side in 2012.
       [Eric Wright]
• If Chris Houston leaves, a complete two-way corner, ready to start right away.
       [Chris Houston]
• A left tackle who can be groomed to replace Jeff Backus.
• A center who will be ready to rotate at guard soon, and compete at center for 2012.

I had to fudge the linebackers around a bit; DeAndre Levy, Stephen Tulloch, and Justin Durant will likely be your starting linebackers, all three have the ability to play inside or outside as needed. Bobby Carpenter can rotate right away, and Doug Hogue can develop for 2012 (while likely seeing some mopup duty this year, too). Assuming Titus Young will be “a field stretching #2 WR” is looking like a shaky assumption, considering he still hasn’t even practiced yet, and rookie wideouts rarely produce right away. The only other stretch here is classifying Eric Wright as “an athletic cover corner,” but he has the tools and immediately upgrades the position. Between Wright, Alphonso Smith, Nathan Vasher, and Aaron Berry, the #2-#5 corners should be much better this year than last, across the board.

I remind everyone that half of all top draft picks bust out, and a similar number of free agents fail to live up to their billing. Several of these line items are sure to uncross themselves as the year goes on. But for right now, the larder is well stocked; the Lions are ready for autumn—when the growing season ends, and football season begins.

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In Living Color(s): Supporting The USMNT In Detroit

A a kid, I didn’t get to go to many games. My mother truly enjoys watching sports, but attending them has never been her thing. Despite my burning passion for the Lions, I didn’t go to a game until I was old enough to get to the Silverdome myself. I turn 30 this year—but as a committed father of three with a 90-minute drive to Detroit, season tickets aren’t yet within my grasp. I make it to a just couple of Lions and Tigers games a year, plus a smattering of Michigan State contests. So, there’s still a special excitement, a zinging flutter, that comes with buying tickets, with holding tickets, with waking up on a gameday morning and knowing I’ll be there.

Today, my nerves are electrified. Me, my wife, and our two elder kids are going to see the USMNT play a real live game that matters tonight, live and in person, and I can hardly believe it. All of my favorite soccer reporters and bloggers are in the Motor City today. All of the usual match previews I devour are tinged with Detroit flavor—and knowing I’ll actually be seeing the game they’re previewing live, not my laptop, not tape-delayed, not in Spanish, and not on ESPN 8: The Ocho or Fox Soccer Channel Plus .TV—makes them doubly delicious.

One of the very best soccer blogs, The Shin Guardian, laid out the Xs and Os of the “Motown Showdown” beautifully. The Yanks Are Coming, a USMNT blog, also put out a top notch preview piece called—what else?—"Detroit Rock City: Everybody’s Gonna Leave Their Seat." Ives Galarcep, Fox Soccer commentator and author of Soccer By Ives, Tweeted last night that Slows BBQ is "OFFICIAL." The Free Beer Movement, an awesome site dedicated to building American soccer through the gift of free beer, assembled an expert panel (Michigan native Alexi Lalas included) to assign a Gold Cup beer to each competing team.

The crazy thing is, at this time last year, I didn’t care. I’d been vaguely aware of the USMNT’s incredible run to the finals of the 2009 Confederations Cup, including an incredible 2-0 defeat of Spain, the best team in the world. I sensed a lot of buzz building around last year’s World Cup, and I discovered that many of the sports bloggers I admire most—Brian Cook of MGoBlog, Spencer Hall of EDSBS, Dan Levy of On the DL Podcast—are huge USMNT fans (all of those links go to exceptional content, especially Hall’s piece on the meaning of being a USMNT supporter. Click them).

So . . . I tuned in. I watched. I found that much of what I loved the most about hockey—the winding and unwinding of tension, the cat-and-mouse game of possession, the desperate anxiety of a centering pass, the anguish of a whiffed opportunity, the relief of an amazing save, the physics-defying feats that leave your eyes wide and jaw slack—it was all there in soccer, too. Soon, I cared. I really cared. I found myself wrapped up more and more in the success and failure of our national team—and with this moment, I was inexorably hooked:

After the end of the World Cup, I posted a piece called “Time Wonderfully Wasted,” the story of my WC2010 experience, and my blossoming soccer fandom. It had lain dormant within me, a seed planted when I attended a World Cup match as a child. I’d supported Italy throughout that tournament—partly because I come from an Italian-American family, and partly because in the soccer world, Italy was totally way awesomer than America. Those reasons weren’t really reasons, and my support of Italy lasted only as long as that tournament did.

“Choosing” a team to root for has never felt right to me; I’ve been a true-blue Lions fan since before I can remember. “Deciding” to care about a team I haven’t always lived and died with seemed impossible. But the USMNT? Their support was literally my birthright, and donning red, white, and blue once felt like always.

Tonight, my wife and kids will be wearing their colors, too. We’ll be in the Ford Field stands at 8 o’clock tonight, supporting our national team live for the very first time. The American Outlaws will be there, the Motor City Supporters will be there, and if you snag some tickets you can be there, too [Ed.: use promo code “GC11”]. I hope it’ll be an amazing experience, one that will plant a seed of fandom inside them . . . and maybe, just maybe, they won’t have to wait sixteen years for for it to sprout.

Technorati Tags: soccer,usmnt,gold cup,canada,ford field,tickets

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good seats are still available

Well, sort of.  Lions individual-game tickets went on sale this morning at 10:00, and of course I had to pony up for the home opener.  Just looking for standard upper-deck seats, hoping to get a crack at the closer-to-midfield ones, like sections 335 or 327, right next to the pricier red ones:

Unfortunately, despite refresh-monkeying the Tickemaster site, when I got through it put me in section 315--the bottom right coffin corner, off the field in both directions, not even on the side with the tunnel!  "Wow," I thought, "they must already have nearly sold out!" I pounced on the tickets, very glad not to have missed out.

Then I got to thinking . . . these are basically the worst seats in the house.  They cost fifty bucks.  The "Roar Zone" seats are only $42 . . . where are those?  I went to look for the "best available" Roar Zone seats and, to my dismay, they were right in the middle of the end zone.  A call to Ticketmaster customer service, a wait on hold, and a transfer later, my tickets were moved from 315 to 345--in between the hash and the home sideline, in the corner with the tunnel, view to the street, etc.; much much better overall—and $16 went back on my credit card.  So, Lions faithful, a lesson learned: The Roar Zone is a great deal!

However, TicketMaster, let me address you for a minute.  While I certainly appreciated your “World Class Customer Service” moving me to a better, cheaper seat, your “shipping option” of printing a .pdf file of the tickets with my own ink and paper CANNOT ETHICALLY COST ME $2.50!  If that is not an unfair, abusive, monopolistic practice, then I don’t know what is.

Please excuse my rant, folks; you may resume paying attention.  I'm hoping that the Roar Zone will indeed be just that: a place where the less-well-heeled will be using their Outside Voices to support the home team.  I will cheer the home team, boo the hated enemy, secretly scratch “Watch Brett Favre Play Live” off my personal sports Bucket List, and—with a little luck—see the new Lions literally kick off the next chapter in their history.

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