LATEST STORIES FROM OUT OF BOUNDS
Franzen’s Play Not Pretty, But it’s Pretty Important to Red Wings
Ice hockey, the world’s fastest sport, is played at blinding speed by powerful men gliding along the rink on razor-sharp blades fastened to their boots, swinging fiberglass sticks at a vulcanized rubber disc.It’s polo played on ice, sans the horses.The thrills and chills come from the long, effortless strides of a puck-carrier as he bores down at the goalie from the wing, at...
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22 days ago
Discuss
NHL “Iron Man” Wilson Deserved Better Upon News of His Passing
He was the NHL’s original Iron Man—a man of perfect attendance, whose offices were located in six Taj Mahals of indoor sports venues.Long before the tentacles of corporate sponsorship wrapped themselves around the naming of stadiums and arenas, the NHL of Johnny Wilson was played in a half dozen barns, each wonderfully devoid of anything remotely corporate in name, though several...
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29 days ago
Lions' Playoff Loss is Mayhew's Mulligan
They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight.Well, the Lions didn't; they brought a shotgun. Trouble is, the New Orleans Saints have a howitzer.The Lions, 45-28 losers on Saturday night in New Orleans, didn't get blown out because they don't have a good offense. The Lions lost big because the Saints' offense is better, and the Lions' defense is still a work in progress....
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January 09, 2012
Detroit Lions: Team of the 2010s?
So here they come marching into New Orleans, this previously bedraggled pro football franchise, in seek of something which has eluded them 53 of the past 54 years.It’s funny, in a way, that the Lions will be looking for just their second playoff victory since 1957 in New Orleans, a city that has vexed them and which has been the scene of many a crime against football humanity.The...
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January 07, 2012
The Best (and Worst) of Yours Truly, 2011
In a flash, a whirr and a blur, another year in sports came and went. 2011, it seemed, might have been missed had you blinked.And what a year it was.Tigers AND Lions in the playoffs, for the first time in the same year since 1935.Pistons with a new coach (again).Red Wings almost coming all the way back from an 0-3 playoff deficit against the San Jose Sharks.Michiganfootball resurging...
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December 31, 2011
Lions Theft in Oakland Biggest Win in Years
The man with half a foot and a stump for an arm trotted onto the field at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans on November 8, 1970. The least likely pro football record holder was a pudgy, roly-poly man with what looked like a block of wood for a right foot.As Tom Dempsey strode onto the field, with two seconds remaining and the ball on his Saints' 44-yard line, his team trailing the Lions...
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December 19, 2011
Pistons' Frank Has to Make Team Likable AND Competitive
Auburn Hills is a 35-minute drive north of Detroit. Make that almost an hour if you dare try it in the shadow of 5:00 traffic. It’s a rather uninspiring trek up I-75, with warehouses and impersonal office buildings surrounding you on the east and west.The starkness of the Detroit city limits gives way to those of the industrialized Troy as you head north, with a lovely view of...
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December 18, 2011
Lions Win, But Not Before Their Playoff Hopes Flash Before Their Eyes
The penalty was for one yard. Three measly feet. Yet it seemed like a mile, and it felt like a reminder to us of Lions ineptitude and bad timing.One more act of stupidity, right? One very Lions-esque thing to do, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and turn what had been a fun, festive Sunday afternoon into something that Stephen King might have penned.Cliff Avril was the Lions...
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December 12, 2011
The Not-Ready-For-Prime Time Players
October seems like eons ago.It was a grand time, October was.The Tigers were thrilling us in the playoffs. The Red Wings were about to begin another Cup Quest. The Pistons were forcibly removed from our thoughts, thank God.And the Lions?The Lions, in October, were on a nine-game winning streak, in a broken arrow way dating back to last season. They were shoving memories of the "same...
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December 05, 2011
Red Wings Set in Goal With the Late-Blooming Howard
The most celebrated goaltender in Red Wings history—indeed, maybe in NHL history—was a tormented man. It’s been said that you have to be a little off your rocker to want to throw yourself into the path of vulcanized rubber discs for a living. Terry Sawchuk may not have been crazy, but he wasn’t happy.It’s been documented—by his teammates, by his son, by those who covered...
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December 04, 2011
Lions’ Suh Wears NFL’s Black Hat, and the League Loves It
Ndamukong Suh was born about 40 years too late.Suh, the Lions' defensive tackle with a fuse shorter than Verne Troyer, would have been right at home playing in the NFL of the 1960s and '70s.Suh would have been just one of many players back then who had the disposition of a bear awoken during hibernation.The league some 40-plus years ago was filled with defenders who bent the rules...
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November 27, 2011
Lions' Smith A Story Too Good To Be True?
The Lions have a shiny 7-3 record because of a quarterback who came to Detroit after 0-16 and a defensive tackle who came a year after that.The Lions are 7-3 because of a GM who followed the abysmal Matt Millen and began cleaning up almost as soon as Millen was fired.The Lions are 7-3 because of a head coach who came from Tennessee, where he learned under the consistent and tenured...
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November 21, 2011
Former Lions Guard Utley Determined to Do His Own "Walk-Off"
I don’t know if it’s in the front of the NFL player’s mind, the middle, or the back, but it’s in there somewhere. The idea that when you run onto the field, you might not run off is in there somewhere. It has to be.The NFL is 60 minutes each week of locomotives running into each other at breakneck speed—sometimes literally.But it wasn’t a high-speed collision that changed...
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November 20, 2011
Stafford Must Be Fixed For the Lions to Compete for Playoffs
Maybe Matthew Stafford wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints as he committed crimes against football humanity.If so, that idea backfired---as did the entire Detroit Lions offense---as Stafford and his offensive teammates (you can pronounce "offensive" with the emphasis on the second syllable if you'd like) laid an ostrich egg on the Soldier Field turf on Sunday.This was...
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November 14, 2011
Paterno's Self-Suppression of Power Protected Wrong People
The irony is, Joe Paterno could have covered the spread easily.He had home field advantage. He had all the weapons at his disposal. It was a cupcake on the schedule. One of those pre-conference games against an opponent whose only goals were to get out of town with their wits and a cool paycheck from the gate.Paterno could have swatted this one away with hardly breaking a sweat.When...
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November 13, 2011
Do I Miss the NBA? Depends!
Right about now, if the Hatfields and the McCoys had been able to settle their differences (that would be the players and the owners, or vice versa), the NBA season would be just underway.The season would have tipped off after weeks of exhibition games, during which time the Miami Heat and LeBron James would have been unmercifully mocked and taunted for losing in the Finals to the...
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November 06, 2011
These Lions Are Not Your 2007 Version
This time, the other guys are disillusioned about their supposed franchise quarterback.This time, the other team has its falsely-hoped, tenuously-raucous crowd taken out of the game in the very first quarter.This time, the other guys are mocked and made fun of.This time, the serious questions about the health of the franchise are for the other guys to answer.This time, the playoff...
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October 31, 2011
Life Without Lidstrom Terrifying Thought For Red Wings, Fans
Nick Lidstrom doesn’t block shots. He doesn’t body check anyone. He’s never thrown an elbow. His next fight will be his first.The greatest hockey defenseman of his time—or maybe of any time—isn’t supposed to be so mild-mannered. He isn’t supposed to be less physical than a second baseman.Lidstrom, the Red Wings' all-universe defenseman, is 41 years old. In human years...
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October 30, 2011
Will Seven-Year Itch Doom Babcock, Red Wings?
It’s hockey season in Detroit again. Time to put up with another 82-game grind. In our self-ascribed “Hockeytown,” it’s considered par, not impolite, to look past the months of October through March so that we can worry about playoff match-ups.The 82-game regular season is something we tolerate. It’s a longer opening act than a bad comedian.We actually had to pay attention...
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October 23, 2011
Unlike in 1980, Smart Money Is on Lions in 2011
The NFL season is chopped into fours, not unlike what the ponies have to deal with at Pimlico.It’s often times just as foolhardy to put good money on the leaders at the first turn in pro football as it is on the fast starting horses sprinting out of the gate at the track.The NFL gives us 16 games per team, per year—nice and divisible by four. The NFL has always been fond of quarters...
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October 02, 2011
Stafford and Company Will Restore Lions' Roar for Years to Come
Sometime, 10 or 12 years from now, the face will be more chiseled and hewn. It’ll be the look of a man instead of a boy. The care-free smiling will be replaced by looks of introspection. The peach fuzz will be long gone—sandpaper in its place. Matthew Stafford will find this out, first hand. The mug of the NFL quarterback who’s been able to survive the league from college...
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September 25, 2011
Lions Coach Schwartz Has That Winning Look
Jim Schwartz has been the head coach of the Detroit Lions for nearly three years and I don’t trust him.He doesn’t have “the look.”How can he be the coach of the Lions and not look like he just saw Humpty Dumpty fall down and bounce back up?The Detroit Lions coaches of years past have always had “the look.” The one that speaks the ghoulish thousand words.They’ve all...
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September 11, 2011
Like Karras Did, Suh Dominates In Trenches for Lions
The greatest defensive tackle in Lions history had a nose for the quarterback. He had to, because he couldn’t see the passer.
Alex Karras, the Golden Greek (aka Tippy Toes), had the eyesight of Mr. Magoo but the olfactory nerves of a shark in blood-tinged waters
Karras was a wrestler at the University of Iowa, and he used that experience to break free of pass protectors through...
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August 21, 2011
Nothing Good Happens for Lions if Stafford Can't Stay Upright
The roster says that Matthew Stafford is a third-year NFL quarterback. Don’t believe everything that you read. Stafford is the Paper Lion, with apologies to George Plimpton. The kid reared in Texas was drafted first overall in 2009 by the Lions out of the University of Georgia, and he’s still working on a complete season of 16 games. He stands at 13 games played after two...
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August 14, 2011
Is Tiger Woods Still Relevant?
No one wins a golf tournament so much as they don’t lose it. It’s 72 holes of survival of the fittest, and he who makes the fewest mistakes comes out on top on Sunday afternoon. It’s a sport with no teammates and only one person who understands you—the caddie. You spend four days trying to avoid about 17 miles worth of land mines and it can all blow up on you in the final...
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July 24, 2011
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Out of Bounds
An unashamed view on sports with a decidedly Detroit flavor. Opinions and observations from a combination fan/media member, which means some of the dish will be an insider's take!
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