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Detroit needs some saving
Week 3 Awards | Factoid
... Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. DETROIT -- "What a beautiful place," Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Rich McKay said Saturday night, looking over Comerica Park. We sat in comfy chairs about 30 rows up from home plate (if you know me, you know I'm a hopeless Red Sox fan, and they were in town to play the Tigers, so the interview location was, shall we say, convenient) and watched baseball and talked about the state of football. I haven't been in downtown Detroit much over the years. But driving a few blocks from the ballpark, what I saw was a city struggling to get out of a pit of despair. Abandoned, firebombed homes sit just three blocks from Comerica. What a disaster area. But the Tigers didn't abandon a crumbling city and move to the 'burbs. And the cranes just past leftfield at Comerica confirmed that the Lions won't be doing so, either. Ford Field, the Lions' home beginning in 2002, is rising steadily. Good news. I'm a city guy. Cities are vital. And if the Lions, who a quarter-century ago mistakenly moved to Pontiac, Mich., 24 miles north of downtown, didn't move back to their roots, they'd once again be turning their back on the city that is their first name.
"To me, we had to be in the city," said Bill Ford Jr., the Lions' vice chairman and the chairman of Ford Motor Company's board of directors. "You can have all the leafy suburbs you want, but a market without a sound city is like a body without a soul." Ford was on the field before the Bucs-Lions game Sunday, talking about the future and how the Lions' future had to be urban. "Did you know there is not a chain grocery store in the city of Detroit?" he said. "That's an incredible statement. The population of Detroit used to be over two. million. Now it's less than a million. We have to do what we can to get people back to the city. And that means getting them not only to come in and spend money, but also live there." That might be a decade away. But it's something that is desperately needed. And this city is lucky to have Ford leading the way. A quick aside: I need to nitpick one thing here. It's actually more than a nitpick. I hate the fact that there's going to be a roof on the new place. Yesterday, the weather outside the Silverdome was perfect -- bright sun, 70°, with a 17-mph breeze. I cursed when I had to walk inside. I know the city of Detroit is vying for a Super Bowl or two over the next 20 years, but the euphoria of two big games will not outweigh the depression of being forced inside on beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) autumn days. That's my one asterisk on the Lions' plan. Ford told me that when he was negotiating for the stadium site in Detroit, he bought a huge old department store warehouse adjacent to the land. His friends asked him why. He said he didn't know, that he thought it was a building worth saving. Now this warehouse will be incorporated into the new stadium, with a year-round entertainment complex and restaurants and brew pubs. It's where some of the stadium's luxury boxes will be located. Mark me down for the opener in 2002. Now if Ford could only do something about the Red Sox and their tenuous rotation heading into the last two wild-card chase weeks. Pedro can't pitch every day. Week 3 AwardsOFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Kansas City QB Elvis Grbac. I didn't see the game. I saw a few highlights. I only know this: Anyone who throws five touchdown passes against the San Diego defense is my player of the week. That is one heck of an accomplishment. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cleveland DE Courtney Brown. Inside story here: Sports Illustrated has correspondents at every game. The magazine's Browns correspondent told me Sunday night that although Brown had three sacks, one of which sealed the 23-20 victory as Brown sacked Pittsburgh QB Kent Graham on the last play of the game, the rookie defensive end said nothing notable after the game. "There was no great quote from Brown, though. The guy is so quiet it's not to be believed," wrote my correspondent. I know. I spent two days at Penn State before the draft. I poked and prodded Brown every way I knew how. He is a very, very nice man, and very respectful, and a diligent worker, but let's just say he won't replace Warren Sapp on the defensive line of the all-quote team. And you know what? There's something about that I like. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Detroit return specialist Desmond Howard. "We're blessed to have him," Lions coach Bobby Ross told me Saturday, and Howard went out against the Bucs and showed why. The opening kick fluttered to him one yard deep in the end zone, and he weaved and sprinted and bobbed 63 yards, as only the great-at-making-everyone-miss-makers like Howard can do, setting up the first score of the game, a Jason Hanson field goal. Howard brought the next kick back 29 yards to the Lions' 38. On his next return, he brought brought the ball back 64 yards to the Bucs' 29. In a game full of special-teams stars -- Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber blocked a punt while teammate Karl Williams had a long return -- Howard shined brightest. COACH OF THE WEEK: New York Jets coach Al Groh. Three and oh. Tunaless. Enough said. Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only MeWhen Lions beat writer Mike O'Hara of the Detroit News picked up the phone recently and the voice on the other end said: "Hey Mike, it's Al Gore." "Doesn't sound like Al Gore," said O'Hara, who thought it was a prank. "C'mon Moose! It's Al!" Gore said. The two old Army buddies -- Army reporters in Bien Hoa, Vietnam in 1970 and 1971 -- chatted when Gore was in Michigan on a campaign stop. O'Hara's surprising take on Gore: "He's one of the most naturally funny people I've ever met." Now Mike, you're funny. The other guy? He'll have to prove it in the next few weeks. The 10 Things I Think I Think1. I think at one point Sunday, when I looked up at the scoreboard in this depressing boiler room of a stadium, I saw the following NFL second-half scores: 10-10, 14-10, 17-17, 3-3, 10-0, 24-14. Add another day of close ones to the 60 percent of games already decided by a touchdown or less in the first two weeks -- after Sunday, there were only four more, but that doesn't diminish the point -- and you understand why Rolaids is doing a booming business within the NFL coach fraternity. Ross told me as much. "When I go into a game now," he said, "I just prepare myself for three hours of absolute hell on earth. The decision-making, the intensity, the competition ... It's there every single Sunday. I don't remember the last time with five minutes left in a game I could take a breath and say, 'Whew, that was a pretty easy one. I can cool it now.' It never happens." 2. I think this is how serious Kerry Collins is about football these days. He gets into the stadium most mornings about 6:30. I asked him why: "Just to hang out," he said. Kerry Collins stared his football mortality in the face after his debacles with the Panthers and Saints, didn't like what he saw, and was a man about it. He changed. The Giants just might be eternally grateful. 3. I think my stat of the week comes from the very good pro football writer for the Houston Chronicle, John McClain: In 1990, there were 35 players weighing 300 or more in the NFL. This year, there are 280. It's gotten to the point where we think a 310-pound right tackle is small, for crying out loud. 4a. I think Kurt Warner is on pace for a 6,512-yard season. Seriously. 4b. I think Joe Horn is on pace for a 128-reception season. 4c. And I think Mike Anderson is on pace to rush for 1,696 yards. 5. I think I have loved watching the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's coverage of the Olympics over the last couple of days. The CBC, unlike NBC, has been showing actual events live. I watched 25 uninterrupted minutes of USA-Argentina volleyball Sunday while working at dawn. Having covered two Summer Games (Seoul, Atlanta), I've learned that sometimes the greatest events are the ones you thought you had no interest in. Prime example: Just after 8 a.m. Sunday, I'm glued to the live third attempt of the Pocket Hercules, Turkey's Naim Suleymanoglu , in the 62-kg snatch. His country is glued. The crowd is glued. He lifts, it looks good, and OH NOOOO! He loses it over his head! The three-time Olympic champ is out! See? It's fun to see those things. The sheer competitiveness and drama catches you, reels you in. If you live in Buffalo, Michigan or Seattle, you're lucky. It's refreshing, too, to watch an underdog country like Canada, cheer lustily for bronze medals. When you're one of the three best in the world at something, it should be shouted from the mountain tops, not treated like a disappointment, which it sometime is in America. 6. I think I got so many positive comments from my coffee diatribe last week that I have decided to make a weekly coffee comment in MMQB. Well, it will be weekly at least this week. Here goes: I think the Troy, Mich., Starbucks staff could stand some manners training. Anybody in there ever smile? Sheeesh. 7. I think this thought occurred to me watching starting right defensive end Marcus Jones hunt down and sack Charlie Batch viciously Sunday: How in the world could Cleveland have passed on this man when he was on the expansion list two years ago? The Browns took quarterback Scott Milanovich off Tampa Bay's roster instead -- then waived him before training camp. Jones and Courtney Brown would have been a great defensive end combination for the future. I won't even remind the Browns that they passed on Kurt Warner in the same draft. 8. I think Steve Mariucci is one heck of a football coach. To have his JV 49ers within three points at St. Louis with 10 minutes left is about as big a moral victory as you can have in this league. 9. I think this after watching the Tampa Bay defense for four scary quarters: a. I think Anthony "Booger" McFarland, Brad Culpepper's replacement, is an upgrade next to Warren Sapp. "All he needs is reps," said Sapp, "and he's going to be a great player." b. I think Ronde Barber might be a bigger star than his brother, Tiki, by the end of the year. c. I think when Derrick Brooks hits you, you know you've been hit. d. I think Shelton Quarles is the best unknown player in the NFL. He's a linebacker, by the way, who plays about half the game and covers and hits and rushes and tackles like a great player except you just don't know it yet. 10. I think Sebastian Janikowski had better take some accuracy pills this morning. Click here to send a question to Peter
King's NFL Mailbag.
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