by Mitch Albom | Feb 8, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The Beard has landed. Matt Patricia arrived in Detroit on Wednesday to take over the Lions after spending weeks as the worst-kept hiring secret in the NFL. At first blush, the former Patriots defensive coordinator — fresh off Sunday’s Super Bowl — seemed intelligent,...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 5, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
MINNEAPOLIS — Cheesesteaks for everyone. Hoagies on every plate. It’s the City of Brotherly Shove now — defensive end Brandon Graham shoving the throwing arm of the great Tom Brady and popping the ball loose for the most unlikely conclusion to the most explosive Super...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 24, 2017 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
They kneeled, they held hands, they locked arms, they dropped heads, in one case, an entire team didn’t even take the field. A practice that started last year with one quarterback and one national anthem reached its most expansive level Sunday, across America and even...
by Mitch Albom | Jul 16, 2017 | Detroit Free Press, Comment, Sports
The way Calvin Johnson sees it, I’m surprised any of the Detroit Lions are showing up this season. Johnson pretty much trashed his former team during a news conference in Italy last week. From a guy who’s usually reserved and classy, it felt awkward. “I was stuck in...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 5, 2017 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
Herman Moore knows how hard it is to make a Super Bowl. He made NFC title game as a rookie never won again in playoffs. If you want to know how special the Super Bowl is, don’t ask the men playing today in Houston. Ask the ones who never got there. Ask Herman Moore....
by Mitch Albom | Dec 17, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
You know what they say about New York: make it there, make it anywhere. The Lions are about to test that theory. If they should beat the Giants on Sunday, across the river in the Meadowlands, the national media and “expert” analysts will have to take them seriously....
by Mitch Albom | Nov 21, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Breathe deep. Stop banging your head. This is who they are. A team that plays up to good opponents and down to bad ones and isn’t happy unless it’s trailing in the fourth quarter. It doesn’t matter that the Detroit Lions flirt with disaster every week, as long as they...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 24, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Oh, Kirk Cousins was hanging onto this football. He cradled it like a small treasure and pointed to it with laughter. Why not? In front of family, friends and many well-wishers from his Holland high school and Michigan State days, Cousins, now the Redskins’ starting...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 10, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The football came loose, the bodies flew, and as the pile of massive humans tumbled toward the sideline, trying to grab that pigskin before it went out of bounds, one man was wildly signaling “Lions ball!” as if his life depended on it. Jim Caldwell, the coach. He was...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 4, 2016 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
I walk along the street of sorrow, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I see a giant van pull up. “You moving in?” I ask a large Tiger. “Yeah. Want to help unload?” I take out boxes. There’s one with Miguel Cabrera bobbleheads, and another with Justin Verlander T-shirts....