Lions' cubs are back in play, and no more tears for Big Baby
Today's the big day -- the first one, anyway -- as rookie No. 1 pick Matthew Stafford takes his first snaps on the practice field with the rest of the Lions' veterans.
There's no media access until Thursday, though, so we'll have to wait to see for ourselves how he and the rest of the rookies, are fitting in. (DT John Gill, signed as an undrafted free agent, won't be back until June thanks to the NFL's silly rules about graduating classes and Northwestern's quarterly academic calendar.)
(UPDATED 9 p.m.: Here's the photos from today's practice. And just to explain, the offseason media access is essentially weekly -- every third OTA must be open to reporters (entire practice), so this May 19-21 OTA session ends with availability Thursday. We had access the previous two weeks as well, and we'll get in there to see another practice on June 1. And then that's probably it until the minicamp June 23-25, as teams are only allowed 14 OTA days.)
(Update 12:30 p.m. Wednesday: Here's the Tuesday recap from the Lions' website, including Stafford's take after splitting the practice reps with Daunte Culpepper and Drew Stanton: â,"Coach Linehan had told me, â,˜When you get back, weâ,"re not going to sit you on the sideline. Weâ,"re going to try and get you some reps and see what you can do.' I knew that coming in, but it was good to see that it actually happened - that I got some reps.â,
In the meantime, here's some other news from around the league:
Ex-Lions DT Shaun Rogers might spend his free time in Detroit, but he sounds like he has made peace with the fact he's staying with the Cleveland Browns.
The latest Brett Favre update: He either is -- or isn't -- going to have surgery on his throwing arm, and he's getting frustrated. Hey, Brett, imagine how the poor beat writers in Minneapolis feel. But it's clear -- isn't it? -- that Favre wants to come back if his arm is OK.
The NFL owners' spring meetings will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., this week, and expanding the schedule to 17 or 18 games is among the topics that will be discussed. (It may not come to a vote this week, but whenever it does, as I said back in March after hearing Roger Goodell talk at the owners' meetings, I'll be shocked if it doesn't pass.)
And while the looming labor war remains the top priority, the league -- and maybe its fans -- got some good news with the Comcast-NFL Network agreement and the pending network extensions with Fox and CBS. With TV deals in place until 2013, that'll be one big carrot to encourage both parties to come together on a new CBA before a work stoppage in 2011. DeMaurice Smith, the new NFLPA boss, is expected to address the owners this week in Florida.
