Things I Think: Lions Being the Lions, T.O. Being T.O. and Protecting Players

Not that you asked, but...

...Only the Lions could find themselves in this position -- owners of the No. 1 overall pick in a year when neither they nor anybody else really wants it. It's such a Lion position in which to be. The consensus is that there's no Orlando Pace in this draft -- no clear-cut, impact, franchise-changing No. 1. And the Lions need so much help that they'd love to trade down and get three or four useful players instead of one. But since nobody else seems to know who they'd take if they traded places with the Lions, nobody's lining up to do it.

Personally, having watched a lot of college football last year, I'm an Aaron Curry guy. For me, he's the guy Mike Ditka would be trading his whole draft and putting on a wedding dress for if Ditka were still in charge somewhere. He's the all-around game-changer type in this year's draft. But since he's not a quarterback or a mountainous offensive lineman -- not necessarily a guy who'd even be on the field on third down -- nobody feels like they want to spend the top pick on him. Fair enough, I guess. Seems to me he's athletic enough to do whatever they'd need, but they know better than I do.

It is nice, however, to see the Lions shaking up their logo. Long before I had a five-year-old, I always thought the Lions' logo looked as if it had been drawn by a five-year-old. In 1936. Now that I have a five-year-old, I think it looks as if it were drawn by a four-year-old. This new one, with the muscle definition in the Lion's arms and shoulders and the gray flame behind it, may be just the thing the Lions need to shake off their lousy past and emerge as a real force in the NFL of the near future.

Or not.

Especially if they blow the No. 1 pick.

-I saw Dick Jauron on TV this morning, explaining how he didn't really mean it when he said he hoped Terrell Owens would show up for optional minicamp even though he'd never done it for any of his previous teams. I felt bad for him. For about three seconds. Then I thought, "This guy's nuts." I mean, if he really thought that, he's nuts. And he's double-nuts for saying it out loud. Jauron thinks he's going to be the coach whose life T.O. doesn't ruin? Trent Edwards, who begged the team to sign this guy, thinks he's going to be the first quarterback to get along with him?

I don't blame the Bills for taking a shot here, since T.O. is the kind of talent that could vault them into title contention if he shows up, plays hard and behaves himself. But the guy's a disaster, and a team-killer, and anybody who's thinking this is going to be like Randy Moss going to the Patriots is forgetting the teensy-tiny little fact that the Patriots were established perennial champions when Moss got there and the Bills are...you know...the Bills.

-Finally, this may be because I'm the new guy, but I'm in the minority on the new safety rules. Yes, I understand that it's the macho football thing to sit here and say things like Mike Golic was spouting on his radio show this morning -- about how they're taking all the fun out of the game by trying to protect qarterbacks from getting killed or paralyzed or debilitated before they hit middle age. But for me, this is too much tough-guy-former-player and crazed-bloodthirsty-fan froth.

No matter how many times they've changed the rules, there's still plenty of violence in football. A ton of it, actually. There are multiple high-speed, high-impact hits on almost every play. And there always will be. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a committee that sits there every winter/spring and evaluates ways to manage that violence so as to limit injuries as much as possible. Nobody wants to eliminate hitting or tackling. They want to minimize injuries -- especially really terrible ones that put people's lives or long-term physical well-being in jeopardy.

As a league, the NFL has a responsibility to protect its assets, and to look out for the health and safety of players who are playing a rough, violent game. There is nothing wrong with putting regulations in place that make people safer. We're still a long way from flags or two-hand touch, and I have a hard time believing any of the rule changes announced yesterday are going to make the game any less fun to watch.

Not that you asked, but I'm just sayin.