NMU Alum Jace Daniels battles

for spot with Bucs

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• 
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TAMPA — Adversity, and to a lesser extent football adversity, is nothing new for Jace Daniels.

"Jace hasn't had a lot of fresh bread in his life. He's overcome a lot," said Dan Flynn, his coach at Escanaba High on the shores of Lake Michigan and a high school coach on the state's Upper Peninsula since 1971.  

The offensive lineman didn't have the grades to play major-college football. He proudly played in Division II at Northern Michigan and started 42 games — a crowd of 2,543 saw his last one — but wasn't drafted out of college a year ago.

He signed with the Bucs and was among the team's final preseason cuts last fall. Signed to the practice squad, he was cut again two days later.

But the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Daniels was signed back to the practice squad four weeks later and spent the rest of last season there. This year, after getting a look with the first-team offensive line in practice, he's competing not only for a roster slot but also a spot in the starting lineup. 



"To fulfill that childhood dream, it's amazing to see," said his older brother Nick Anderson, who preceded Daniels as a tackle at Escanaba and Northern Michigan. "He's been all heart, all determination his whole life. He deserves it all."

Daniels, 25, grew up without his father in his life. His mother, Sheila Anderson, died from diabetes and cancer in November of his senior year of high school. 

"That made me grow up that much more quickly," Daniels said after Tuesday's practice. "That's the biggest thing you can go through, especially at that age. If I can get through that and keep going, I can get through anything. I play this game for her. I miss her every day."

He went to live with Nick, now 35, who had played Arena Football for the Iowa Barnstormers after college and remembers his brother always at his games — as a ballboy at Escanaba, carrying the cord for the assistant coaches' headsets in college, running out to get the tee after kickoffs. Daniels said Nick has been his inspiration in football and beyond.

"He's been my No. 1 role model. I've copycatted him, wanted to do everything exactly like he does," said Daniels, smiling behind a bushy red beard. "Now that I have this opportunity, he's behind me 100 percent. It helps so much having him to talk to every day."

Daniels said he's also motivated to play for his hometown — Esky to locals, which is why the high school nickname is the Eskymos — with a population of 12,000 or so. It's two hours north of Green Bay, but the NFL allegiances there are shifting.

"Everybody in this town loves the kid," said Anderson, a union carpenter in his hometown. "There's a lot of Buccaneers fans in Packer country up here. There's still a lot of Packer fans, but the Bucs are creeping in." 

Green Bay's starting center last year, Evan Dietrich-Smith, is now a leader on the Bucs' line after signing as a free agent in the offseason, and he is impressed with the physical approach he has seen from an unheralded young player much like himself in his early NFL years.

"He's a mauler. He'll put a body on a guy," Dietrich-Smith said of Daniels. "Everybody has some things to work on, myself included, but right now they're giving him a shot, and I think he's taking that opportunity and running with it."

Daniels understands the long odds he faces to make the roster, let alone beat out more experienced competition for a starting job. Saturday's preseason home game against the Dolphins is another chance to show what he can do, but he's appreciative of every day he has in a Bucs uniform.

"I wake up saying how blessed I am to be in this position," Daniels said. "I thought about this every single day as a kid, so to actually be there, having the opportunity to do it, is a blessing."

Contact Greg Auman at gauman@tampabay.com and (813) 226-3346. Follow @gregauman.

 

Outdoor ‘Cats: NMU takes practice outside

 

August 20, 2014 12:28 am

      
       

      

MARQUETTE – The Wildcats are halfway through training camp. Northern Michigan University has the luxury of playing and practicing inside the Superior Dome. But with the dome being used by the university to get ready for the upcoming semester, the Wildcats took things outside on the shores of Lake Superior.

It was the ‘Cats first evening practice of camp. For two hours, the Wildcats ‘brought the juice’ as they refer to it. All six of NMU’s road games are outdoors and three of the Wildcats’ 11 games have kickoff set for 7 p.m, so Tuesday’s practice was a great change of pace to experience playing during the evening hours.

“We are still in full blown camp mode, so the plan still in the evaluation phase. You always want to simulate as close as you can to gameday during the course of a practice,” said head coach Chris Ostrowsky. “We have a lot of different guys playing critical parts in terms of matching up good guys against the old guys with the ages and all that kind of stuff, so I thought it was really good at a lot of different levels.”

“It’s lovely out here,” said NMU senior wide receiver Marcus Tucker. “We’re loving the weather. Guys are really getting after it. It’s a bit rainy, but in the GLIAC, things are going to be like that. Not everybody has the luxury of having a dome.”

NMU Football Names 2014 Captains

MARQUETTE, Mich. – Northern Michigan University head football coach Chris Ostrowsky announced Monday that junior running back Wyatt Jurasin, junior linebacker Levi Perry, senior defensive lineman Trever Kruzel and senior wide receiver Marcus Tucker have been elected captains for the 2014 season by a vote of their teammates.

"All four are great ambassadors for our program and I am excited to see them lead this group of players this season," commented Ostrowsky. 

Jurasin, a criminal justice major from Marquette, led the Wildcats in rushing last season. Jurasin rushed for 545 yards on 145 carries averaging 3.8 yards per carry with five touchdowns. He also had 10 catches for 93 receiving yards after appearing in all 10 games last season.

"It is a huge honor to be a captain on this team. I think it means a lot," said Jurasin. "I want to help these young guys be the best they can and lead this team to a national championship, which is our goal. We have so much talent on or team this year and it is the most talent I have seen during my time at NMU. We are coming together so well and it is only the fifth practice. People are flying around practices at an outrageous tempo, Coach O is pushing us to the limit and everyone is giving back what coach is asking for. I am extremely proud of my teammates and I cannot wait to open the season with them."

Perry, who is making the move from defensive back to linebacker this year, is a native of Northville, Michigan and a construction management major. Perry appeared in all 10 games last season and was ranked third on the team with 62 tackles including 32 solo hits. He also had an interception and fumble recover in the season opener against Findlay.

"I feel like whenever a large group of guys select you as one of four guys to lead them it is a crazy big honor," said Perry. "It was overwhelming when I found out that they chosen me and the other guys to lead them into battle. It is a pretty big deal for me.  I feel like the team is coming together great. We are about halfway through camp and from last year it is a big difference. The atmosphere is exciting. It is an honor to go out there with my brothers and compete. It is apparent and you can see how hard everyone is working."

Kruzel, a Boyne City, Michigan native and entrepreneurship major, was fifth on the team last season with 47 tackles. Kruzel was second on the squad with four sacks and led the team with 75 tackles for loss. He also returned a fumbles eight yards for a touchdown against Wayne State in a 33-21 victory.
"It is a huge honor to be named captain. As a freshman it was something I never thought I would be able to accomplish," said Kruzel. "It is great to be seen at the same level with the other players that are chosen to lead this team and to help them accomplish the goals we have set. We have a really talented group of guys with the new guys and returners. It is an honor to lead those new guys as they develop into great NMU players."

Tucker is the Wildcats top receiver from a year ago. He is a native of Flint, Michigan and is majoring in criminal justice. Tucker racked up 674 yards on 49 catches last season while scoring four touchdowns. Broke 100 yards receiving against Ohio Dominican (127) and Grand Valley State (111).
"It is a big honor to be chosen a captain for our team. I can see the vision in which the program is trying to go and we are really trying as a group of captains to entrench ourselves in that vision and are working towards leading our team to a championship and leading NMU to the place it should be," said Tucker. "I am extremely humbled and honored to be chosen as a captain and we have a great team and group of captains with us to lead the way. Those guys are great football players and great men, it is an honor to call them brothers and friends."

NMU returns 18 starters from last season, nine on offense,  eight on defense and one specialist and open their season at home against Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference foe Northwood at 7 p.m. Sept. 6. 

They also host Michigan Tech for homecoming on Sept. 27, Wayne State on Oct. 18, Walsh Nov. 1 and Findlay on Nov. 15. 

NMU travels to play at Quincy Sept. 13, Hillsdale, Sept. 20, Saginaw Valley State Oct. 4, Malone Oct. 11, Ashland Oct. 25 and Ferris State Nov. 18.

Single game and season tickets are on sale now. For ticket information call the Superior Dome Ticket office at 906-227-1032 or visit www.nmu.edu/tickets .

 

MONDAY MOANIN:

SISU EDITION

Fortitude, tradition help Finns flourish in brutal U.P.

John Carlisle

Detroit Free Press  

 August 25, 2014     

 

KEWEENAW PENINSULA — John Niska ran naked through the forest and jumped into Lake Superior.

 

 

It was cool summer day, and he’d just gotten out of his backyard sauna, which sits at the edge of the fern-dappled woods around his cabin.

 

Niska had the sauna built here recently, partly because he grew up with one and missed it, partly because up here, a sauna is simply an essential part of life.

“My grandparents lived a mile from our farm, and they had one,” said the 66-year-old college professor. “It was traditional on Saturday night. We went to their sauna, and in the winter I would roll in the snow with my friends after the sauna. It’s second nature. I think it’s the Finnish in me.”

There are few things more Finnish than a sauna, and there are few places as Finnish as the Keweenaw Peninsula.

 

More people of Finnish descent live in the northwest part of the Upper Peninsula than anywhere else in the world outside of Finland, according to U.S. census numbers. And their heritage isn’t just some faded memory. It’s a living presence that infuses the culture.

“There’s still an identity, and sometimes it takes visitors to come in to recognize that identity, but it’s in some of the foodways, and it’s certainly in people’s attitudes,” said James Kurtti, the 56-year-old director of the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock, which is part of Finlandia University. “There’s a strong sense of being Finnish.”

The blue and white Finnish flag is painted on mailboxes, flutters from flag posts on streetlights and flies in front of houses. The Finnish language is taught in high school. The downtown street signs of Hancock have both English and Finnish names for the roads.

And there’s the geography itself — the firs and pines, the lakes and streams, and the harsh winters that aren’t much different from the weather and the landscape of Finland itself.

Mark Hepokoski 39, of Hancock shares snap peas from his garden with his wife Riikka Hepokoski as their children Greta Hepokoski, 10, and Johan Hepokoski pick more from the garden at their home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

 

A lot of places in America say they’re like another country. Up here, it really is.

“I think that it’s not only within the people who have Finnish roots, but it kind of reflects on the entire area,” said Kurtti, who’s also the editor of the Finnish American Reporter, a national monthly newspaper based in Hancock that reports on all things Finn.

“People have a little bit of Finnish in them regardless of where their ancestors came from if you live here.”

Copper miners

Finns first arrived in the Upper Peninsula after the Civil War, when a copper mining company recruited them from mines in Norway because of their reputation as hard workers. First, they came by the dozen, then by the thousands as word spread back home about the money to be made in the newly discovered mines of the U.P.

In 1880, about 1,500 Finns lived in Keweenaw and Houghton counties. By 1930 there were nearly 75,000 Finns and their descendants here, founding small towns with Finnish names like Nisula and Tapiola and Paavola.

The region became the world’s biggest producer of copper, and generated more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush. To this day, the area’s still called Copper Country.

But one by one, the mines were depleted, the money left the region, and once-thriving cities became empty, leaving a string of ghost towns along what’s now the main highway north through the Keweenaw Peninsula.

“This place never really recovered from the mining days,” Kurtti said. “It’s a quarter of the population in some of these communities from what it was 100 years ago. There’s just no wealth here. The industries are all small. But people have lived with it for so long they’re just kind of accustomed to it. I think when a recession comes you don’t feel it as much, because it’s always hard times.”

There’s a word that’s everywhere here. It’s on T-shirts and mugs, on bumper stickers and license plates, and it’s part of everyday conversation. It’s “sisu” and it has become shorthand for the essence of being Finnish in the Upper Peninsula. It roughly translates as fortitude.

It’s always taken a lot of it to survive up here. The weather is brutal. Just last winter, 380 inches of snow fell in some areas. There aren’t a lot of jobs, and many of those are only seasonal. And residents have long said they don’t even feel connected to the rest of Michigan. “We’re closer to two other state capitals than we are our own,” Kurtti said.

“If you live here you have to have a lot of sisu,” said Melvin Kangas, 81, who, like most Finns here, is a descendant of immigrant miners. He sat inside Roy’s Pasties and Bakery in Houghton, holding a conversation in Finnish with friends over morning coffee as the Portage River flowed past the window.

“It takes fortitude to live up here. Some people, they move up here, they don’t realize what it’s like,” Kangas said. “In a few years, you see a ‘For Sale’ sign on their place.”

Pasties and saunas

Mark Hepokoski and his family of snow-haired blonds live in a fairy-tale house in a forest where people pick berries by the roadside.

“We were lucky to get it,” said the 39-year-old father of four about his small, yellow, country-style house that stands among little red barns. “We moved here and kind of fell in love with the area. We’d always heard there’s this place called the U.P., this land of pasties and Finns.”

He grew up in Minnesota to Finnish-American parents, worked on the East Coast, lived in Finland for a time, met Riikka, and together they moved to the northern Upper Peninsula, to a place not much different from the country she came from.

“In a way, the people here are more Finnish than the people in Finland, like they’re really proud of their heritage and stuff, proud to be Finnish,” said Riikka, a 36-year-old native of Finland, as she served the family a dinner of chicken, potatoes and greens picked from the yard, a Finnish sourdough rye bread and grape juice.

“These people here are like really old-fashioned Finland,” she said.

The couple teaches their kids Finnish folk dancing, the Finnish language and little ways of the culture, like pulling the car over in the country and picking berries and mushrooms in the woods. It’s a Finnish thing, they said.

“Everybody picks berries here,” Mark said. The family did it when they lived in Virginia for a time, and would draw stares. “My friends thought it was so strange. They would call us hunters and gatherers because they’d never seen that on the side of the highway. So then when we moved here we noticed everybody picks berries. Up here, it’s just a normal part of the culture.”

Few things symbolize that culture like the sauna. Like most Upper Peninsula Finnish families, they have a wood-burning sauna behind the house and use it often.

“It’s something hard to explain,” Mark said. “You know, they talk about how saunas are a big deal, but you don’t understand it until you experience it. It’s like we can’t live without sauna.”

Speaking Finnish

Now and then, the conversation inside Roy’s Pasties and Bakery lapses into Finnish.
The version of the language spoken in the Upper Peninsula is an archaic form, frozen in place at the time when the miners immigrated here. It’s so old-fashioned it’s drawn the curiosity of Finnish natives who visit the area.

“Our language here is different than the Finnish language now in Finland,” Kangas said. “So they enjoyed talking to me because I was an antique piece. They would invite me to parties and I wondered why I was so popular. But it was because they wanted to hear their mother tongue in a way that hadn’t been used in a while.”

Diane Thornton sat with him and two other Finnish friends, listening to them talk as she sipped coffee. The 62-year-old Houghton resident grew up witnessing Finnish Lutheran Sunday services in her house, and remembers her grandmother singing Finnish nursery rhymes to the grandkids. The melodic sound of their conversation reminds her of that childhood.

“Sometimes I’ll surprise them and come out with a few words myself,” she said. “But I like to hear it.”

This little morning gathering with the retirees, she noted, is one of the few places to hear the language conversationally nowadays.

“I think it’s going to just disappear,” she said. “The torch isn’t being carried to the next generation.”
Kurtti isn’t so sure, though, that the Finnishness of the area is fading. “I don’t get too concerned with trying to put the lid on the casket,” he said.

He’s one of the people making sure it doesn’t die. As director of the heritage center, he collects artifacts and archive material, screens Finnish films, offers folk dancing lessons and teaches the Finnish language.

He also fills a more pop cultural role, like helping with proofreading requests for Finnish tattoos, and fielding requests like the one recently from a woman who asked whether he could find someone to come to a birthday party in a Finnish folk costume and sing “Happy Birthday” in Finnish. He made it happen.

They may be funny requests, but they are signs that even if the language itself isn’t spoken in public much anymore, the Finnish identity of this region remains strong. People here still hold onto that identity because it helps them define this place and themselves.

“I had a woman come a couple years ago,” Kurtti said of a visitor to the Finnish American Heritage Center. “Her grandmother was born in Finland. And she said, ‘You know, my grandmother and my father, I always thought they were nuts because they were so unlike everybody else.’ Then they went to Finland and said, ‘We realized there’s a whole country of these people.’ ”

“So it’s kind of like that, I think. You understand yourself if you understand your history.”
 

 A BACK TO SCHOOL MESSAGE

FROM PHIL'S 550

Packers now selling grotesque looking 22-inch kielbasa with beer cheese named "The Horse Collar"

By Ben Rohrbach 18 hours ago Shutdown Corner

           

                       

B.J. Raji is about to give new meaning to the phrase horse collar tackle. (Getty Images)

When you're an NFL team named for a company that canned animal by-products under the slogan, "A meat market on your pantry shelf," and your fans wear cheese as a hat, your stadium better have a menu to match. Enter The Horse Collar, a 22-inch kielbasa covered in beer cheese and fried sauerkraut.

 According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, The Horse Collar will sell for $20 at Lambeau Field this winter and appears to come with a penalty far stiffer than the 15 yards for a tackle of the same name.

 

For the record, Green Bay ranked as the nation's 10th fattest city with approximately a third of its citizens weighing in as obese, according to a Gallup poll, and they're apparently making a push for top billing.

 

The Packers will also be unveiling a doughnut ice cream sandwich, which looks delicious, 



Bratchos aka Wisconsin in a Bucket

and the Bratchos — a bowl of brats, cheese and fried chips Rovell dubbed "Wisconsin in a bucket" — but The Horse Collar is the star of the show, coming in at a rough estimate of 10 billion calories.

"It's made for two," Lambeau Field's executive chef Heath Barbato told ESPN.com. "If you can tackle this one alone, you're a champ." Or currently suffering from a massive coronary.

TBT:

TRAINING CAMP EDITION

MY RESPONSE TO THE MAYOR ON THE 

 ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE 

 

"Just throw me the Goddamn ball, Reno!"

Robin Williams’ Greatest Sports-Related Role Was In A Movie You’ve Probably Forgotten

Robin Williams as Jack Dundee in The Best of Times

by Rick Chandler | 8:34 pm, August 11th, 2014

                 

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It had become somewhat trendy to diss Robin Williams in recent years — and let’s face it, projects like “RV” and “Death to Smoochy” made it somewhat easy. But these are tiny blemishes, and who doesn’t have a few of those?

When I heard the news of his death, the first Williams movie I thought of was “The Best of Times”. Weird, huh?  (EDITOR"S NOTE:  This has always been one of my favorite sports movies)You may not even have seen it: from 1986, it told the story of small-town banker Jack Dundee (Williams), who, against the town’s better judgement, organizes a rematch of a fateful high school football game from 12 years before which he had lost by dropping a crucial pass. 

"Let's play some football you Commie pissants!

Williams never did much with sports themes on the big screen — aside from cycling, he wasn’t much of a fan (although he really got into the San Francisco Giants’ playoff run in 2010, attending almost every game). But “The Best of Times” was a beautiful exception: it was nostalgic, funny, heartwarming and, most of all, true.  

 

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The Best of Times is set in the town of Taft, California, where it was also filmed. The film opens with some details on the real history of the town, from its original name of Moron (before that term had any mental associations), to its oil boom days. It then paints a picture of a town that has been in a downward spiral for a long time, exemplified by its success when compared to other towns, and most particularly in the big game. Since the early 1900s, Taft’s biggest high school — the fictional Midway Union High School, though it’s just referred to as “Taft” in all but a few references in the film — has fielded a football team. And every year they play their big game of the season against nearby Bakersfield. And every year, Bakersfield slaughters Taft by 80 points or more. Every year except 1972.



In 1972, the quarterback and captain of the football field was Reno Hightower. Considered a jerk on and off the field, he was nevertheless unparalleled in Taft’s history at not only playing his best, but inspiring his team to play the best. Taft won against several of the other schools under his leadership. And in 1972, he brought Taft the closest they ever came to defeating Bakersfield, in a game that ended with a tie (overtime rules not being in place). But it wasn’t for lack of trying on Reno’s part. His last pass of the game was straight into the hands of third-string wide receiver Jack Dundee. And Jack, with the ball thrown perfectly to his hands, wide open with no defenders between him and the goal line… dropped the ball. And he’s been dropping the ball ever since. 

Reno and Jack never completely recover from failing to win the game. Reno injures his knee while being tackled on the last play, and a victory that would have been one last show of glory ends up a sour note at the end of his football career. 14 years later, Reno (Kurt Russell) is a “van specialist” in Taft, fixing cars and creating elaborate paint jobs for vans. He’s comfortable in Taft, but his wife wants more. Gigi (Pamela Reed) keeps trying to leave him for Los Angeles, but can never make it out of town due to her car breaking down; Reno never fixes it because he still loves her and doesn’t want her to leave.

Jack feels like ever since he dropped the ball, he’s been a loser, and that if he had just caught the ball his whole life would have been better. Finally, Darla (Margaret Whitton), a “masseuse” that he pays to act as a psychological therapist instead of her usual duties, suggests he just play the game over. It’s a silly idea, and Jack says so, but when she asks why not, he can’t think of an answer.  The remaining two thirds of the film consists of Jack trying to convince everybody else to go along with the idea, and what happens when they finally do.

I said it’s not a movie about the big game, and it really isn’t. It’s about Jack and Reno and their growth as a result of getting the big game back together again. It’s a light character comedy, with Williams and Russell playing off each other and everybody else; it’s not going to generate any major laughs, but it’s pretty entertaining throughout. Russell is particularly good as the ex-quarterback who is content with leaving his glory days in the past, and who just wants to comfortably idle his way through life. Williams is more restrained than he usually is as the depressed Jack, but he still gets up to some of his usual antics as he manipulates the whole town into getting excited over the idea of the game. 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

AUGUST 8, 1974 

"Therefore, I will resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice-President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office."

PRESIDENT NIXON ANNOUNCES

HIS RESIGNATION ON NATIONAL TV

TBT

 

FORGET ELVIS MEETS NIXON!

HOW ABOUT NIXON & O.J.!

FROM THE MUUCH CALL DEPARTMENT: 

Former Lions QB & World Class Jerk Scott Mitchell going on 'The Biggest Loser' to get healthy

By Frank Schwab 16 hours ago Shutdown Corner

0

 

                                       

You know all the tales of NFL linemen who lose a ton of weight right after they're done playing? It seems former Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell took the opposite route in retirement, though he's ready to change that.

Mitchell will be a contestant on this season of the NBC show "The Biggest Loser," and he doesn't look much like his days with the Lions, Dolphins, Ravens and Bengals. Mitchell, whose last NFL appearance was 2001, has grown to 366 pounds.

MItchell was never a small guy when he played quarterback, coming in at 6-foot-6, 240 pounds, but his weight got out of control after his playing days due to "a busy life and poor diet," according to his "The Biggest Loser" bio. The bio also said Mitchell's dad died earlier this year due to obesity-related issues, and that was his biggest motivation for going on the show. He has five kids, from 11 years old to 21, and suffers from sleep apnea and high blood pressure, so at age 46 he was ready to make some serious changes in his life.

Mitchell will be joined on the show by another former Lions player, offensive lineman Damien Woody. Woody, who also played with the Patriots and Jets, is starting the show at 388 pounds.

The show premieres on NBC on Sept. 11. 

HERE'S WHAT LIONS ALL-PRO LOMAS BROWN HAD TO SAY ABOUT MITCHELL

Lomas Brown: I purposely missed a block to get Scott Mitchell hurt

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 22, 2012, 3:44 PM EDT

Getty Images

 

Former Lions offensive tackle and current ESPN analyst Lomas Brown made a startling confession in a radio interview on Friday: Brown said that he once purposely missed a block because he wanted the man he was supposed to block, Packers defensive end Sean Jones, to injure Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell.

 

In an interview on ESPN Radio, Brown said that in a 1994 game, he purposely whiffed on Jones so that Jones could get a clean shot on Mitchell. Sure enough, Brown got his intended result, as Mitchell was knocked out of the game.

 

“We were playing Green Bay in Milwaukee,” Brown said. “We were getting beat, 24-3, at that time and he just stunk up the place. He’s throwing interceptions, just everything. So I looked at Kevin Glover, our All-Pro center and I said, ‘Glove, that is it.’ I said, ‘I’m getting him out the game.’ . . . So I got the gator arms on the guy at the last minute, he got around me, he hit Scott Mitchell, he did something to his finger . . . and he came out the game. [Lions backup quarterback] Dave Krieg came in the game.”

 

Host Ryen Russillo expressed shock that Brown would admit such a thing, but Brown showed no remorse.

 

“As you can tell, I’m just not a big fan of Scott Mitchell. He’s just not on my Christmas list. He won’t be getting any Christmas presents from me this year,” Brown said.

 

The Detroit Free Press notes that while Brown misremembered some of the details of the game, his basic description of what happened adds up: Jones drilled Mitchell with a hit that broke a finger on Mitchell’s passing hand, and Mitchell was replaced by Krieg. As Brown correctly recalled, Mitchell was having a terrible game, but Krieg played well in relief for the rest of that game and played well for the Lions the rest of the season.

 

 

MORE FROM THE MITCHELL JACKASS ARCHIVES

Lions' Fontes-mitchell `Feud' Takes Mickey Mouse Turn

November 03, 1996|By Don Pierson.

Packers coach Mike Holmgren is down to third-string receivers and doesn't know who will line up against the Lions Sunday.

 

Lions coach Wayne Fontes has the league's No. 1 receiver in Herman Moore plus Barry Sanders, but quarterback Scott Mitchell dressed up like the coach at a Halloween party and made fun of him.

Which problem would you rather have?

After Fontes apologized for yanking Mitchell between first and second down in last week's loss to the Giants, Mitchell donned Mickey Mouse ears, stuffed a pillow under a sweatshirt and a cigar in his mouth, and mimicked Fontes.

"Wayno!" Mitchell said. "I'll bet this gets on the news." 

Holmgren saw it and said: "Honestly, I didn't like that too much. I guess it was a charity thing and all that kind of stuff. That wasn't my thing."

Just as Fontes said his decision was poorly timed, so did Mitchell, who claimed he would have worn the costume even if he hadn't been benched. Fontes wore mouse ears for a recent charity event and was outraged when a newspaper photo made fun of him.

"I just thought it would be funny," Mitchell said. "I didn't mean anything personal by it or anything. The timing of what had happened in the game had nothing to do with what I was going to do.
"It actually made it better because of what had happened. I just think you can't take yourself too serious. I thought it would be a good way of just kind of maybe breaking up the tension, or whatever."

Just as Fontes apologized to Mitchell, Mitchell smoothed it over with Fontes, who said he only wanted to know two things.

"I asked him if I had a good time, who I danced with. And No. 2, I didn't think I was that heavy," Fontes said. "Other than that, I'm sure he did it in fun."

Somehow, Holmgren couldn't envision Brett Favre slapping on a mustache and mimicking him.
"Wayne has a tremendous capacity to handle tough situations. I'm amazed sometimes," Holmgren said.
 

 

- - - - - - -

PARTING THOUGHTS:

If this isn't evidence of completely sick culture in the Detroit Lions organization I don't know what is.  Down deep in their heart they are bums. They know it and they act like it.

MEANWHILE IN WEST MICHIGAN . . .

Dude's Massive Rave Leads To Historically Great Local News Segment

154,826

74

Tom Ley

 

This is a local news report about James Taylor, a wonderfully goatee'd, 20-year-old West Michigan man who threw a big-ass party at his house that featured multiple DJs, fire-throwers, go-go dancers, and about 2,000 attendees. It's a really funny news report, but it achieves transcendence around the 25-second mark.

 

It is at this point in the clip that Taylor begins to defend himself against those who might think he acted irresponsibly by throwing this party. "I didn't force anything down anybody's throat," he says. Good point, James! "I didn't make anybody stay here until 7:00 a.m. or 11 or whenever it is everybody finally left. I didn't make this kid pass out on my floor." 

 

And that's when it happens. The camera pans down, and holy shit there really is a kid just passed the fuck out on James's floor right now.

This is a wonderful moment. That kid has clearly been lying in that spot for hours, and yet young James gives so few fucks that he doesn't mind letting the dude stay there while the local news tromps around the house. Oh yeah, we can do the interview right over here in the living room, guys. Watch your step here—yeah, no, it's cool, he's fine, just step on over. James Taylor isn't about to tell that kid that he has to get up and go home. James Taylor just wants everyone to party and chill and live their lives however they want to, you know?

 

And if there's any justice in the world, this cameraman will win the local news Emmy for outstanding camera work, or whatever award is given out to local news cameramen who have an impeccable sense for comedic timing. Give him all the awards.

[Gawker]