Get a load of this crap:

Lions season-ticket holder Todd Taylor , who commutes from Chicago to attend Lions home games, and his buddy Jim Allen from Royal Oak were stoked when Taylor won a replica Kevin Smith jersey during the Lions’ draft party at Ford Field.

But something was strange about the No. 34 jersey.

The Smith name on the back looked bulky. So they cut it off and were shocked to see the name Jones underneath.

It appears the Lions repurposed some old Kevin Jones jerseys, turning them into Smith jerseys and gave them away to season-ticket holders.

“It was kind of a punch in the stomach,” Allen said.

“Coupled with the frustration of the draft, here is yet another piece of fire thrown in.”

I guess the Lions had to cutback any way they could after paying Matthew Stafford $41.5 million in guarantees.

What I want to know is, who had the bright idea to try and get away with something like this? What, did the Lions think that their fans wouldn’t realize that there were two names printed on the back of the jersey? What a joke!

The Browns suspended tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. for one-game following his verbal bashing of GM Phil Savage and head coach Romeo Crennel in the wake of what he felt was the team’s mishandling of a staph infection. And as Patrick McManamon of the Akron Beacon Journal writes, this could be the beginning of the end for Winslow in Cleveland.

This comes from nothing anyone said privately or publicly, but from the occurrences of the past few days and from the statement released by General Manager Phil Savage that was so cold it had icicles dripping from it.

This clearly is one angry GM.

Savage has always been restrained with announcements and news. That he was blunt and direct in the statement about Winslow speaks volumes.

Savage called Winslow’s comments ”unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organization.” He said the comments ”brought unjustified negative attention to our organization, and violated the team-first concept of our football squad.”

…But Winslow undercut Crennel twice — first after the game on Sunday, then Monday morning when he had more to say after meeting with Crennel on the team plane Sunday night.

Winslow cares about the team. But he also believes that he is better than most anyone and that is why he expects the ball.

This time, though, he put himself ahead of the team. After a tough loss, he made it about himself. If his coach is not on board with the suspension — and does anyone expect Crennel to say anything today except ”we’ve moved on”? — Winslow need only realize he is the one who put his coach in this position.

McManamon goes on to note that the Browns were in no hurry to re-do Winslow’s contract this offseason and they even went as far to draft a tight end (Martin Rucker) in this year’s draft.

If the Browns do part was with Winslow, it would be another first rounder from the 2004 draft that a team has sent packing. The Lions recently traded WR Roy Williams to the Cowboys and released RB Kevin Jones, the Falcons dealt CB DeAngelo Hall to the Raiders this offseason and the Jets sent LB Jonathan Vilma to the Saints before the start o of the year. Interesting.

The son of Detroit Lions’ owner Bill Ford Sr., Bill Ford Jr., publicly stated Monday that GM Matt Millen should be fired.

Bill Ford Jr. finally said publicly what he has told people privately for some time now: He would like to see Matt Millen fired.

“It was an embarrassment,” Ford said Monday when asked about the Lions’ 31-13 loss at San Francisco. “The fans deserve better. And if I had the authority, I would have fired the general manager.”

Ford’s feelings are no secret to people who know him. He soured on Millen a long time ago, for the same reason Lions fans soured on Millen: total incompetence. But Ford, like Lions fans, has not been able to do anything about it. His father, William Clay Ford Sr., has the keys to the kingdom.
So why did Ford say it now? Why did Ford explicitly ask reporters to quote him on the record? Two reasons.

And all Lion fans collectively shout, “Amen!”

Millen should have been gone years ago. He couldn’t help that Charles Rogers and Mike Williams turned out to be lazy or that Kevin Jones got injured. But somebody has to take responsibility for the lack of overall talent that the Lions have produced over the years and he’s the one that ran the drafts. Drafting four wide receivers (arguably the most overrated position on draft day) in the first round on four separate occasions aside, the rest of Millen’s drafts have been atrocious. Not one defensive player that Millen selected in this past draft was active last Sunday against San Francisco. Not one. That’s brutal.