Mr.TaterSalad

Do you think if they had it would have changes Quinn's mind about hiring his buddy or that Martha would have stepped in and said we aren't hiring him?

Then why do Patriot Assistants routinely get hired? It should be noted, Flores was one of Belichick's Assistant Coaches.

Matt Patricia was accused, but never prosecuted, of sexual assault and he still got hired. I'm not saying it excuses Bienemy's past behavior at Colorado or means he should get hired. I do feel that Patricia more or less skated through those allegations after one cycle of news stories about it in the media.

By February of last year I was exited about both Justin Fields and Trey Lance and had them on my list of players, along with Sewell and Chase, that I wanted the Lions to consider. I'm glad we have Goff and also glad that went with Sewell last year. We have the chance to build up a team around a prospective rookie QB first, instead of dropping them straight into a dumpster fire of a roster. That said, I think a lot of Lions fans and some in the media were all on the Fields and Lance bandwagons at this point last year.

Some snow storm we got here in SE Michigan. Local news outlets and the NWS were predicting a snowpocalypse of 10-14 inches of snow and we ended up with 4-5 inches of snow mostly.

Amazing to think 7 ***** recruits wasted their time on Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M just so they could have the privilege of going 8-4.

Trump eliminated ISIS but Biden snuck a bunch of ISIS people in the caravan from Mexico.

I used to be one of those "defense wins championships" fans but the modern era of football, especially the last decade, has proven that theory totally wrong. I spent the better part of five years ragging on Matt Stafford and living under the belief that he couldn't get it done when it mattered most, ie the playoffs. The way the league has gone and how Matt Stafford stepped up during these playoffs proved me wrong. 3 of the 4 teams (Bengals, Chiefs, Rams) in the AFC/NFC Championship games were lead by elite or very good QBs and QBs who have some mobility. Those same 3 teams have a series of electric playmakers on offense. Including Buffalo and Arizona in the mix, those two teams while bounced before the Championship game, have top-tier QBs and playmakers leading their offenses as well. Knowing all of this I want the Lions to join the club of having a great/elite QB and 2-3 explosive weapons on offense. We need playmakers who can create space and separation. Guys who make turn busted plays into big plays and extend drives. Guys who are YAC monsters when it comes to pass catching, whether in the backfield, at the line of scrimmage, or midfield. Those are the things that the Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Tyreek Hill, Stefan Diggs, Jamar Chase, Tee Higgins, Travis Kelce can all do. We don't have a big time QB who can play make and extend drives. We don't have an offensive weapon at, let alone multiple, who can do that. I think St. Brown is a very promising rookie and with the right play calling, Swift could be another solid weapon too for pass catching. I think the next two offseasons present us with a chance to completely transform our offensive skillset and make us one of the dynamic offenses in the NFL. I think Holmes over the next two drafts, not even counting free agency, has a real opportunity to remake this offensive roster and give us the playmakers we need to compete with the big boys. Sure, anyone of the players we pick could bust out. Any QB we pick, this year or next, could be a total bust. That said, if we went into the 2024 season with an offensive arsenal that looked like this, and assuming we can draft and develop these players, I'd be much more exciting burning most of our top picks in rounds 1 through 3 on offense versus balancing our offense/defense evenly in the draft or even going straight defense like Carolina did a few years back. If we have to move up to get Stroud our Young in the 2023 draft I'd do it. I would trade future draft capital to do it. QB: CJ Stroud/Bryce Young (drafted in 2023) RB #1: D'Andre Swift, RB #2: Jamaal Williams WR #1: Treylon Burks/Drake London (drafted in 2022), WR #2: Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR #3: John Metchie III/Justyn Ross/George Pickens (drafted in 2022) TE #1: TJ Hockenson Then you add in any potential free agent signings like an Allen Robinson or DJ Chark or whomever, that's a really solid foundation to become one of those elite offensive units and make noise in the playoffs.

I'd rather have Sewell plus Hutch/Thibs and Burks/London, plus Stroud/Young over a 3 year period.

I think if Judge Carl Marlinga runs for the Dems he will be a great candidate for Congress and can beat James.

I don't think redistricting reform in Michigan has been a fiasco. It took several months and many meetings to get reasonable, equitable maps that balanced partisan, geographic, and racial fairness, but the committee got there. These new maps are likely to hold up in court too.

Senior Bowl Practice Notes Pride of Detroit: Kenny Pickett compared to Joe Burrow

Yep, before you offer the job to Gattis, Hart, or anyone else Fickell should be the first call. If he says no, it isn't like Gattis is going anywhere for the time being. I get that people bring up the Ohio State ties as the obvious reason he says no. Both Bo and Gary Moeller were Ohio State guys before coaching at Michigan though. A call and a generous offer to make Fickell a top 5 paid coach in the NCAA should be made before moving onto other coaches.

I am not normally a Post Malone fan. I am normally a big Sturgill Simpson fan. Post signing Sturgill's "You Can Have The Crown" was killer. If Post Malone released an outlaw-style country album ala Sturgill I bet it'd be good.

I was all about taking a serious look at Malik Willis at the beginning and middle of the college football season. I still like the idea of what he could become under the right circumstances and assuming he has the tools and maturity to develop his full potential. But with two discernibly better QBs in CJ Stroud and Bryce Young available next year, I want to hold off at this point and wait for one of them if replacing Goff is in the plans for Brad Holmes and company.

Ronald Reagan was also a noted racist. His conversation with Nixon bears this out.

What burns me is when someone who flies a confederate flag and gets angry when statues of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee come down has the audacity to say to me as a progressive, left wing American that I am not patriotic. You don't get to fly the flag of successionist losers on one end and then tell me I am un-American and don't love my country on the other end. They are serious about it too and see no irony in what they say or do. It is completely lost on them. I don't love America to the point that I lose all sight of its racist, oppressive past. I sat around in 2016 underestimating the threat Trump posed to America. I voted for Hillary Clinton as a last minute decision and I'm thankful everyday I did. I also regret not recognizing the gravity of the situation and doing more to help get her elected in 2016. But I'll be damned if I don't love the freedom that democracy affords us all, free and fair elections, and the right to express myself freely. And I'll be damned if I watch the democracy we live in and the rights we all have to speak out with what we disagree with and vote freely go down the drain thanks to ignorance and an oppressive, cult like mentality..

If it were George Wallace running instead of Trump, MAGA would rally behind Wallace and his grievance brand of racial politics just as they have with Trump. Make America Great Again really means Make Power Structures of America Fall Under Total White Control Again. Sure, they'll vote for a John James, Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, or JC Watts when it suits their cause. But by and large, they are frustrated as white people that they don't control major power structures like they did and they see their white, Christian grip on America slipping. Make America Great Again runs along the same lines as Wallace's Stand Up For America. Wallace didn't want to integrate schools, Trump and his father didn't want to integrate his apartment units. Segregation, nonetheless.

I used to be a right wing, well libertarian I guess, troll around these parts and in my daily life back from 2009 when I first joined the old board through around 2013ish. I had many of the same talking points as posters like Archie and Cartman do today and folks like BallMich had several years back. I used to get into troll fights and arguments with Fife, Couga, MTU, G2, and others. Back in my libertarians days I was a collection of greatest hits talking points: from owning progressives and liberals, to government action = socialism, to socialism = scary, to Democrats and Obama are driving us towards socialism, to the private sector could do it better, to End the Fed, and on. When it snowed, I' be the first one out there to take a picture outside and post LOL @ Global Warming. I had read all the requisite right wing and libertarian books, websites and blogs at the time: Reason Magazine, National Review, Weekly Standard, Mises Institute, Cato, Heartland, etc. I had read every Milton Friedman book and watched every YouTube video ever that featured him. I had the Fox News and right wing talking points about the left down so pat I could recite them in my sleep. I remember fierce debates on this board about the GM and Chrysler bailouts. I remember fighting with MTU and G2 about Amtrak being a total failure in a thread I had created to show the world proof that Amtrak meant that government entities were all destined to fail, never mind the fact that Amtrak has failed because of stagnation and purposeful disinvestment in it as a rail system. I remember one time back in 2012ish I got into an argument with Fife over Barak Obama's and then Secretary of State Clinton's use of drones as a means to fight external and domestic terrorism and my single word response to Fife was to simply type "DROWNED" in all caps. I debated purely off emotion and made reactionary responses that fit my narrative and nothing more. Now, some may say I still do that (much respect to the Buddha), but I've tried to grow and mature beyond being that type of person here and in my daily life. I've tried to be thoughtful and willing to accept facts and research that live outside my personal narratives. When everything that happened with my dad happened in 2012 I gave the right win echo chamber a break and purposefully challenged myself to step outside the bubble and broaden my horizons. I forced myself to start watching different news channels, getting news and opinion from different online websites, reading different books and research. I still respect a guy like Ron Paul and still agree with many of his ideas on a range of issues. I don't worship him, nor do I worship any one particular ideology or politician, not even ole Bernie Sanders or EDub. Don't get me wrong, I think Sanders, Warren, and the like have the best ideas for building a better, fairer, equitable, and just society. I think their policy ideas and programs will do a lot more good in the lives of people like my dad and the average person out there. I think they will tackle the climate change crisis and income inequities in a meaningful way. But I don't worship them and I don't see them as infallible people. They make mistakes, get things wrong, and have warts just like the rest of us. I say all that to say this. Posters like Archie, Cartman, BallMich, and people like my own right-wing father, they are trapped in a bubble. One that is partially there own making and one that has been made by society, by a poor education system that doesn't teach critical thinking, one by a media ecosphere that has sowed misinformation and distrust into the fabric of our society. They have fallen victim to politicians who toy with their emotions and manipulate both their feelings and their intellect for their own gain. And when I say something like that, I don't say it to demean those posters as idiots, but I do wish to point out the problems that arise from cult-like worship over someone. I do wish to bring more substance to the arguments and not just news media talking points. I do wish for rebuttals of fact and substance, not talking points and character attacks. Bernie Sanders is not some scary socialist, manipulating the minds of leftwing people and Democrats for his own personal gain. He's not the lefts version of Donald Trump, in spite of the similarly rabid fan base that follows him around. Sure, he rails against the rich and inequities in society. But at days end, I think he's just an honest, open guy who believes that government has the tools and capabilities necessary to do the most good in people's lives, in line with a well balanced and regulated marketplace. I genuinely do not believe that Donald Trump cares about the life of the average person, I do believe Bernie Sanders does and to a lesser extent, Joe Biden does. I'll accept right wing and conservative opinions as best I can. What I won't accept though, are the naked and brazen attacks on our country and our democratic institutions. I won't accept our democratic values backsliding into authoritarianism and the loss of free, fair elections. I won't accept outright lies and baseless talking points to overtake the truth all to promote a baseless agenda. I won't tolerate racism, bigotry, sexism, and any number of phobias towards any group of people. I love this country. I love the freedoms we have. I would love not only to preserve those, but expand them to others and clean up our flawed system and all of its inequities and imperfections. For me, the personal growth I experienced over the last decade was the best thing that ever happened. Not only for me, but for those around me as well. I hope others can gain some level of introspection and experience the personal growth I did.

Harbaugh is gone it looks like and I don't know how to feel at this point. I am pissed that he has basically done to the University what Mark Dantonio did to State a few years back by bolting on National Signing Day. He's doing a disservice to all the kids that are coming in and committed to Michigan. He should have made his NFL intentions more clear and just told the University straight up he is not coming back. I'm also pissed that he finally delivers six years later on what we hired him to do from day one, but still feel grateful as a fan to have watched this past season unfold and happen. I doubted he could ever have accomplished and wanted him fired. Now, I might be getting my wish and he might be gone. If we get Luke Fickell after all of this, including the great season we had, I would feel happy in the end. Michigan should offer Fickell top 5 coaching money and see if he takes it. If not, you move onto other candidates and keep trying. Fickell should get a phone call and serious consideration though. He's the perfect fit!

Very fine people on both sides of the freeway I'm sure.

I remember back in my libertarian days when I was occasionally voting for Republican candidates that then Republican Congressman and candidate for Senate Pete Hoekstra came out with this racist TV ad during the Super Bowl in 2012. Even back in my Ron Paul days I thought this was wrong. But why do you think Hoekstra and all of his Republican consultants produced and aired an ad like this during the biggest ad buy spot of the year? Because it resonates with their base.

Yes, I read the Gallup survey you posted and I don't care what the average American thinks. I care what the average person who bothers to show up and vote thinks, because those are the people shaping the world we live in. Furthermore, Donald Trump supported a host of racist and xenophobic public policies as I have mentioned over and over again here, including against legal immigrants. If you voted for Trump then you voted for those subset of policies including the travel ban, immigration caps, refugee bans, Obama being a Kenyan, etc. You don't get to vote for someone as morally reprehensible as Trump has been on immigration policy, for legal or illegal immigration, and then claim "but I answered a Gallup poll once where I said I supported legal immigration." You don't get to hide behind that. By you I don't of course mean you personally, I mean the average Trump voter. Furthermore, I showed polling data that showed a majority of Republicans thought it was ok to ban people traveling or immigrating from Muslim-majority nations and you dismissed that offhand. I would argue that gives you a more accurate picture of the GOP and MAGA than a Gallup poll because the Politco polling focuses on likely GOP voters.

Right, they aren't calling in with love and warmth in their heart for legal immigration. And while CSpan callers are anecdotal, there is other polling in addition to the one I shared, that showcase Republican and MAGA hostility towards non-white, non-Christian legal immigrants. Again, why did they question Obama's citizenship? Why do they support caps on the number of immigrants who are allowed here legally?