Daily Success: The Detroit Lions Have Won A Competitive Football Game

Charlie Klein

Normally on this blog we like to highlight the particularly humourous failings of the professional sports world, and there are plenty we still have yet to cover. And yet today, instead of writing about how the Redskins failed, I wanted to take some time and give some love to the Detroit Lions for not failing, not today anyway.

Trust me, you are not the only one who is having a hard time remembering when the last time the Detroit Lions won a game. Much has happened in the space of time between December 23, 2007 and September 27, 2009. Mitch Albom's article in the Detroit Free Press provides a Detroit perspective on the historic occasion.

"After 644 losing days, 21 losing months, 18 losing Sundays, one losing Thursday, four starting quarterbacks, one fired coach, one tar-and-feathered team president and a million bad jokes about Detroit futility — after all that, the gun sounded on this last weekend of September, and our long, local nightmare was finally over.

The Lions won a game.

I swear."

Things that have happened since the Lions won their last game:

• The United States has had two Presidents
• Three different teams have won Super Bowls
• Brett Favre retired, unretired, re-retired, then unretired
• The wildcat was invented
• The Arizona Cardinals won a playoff game
• John Madden retired
• Three madden games have been released
• Rod Marinelli got fired
• The Red Wings went to two Stanley Cup Finals
• I completed two years of collegiate education
• Twitter was invented
• The iPhone 3G was invented
• The Detroit Lions have had at least three starting QB's (Kitna, Orlovski, Culpepper)
• Jeff Garcia has played for three teams.
• Mike Holmgren retired
• Terell Owens defended a quarterback
• Michael Vick was released from prison.
• Jim and Pam got together.

There are more but those are all I could come up with off the top of my head. Everyone will remember where they were the day they saw the Detroit Lions beat the Washington Redskins. I was on my dad's couch, celebrating. Detroit Lions, this Bud's for you. Roar Lions Roar, or whatever it is you guys do when you win. Maybe you don't remember the cheer either.

NFL Season Preview

Charlie Klein

With the NFL Regular Season ready to get under way within the next two hours, it is now time for my NFL season predictions, by division, and then of course a Super Bowl winner.

AFC EAST

1. New England Patriots

2. Miami Dolphins

3. New York Jets

4. Buffalo Bills

New England is the class of the division. With one team starting a rookie at QB (NYJ), another an inconsistent veteran (MIA), and the last having Team Obliterator (BUF) it makes the Patriots the easy pick to win the division. Brady to Moss could be even better than Montana (or Young) to Rice, and I'm not kidding.

AFC SOUTH

1. Tenessee Titans

2. Indiannapolis Colts

3. Houston Texans

4. Jacksonville Jaguars

I know, I know, you're yelling at me for picking the standings from last season so far, but honestly I see no change in the status quo. Tenessee has a top 5 NFL defense and a great tandem of running backs. Peyton Manning should still lead the Colts to the playoffs and I love Dallas Clark. I'm interested to see how Joseph Addai bounces back from a sub-par 2008 season. The bottom two teams are also decent but I do not see either making much noise.

AFC NORTH

1. Pittsburgh Steelers

2. Baltimore Ravens

3. Cinncinatti Bengals

4. Cleveland Browns

The two games between the Steelers and Ravens could be the best games we as football fans get to watch all season. And I mean that. Unless you like seeing games that are 45-41, you will love these games. And it is in these two games that the division will be decided. I have not seen anything to suggest that the Steelers will not win this again. I've even heard that James Harrison is even better than last season. As for the bottom two, the Bengals will be much improved so long as Carson Palmer stays healthy and their young defense comes of age. If not, there's always Chad Ochocinco to entertain. The Browns made a bad decision in hiring the Mangenius, who is witholding the name of their starting qb for absolutely no reason.

AFC WEST

1. San Diego Chargers

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Denver Broncos

4. Oakland Raiders

Everyone except the Chargers in this division is awful. The second place team in this division, which could be any of the remaining three, will have no more than six wins.

NFC EAST

1. New York Giants

2. Philadelphia Eagles

3. Dallas Cowboys

4. Washington Redskins

The so-called best division in football is really a two-horse race in my mind. I honestly just don't see it from Dallas this year. I know they have DeMarcus Ware and Marion Barber and Jessica Simpson's ex, but honestly I think that their spineless coach Wade Phillips will be their downfall. As for the best of the division, I have to go with the Giants. Even though they don't have a number one receiver (which never prevented the Eagles from winning the division) they still have a stellar defense, a bulldozer in the backfield (Brandon Jacobs), and a franchise quarterback ready to fully assume the mantle. While the Eagles definitely improved their receiving corps by adding Jeremy Maclin to the tandem of Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson, there are too many questions about their offensive line and the health of Brian Westbrook. I still think they make the playoffs, but I just don't see them winning the division.

NFC SOUTH

1. Atlanta Falcons

2. Carolina Panthers

3. New Orleans Saints

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I really like what the Falcons have put together in the past few years. They have a legitimate triple threat on offense in Matt Ryan (QB), Michael Turner (RB), and Roddy White (WR). Then they went out and traded for future Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez. The Panthers will hang tough but I have not been convinced by the play of Jake Delhomme in the preseason and are an injury to DeAngelo Williams away from being a distant second in this division. The bottom two of this division are not going to offer much this season. I picked the Saints over the Buccs just because the Na' Leans boys have much more certainty at QB in Drew Brees.

NFC NORTH

1. Green Bay Packers

2. Minnesota Vikings

3. Chicago Bears

4. Detroit Lions

For me there is no clear-cut winner in the NFC Norrest. It could be any of the top three. I picked the Packers for three reasons: 1) I, like everyone else, believe that Aaron Rodgers is on the verge of becoming a top quarterback in the game 2) Rodgers has the best receivers in the division (Jennings and Driver) and 3) I personally dislike the other two QB's (Favre and Cutler). The Packers have the best overall package and regardless of how nice the Vikes defense may or may not be, I don't see that being a major dealbreaker.

NFC WEST

1. Seattle Seahawks

2. Arizona Cardinals

3. San Francisco 49ers

4. St. Louis Rams

Call it a homer pick, call it what you will, but the Hawks are legitimate contenders this season. The offseason authored by Tim Ruskell is one of his best to date. The Seahawks added two good defensive tackles (an area of weakness last season) in Colin Cole and Cory Redding and drafted the best player in the 2009 NFL Draft in OLB Aaron Curry. Combine that with the sack master Patrick Kerney, All-Pro middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu, and Pro Bowler Marcus Trufant and you have a recipe for success. And I almost forgot, the Seahawks added T.J. Houshmandzadeh to a great receiving corps. Plus, Matt Hasselbeck is healthy. As for the rest of the teams in the division, I do not think that Kurt Warner can pull two straight injury-free seasons together. Sure Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin are the best 1-2 receiving tandem in the NFL, but for the Cardinals I'll believe it when I see it. In San Francisco they want winners, but they have none. And the Rams are just a bad team.

AFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

1. New England Patriots

2. Pittsburgh Steelers

3. Tennessee Titans

4. San Diego Chargers

5. Baltimore Ravens

6. Indiannapolis Colts

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

1. New York Giants

2. Seattle Seahawks

3. Atlanta Falcons

4. Green Bay Packers

5. Philadelphia Eagles

6. Carolina Panthers

AFC CHAMPION: PITTSBURGH STEELERS

NFC CHAMPION: NEW YORK GIANTS

SUPER BOWL CHAMPION: NEW YORK GIANTS

Hate it or love it, just comment on it.

Weekly Fail: Chelsea FC

Charlie Klein

English Premier League flavour of the week Chelsea FC have been banned by FIFA, world football's governing body, from two transfer windows following their illegal pursuit and signing of Lens' Gael Kakuta in 2007.

In spite of being warned that the signing of Kakuta would result in severe sanctions, Chelsea proceeded with signing their 2008 Youth Academy Scholar of the Year. Lens former general manager Francis Collado said, "I warned them this was going to happen. People used to think that nothing could happen to big clubs like Chelsea, AC Milan, Real Madrid or Barcelona."

According to Collado, who left Lens ten months ago, "They said take this (a sum of money attempted to silence Lens) and shut up. I rejected it and said watch out gentleman under the rules you risk, first of all, a fine and you risk a ban on transfers."

As it turns out, Collado was right. This ruling begs the question, is a 15 year-old 'prodigal' talent like Kakuta worth breaking FIFA rules in order to sign? That is very debatable. Surely Chelsea will rue their decision should FIFA deny their appeal, as especially for a team such as their's which is older and more injury prone than the other big four sides, it could lead to a drop from the top and the Champions League. But if Kakuta turns into a Zidane or Henry, it could be worth all this trouble.

The ruling made by FIFA begs questions of Arsenal's pursuit of every youngster in world football. Surely Chelsea cannot be the only big club to be guilty of such skulduggery. It is almost comical in a way how foolish Chelsea have been in this matter.

Housekeeping

Editorial Staff

Before we get into any other announcements, I would just like to give some recognition to one of our contributing writers John Quirk for landing a job working for CBS Sportsline writing about collegiate sports. We are all proud of the work he has done and will continue to do for this blog and are not surprised that CBS Sportsline saw fit to employ this man. We wish him the best of luck.

My apologies for not posting as regularly as you are accustomed to seeing at The Truth Blog. With our suddenly much more busy schedules it has been difficult to manage keeping you up to date on the latest sports analysis and news and also doing our school work. This conflict illustrates the massive amount of time that a journalist must dedicate to his work.

The blog's publication will now change into a more weekly format, meaning that at every weekend there will be a bevy of content available for you to peruse. There will be midweek posts as time allows, but most of the content will be published on the weekends.

Thank you for sticking with us through this slow time in our blog's short history. I hope you continue to check our blog as we now shift into MLB playoff races, NCAA football and NFL football openings, and the usual European football updates.