Detroit Lions don't want to be on HBO's Hard Knocks

Last season it took awhile for HBO to find an NFL team to participate in it's 'Hard Knocks' series. Eventually the Miami Dolphins decided to take part in the show.

Plenty of teams don't want anything to do with the show, citing it as a distraction. The Detroit Lions are one of those teams. Team president Tom Lewand stated that he still doesn't want his team to do the show even though commissioner Roger Goodell is exploring having a "formal rotation" among all the teams.  

“You guys asked me how I felt about it,” he told reporters, “and it’s the same way I felt about it last year.”

The NFL gets enough exposure as it is but Goodell would like for 'Hard Knocks' to continue because it puts money in his pocket and the NFL coffers.  I certainly don't feel the league should mandate any team to except it. These guys are not role models, not heroes. They are athletes and as we already know they are all too human. They are already overexposed, and I think the NFL will do just fine without the HBO money.

I don't blame Lewand for feeling the way he does and not wanting the Lions to do the show.

The Lions have been the butt of many jokes over the years and I'm sure Jim Schwartz and the Lions brass wouldn't like seeing what goes on behind closed doors exposed to the nation.

Mike Ditka thinks encouraging crowd noise is stupid

When the NFL made some in stadium rule changes this week, former Chicago Bears boss, Mike Ditka, was not a fan of the changes. The rule that gets under his skin the most is the rule that allow scoreboards to encourage crowd noise.

Ditka called it stupid and thinks it has no place in the game.

"It's stupid," Ditka told the Chicago Sun-Times. "The NFL... who are they appealing to? It would be like the owners working at their desk and all of a sudden, they encourage people to come in their office and make a lot of noise. It doesn't make sense."

Stadiums will also be able to encourage crowd noise through the use of audio until there's 20 seconds left on the play clock. In the past, the audio encouragement had to stop at the 30-second mark.

"The key to football is you want to be able to see it executed properly," Ditka said. "You want to hear the snap count. You want to see these guys use their talents where they're not tainted. Sometimes when you have crowd noise, you're not seeing the player at his best."

Well Mike, the NFL is trying to make the environment more fan friendly, especially the casual fan. But I do agree with what Ditka is saying. If you're a hardcore football fan you don't need to know when to make noise. The league needs to cater to the true fan and not the one that has the most money therefore they have the seats and don't really know what's going on out on the field.

To Roger Goodell, if you really wanted to enhance the fan experience, you'd tell teams to lower ticket prices,concessions and parking fees. Then you would see the true fans at the games and wouldn't need a video operator to tell you when to get loud.

Lewand Gets A Costly Punishment

NFL commish Roger Goodell doesn't discriminate when he hands down his brand of justice. Detroit Lions team president Tom Lewand found that out. He was made an example of when he fined Lewand $100,000 and suspended him for 30 days. No team activities until game three. Do not pass go and do not collect $200 while your handing out punishments Big Raj.

Lewand was caught drinking and driving, but pleaded to a lesser charge. He alledgedly was the designated driver. A loaded designated driver, the kind of driver I want taking me home. He went through the legal system and was fined $1000.

Goodell and Lewand met on July 24 and this is the conclusion they came to. This should serve as a lesson to Lewand. Also this should be a message to other NFL executives who seem to think they can get over on the system.  The players aren't the only ones being policed.