Sean Yuille, over at Pride of Detroit, has long been a blogging role model. He’s built up an incredibly large, faithful community of Lions fans around his work. He’s always got an intelligent, balanced take on whatever’s happening in the world of the Lions—and he’s very, very quick at passing along those happenings, even breaking some news of his own. When this blog was but a tadpole, I tried keeping pace with PoD’s up-to-the-minute Lions coverage . . . it didn’t take long before I threw up my tailfin in frustration.
We’re about to hit the news ‘dead zone’ in the NFL season; a long stretch where practically nothing of substance occurs. Sean put out an open call for contributors with tales to tell, and a project I’d long since put on the back burner suddenly came to a rolling boil.
I’ve always wanted to do a recurring history series, delving deep into the Lions’ huge library of old players, old games, and old successes. The Lions have been so terrible for so long, there’s an entire generation of Lions fans who’ve grown up without real memories of a winning season. They don’t remember Barry, don’t remember Wayne Fontes, don’t remember the NFC Championship Game run, and certainly don’t remember the almost-as-awful-as-the-aughts-eighties.
Even fans of my generation, dimly remembering bright spots like Bennie Blades and Mike Cofer, and washouts like Andre Ware and Chuck Long, are clueless about the greats of the seventies, the fifties, and the thirties. Doing the research and writing on would mean cluing myself in, along with everyone else. To that end, I present to you, the first in the series:
Yesterday was Memorial Day, a day where Americans everywhere remember, honor, and celebrate the sacrifices of those who give their lives to protect us. We gave up work and school to visit cemeteries, watch parades, play badminton, and eat sausage, all while remembering those who gave their lives so we’d be free.
For a small fraction of America, though, today is O.J. Atogwe day—the day we skimp on work and school to cross fingers, light candles, murmur incantations, and refresh football websites, seeing what’s going on with St. Louis Rams safety O.J. Atogwe.
According to Brian Stull of toastedrav.com, the Rams continue to negotiate with Atogwe, and will up to and beyond midnight tonight. For those not already pounding F5 on Pro Football Talk, Atogwe is a restricted free agent, due a one-year tender offer worth 110% of last year’s salary. However, since the Rams made Atogwe their franchise player last season, he raked in an average of the top five safeties’ salaries for 2009. 110% of his 2009 salary is nearly seven million dollars.
Even if Atogwe were worth that kind of money for 2010—and, coming off shoulder surgery, that’s questionable—the Rams are in rebuilding mode. Paying Atogwe that kind of money, just to be right back in this same situation next year, doesn’t make sense. The Rams would love to him lock up to a long-term deal, but it doesn’t sound like that’s close. If it doesn’t get done by midnight, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent.
Note the following line from Stull’s article:
Dallas, Miami, and Jacksonville are all reportedly interested in Atogwe, but none signed him to an offer sheet prior to the April 15th deadline.
Note the significant absence of the word “Detroit” in there. As I’ve said before, the “vibe” I get is that the Lions broke the bank on Vanden Bosch and Burleson—and were willing to do so because the coaching staff knew them so well. Despite being just into his prime (he’ll be playing his sixth season, at age 29), and a perfect fit for the skill set the Lions need, I will be stunned if Jim Schwartz is on Atogwe’s doorstep with a Fathead and a bottle of vino at midnight.
Further, if Dallas and Miami are involved, the Lions are going to have serious competition: two teams with deep pockets and winning rosters, looking for that last piece, in an uncapped year. It’s true that Atogwe is from Windsor, and grew up rooting for the Lions, but business is business, and this is Atogwe’s job, not hobby.
This will likely be Atogwe’s first, and last, giant long-term deal. If he signs a five-year contract, he’ll be 34 at the end of it, and playing a position where speed is crucial. Further, he’ll probably be making ridiculous, back-loaded money. If he even sees the end of that deal, he won’t be a hot commodity for 2015. He may, or may not, play elsewhere for a year or two after that—but in terms of big money, this is it.
For all these reasons, I don’t see the Lions as major players for his services . . . but I’m crossing my fingers anyway.
Roy Williams is a joke. At least, that’s what they think in Dallas, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports:
As much as Cowboys fans love to celebrate the Herschel Walker trade in 1989 that launched the great run of the 1990s, Williams is almost the antithesis of that deal. No, Williams didn’t cost as much as Walker gained, but Williams has fallen so far short of expectation that it’s a joke.
Just three years ago, Roy Williams was coming off of an 82-catch, 1,310-yard, 7-TD season. In the words of a very-different-sounding Yahoo! Sports Roy Williams article from 2007:
One season removed from his first Pro Bowl appearance, Detroit Lions wide receiver Roy Williams has firmly established himself as a star in the NFL. What few outside of Detroit know is that he's also one of the most entertaining voices in the league.
Roy certainly was entertaining. In Detroit, he came across as intelligent, funny, and famously stingy with his dollars—but not with his praise for teammates. I always found Roy easy to like. Seriously, a superstar NFL wideout who’s also a music-loving homebody? That’s music to my ears.
Robinson: Not a lot of people know this about you, but you're a pretty musical guy. You play sax, piano and guitar, right?
Williams: Yeah. Hearing the sax when it's in jazz, it can really chill you out. That's one of the things when I retire – I want to move back to Odessa and buy a house once I stack that paper and learn the drums. I want to play the drums.
Upon reading that article, my wife happily christened Roy her Favorite Lion. Her first Lions jersey was a home Williams #11. Of course, besides all the awesome off-the-field stuff, Roy made a habit of doing on-field stuff like this:
Roy was on his way to being a superstar in Detroit—and when the Lions added Calvin Johnson, it seemed as though the Lions would have one of the best WR duos ever assembled. But Roy took a step back in ‘07. Shortly into the 2008 season, Roy’s role was that of the second fiddle, and his heart was elsewhere.
Clearly, he wasn't a great fit for Mike Martz's timing offense, preferring to use his physical tools to improves and dominate, rather than be exactly on a mark at exactly the right time. Clearly, the losing bothered him. Clearly, he didn’t enjoy drawing coverage so that Mike Furrey and Corey Bradford could catch balls in the margins. From Nick Cotsonika’s piece in the Freep ($):
"I feel that if I'm not involved in the game and we lose, I'm (ticked) off," Williams said. "But if I'm not involved and we win, hey, it's a great job. And I've been like that since I've been here. I just feel like I can make some plays, as well. ... Three balls a week, that's not going to cut it."
Even though that article is titled “MAD MEN: ROY WILLIAMS,” I didn’t think he was angry. He seemed . . . vacant. Empty. Whatever magic, whatever spark he possessed, it was gone. Gone, as if he was just waiting get out of Detroit. Gone, as if he’d already left. Gone, as if he was already back in Texas. From the Grand Rapids Press:
The one thing you learn about Williams very quickly is that he loves Texas and would love to return to his home state. Williams is a Texas guy and mentions it in nearly every interview and flies back to his home in Odessa to see his young child every chance he gets. If the Lions get two consecutive days off, Williams bolts for Texas. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it shows where his heart is.
Well, Roy got his wish: he was traded to the Cowboys, he donned the star, he returned as the prodigal son. But oddly, whatever went missing . . . it didn’t come back.
Watching Roy in Dallas, he plays like he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Actually, scratch that, it looks like he’s got the weight of the world in his hands. He never possessed Herman Moore-soft hands—in fact, he’d garnered a bit of a reputation for dropping the easy ones. But a man who made impossible catches seem routine suddenly couldn’t catch a cold.
Watching Roy attempt to catch a football these days is painful. You can see him get open. You can watch the ball come his way. You can see him extend his hands, watch it all the way in, and then . . . FLUFFERNUTTER! It shouldn’t happen with an NFL-caliber wideout, let alone one as gifted and well-compensated as he is. I've speculated before that it might be his vision. Former Jaguar receiver Jimmy Smith struggled to catch the ball until his vision was corrected with surgery; it’s a wonder Roy can see anything through his trademark limo-tint visor.
Whatever it is—vision, malaise, a case of the yips—it can’t be that he’s just working because he needs the money. When the Cowboys pay him the thirteen million dollars they owe him for this season, he’ll have earned fifty million in his career. Agent Ben Dogra said, during a meeting with Roy and his family:
Let’s have a plan so he can achieve greatness, do what you have to do to be a great player. Roy can walk away from the game right now. He has all the money he needs, but this is about what’s inside of him, what he wants to be.
Well, that’s the question: what is inside Roy Williams? What does he want to be? For all his unfulfilled potential, for all of the millions of Lions-fan dollars he collected, for everything that his drafting, failing, and departure represents, I still want him to make good. I can’t believe that Lions football was tainted, so cursed, that for a decade, no amount of talent, effort, or luck could make anyone who passed through this organization successful.
Get out there, Roy, and show the doubters they’re wrong. Prove to them, to the spoiled Cowboys fans, and to us, that you really would have been successful. Take your rightful place amongst the best and brightest in the NFL.
Posts
