I saw the following passage in today's Freep. I'll give you one guess as to which hack columnist wrote this tripe.
"You could say the same thing with Julius Peppers' play," Schwartz said. "I mean, Julius Peppers goes in to attack Calvin. I mean, Calvin is 7-feet tall (and) Peppers is the same way. That's a basketball game between those two guys, but he hits him with a clothesline right in the neck area. Technically, that's a penalty. But you don't hear us saying 'it's a dirty play' or anything else."
Well, actually, the Lions are complaining.
They mistakenly think that taking meetings with the NFL commissioner while nurturing a reputation of trash-talking and late hitting gave them the toughness they lacked. That gave them a personality, an identity that's more easily embraced. But such attitude only morphs into a mental sturdiness when you equally amp up your performance capacity.
If you said anyone other than "Drew Sharp," you must do your damnedest to avoid anything Sharp writes and says on the airwaves. If a column comes off as mean-spirited and hackneyed, you know it's from the the Freep's designated hit man.
So why am I talking issue with this specific column? It's Sharp's claim, with absolutely nothing to back it up, the Lions are "complaining." Does this quote from Nate Burleson sound like he's bitching and moaning?
Via the new beat writer for Mlive, Anwar S. Richardson:
"There's going to be some guys getting fined," Burleson said. "If you go out there and throw some blows, you got to expect that FedEx letter in your locker."
Here's Justin Durant's take on the game, via Twitter:
That's complaining? In Sharp's mind, yes. To anyone with a half a brain? No.
As for Sharp somehow coming up with the ridiculous assertion that Suh's visit to NFL HQ = complaining, Suh has long said otherwise.
"Once you go through something, you've got to learn from it, whether it's good or bad," Suh said. "I'm the type of person that doesn't like to repeat mistakes, and that was the main thing, more or less, that he was emphasizing. I haven't really made any of the same mistakes that I have made in the past."
Is there any sort of complaint in the statement? Suh comes off like a defensive lineman who doesn't have an axe to grind. Even if he does, Suh is smart enough not to grind it in front of the media.
It's obvious the Lions know how they play, and it's overly aggressive, sometimes stepping over the line to dirty. It's also obvious they are going to live with the consequences. And why is that? Because the Lions know complaining won't make a difference in the eyes of the league.
Regardless, Sharp writes an entire column saying the Lions whine, yet his only evidence to back it up is Suh's visit to NFL HQ. I'd call that a damn small sample size (A tactic Rob Parker, the worst columnist in America, used indiscriminately when he was writing for the Detroit News...so I know it when I see it.). So for Sharp to say the Lions "complain" is disingenuous at best, and and an outright fabrication at worst.
I'm not at all happy with the Lions losing 3 of 4, and their sometimes coming off as cocky and dirty in the process. I thought Stafford lost his composure in a big way Sunday, and said so in my running diary. But I didn't hear the Lions complaining about much of anything other than Schwartz's assertion it was the wind, not Stafford's fractured finger, affecting the passing game.
But the claims of whining isn't the only thing Sharp pulls out of his ass. Earlier in the column, Sharp says the Lions' playoffs odds have fallen to 50/50. It's now a coin flip? At 6-3? Really?
If you go to a site that uses sabermetric style number crunching to back up their stats, Football Outsiders, the actual number for the Lions is 62.3%. To be honest, it is a drop of over 17%, thanks to the loss to the Bears. But it's still the 6th best playoff odds in the NFC. A win next Sunday over the Panthers, a team the Lions should beat, their record will be 7-3, with their chances of making the playoffs in far better shape than odds of 62.3%...or the 50/50 Sharp came up with out of...well, you'd have to ask him.
But even if the Lions do win next Sunday, I'm sure Sharp will find something to vigorously and hackily complain about. He apparently has no trouble finding things to complain about, even when no one else does.
