Episode 10: Cam Sutton Suspension, Matthew Stafford Tribute Video, Bring back a Lion Favorite

In this episode of Talking Grit, hosts Jason Harwood and Jacob Litton discuss the suspension of Cam Sutton for eight games by the NFL, exploring its impact on both the Lions and their salary cap. They also consider various Lions players and debate who would be ideal candidates to return to the team, both active and retired. The conversation transitions to discussing former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford's legacy and whether or not he should be honored with a tribute video when he returns to Detroit. Jacob and Jason also engage in some fun segments, including lightning-round questions about the Lions and other Detroit sports teams.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:31 Cam Sutton
• 9:12 Adding a former Lion
• 18:45 Adding a retired Lion
• 28:26 Matthew Stafford Tribute Video?
• 33:46 Honolulu Blitz
• 42:56 Outro

Transcript

Jason Harwood: 0:40

All right, everybody. Welcome back to Talking Grit. I'm Jason Harwood and with me is Jacob Litton. Got a good show for you today. We've got some brand new news that came out earlier today, recording this on Monday night. So we'll talk about that. And we've got some other fun topics to talk about. So how you been, Jacob?

Jacob Litton: 0:58

Pretty good. Back in the full swing of it, no more vacation for me. You're off again, but

Jason Harwood: 1:05

I was off one day, my friend. I'm back the rest of the week. So yeah. Yeah, I know. They gave me a Monday off and they tried to call me in, but I already had plans.

Jacob Litton: 1:15

How convenient that was for

Jason Harwood: 1:16

It was very nice. So

Jacob Litton: 1:19

Jason has plans to walk his dog this evening, so he can't come in.

Jason Harwood: 1:23

that my dog's an important part of this family, man. I'm a family man. You know how I am.

Jacob Litton: 1:28

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:30

All right. So the big news today was the cam Sutton suspension. You want to talk about that, Jacob?

Jacob Litton: 1:37

I think we kind of expected this news at some point to happen. Weren't sure exactly the length of the suspension, what the NFL was going to hand out. But he was suspended eight games by the NFL. it was interesting that he just decided he's just going to take that penalty and he's not appealing that at all. Did you think he was gonna appeal?

Jason Harwood: 1:57

Not usually, that's like standard But also, I think some of these guys are just like, They're just gonna drag this out, is it even worth Putting this in the news longer, and, if he's Anywhere guilty of what he's accused of, I can understand Why he just wants it,

Jacob Litton: 2:12

Like pleading guilty when you just don't even appeal, you're like, that's, you know what, that's fair, I'm just gonna take this and we're gonna move on.

Jason Harwood: 2:19

yeah, exactly, but 8 games

Jacob Litton: 2:22

I mean, that, You might as well say half the season.

Jason Harwood: 2:23

yeah, exactly. I was going to say now with the 17 games, it's not really half, but it's basically half the season, and it's not like, even when he comes back from eight games, he's now it can be football ready. It's going to be hard to get right in the swing of things.

Jacob Litton: 2:37

He's on a new team, also.

Jason Harwood: 2:39

yes,

Jacob Litton: 2:40

against him.

Jason Harwood: 2:40

yep, exactly. It's his old team. So maybe you could get back into things, but you know, It just, that takes time, especially in the secondary to work for them to work together, we really don't care how it affects the sealers houses affect the lions.

Jacob Litton: 2:54

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 2:55

the Lions probably will get some money back, which is exciting. I don't know how long it's going to take to rule the Lions petitioned the league to get basically some guaranteed money back as base salary, which is 10 and a half million. It's counting against our cap right now. If we do get it back, say it's. Before the season, we can use it now, if at some time during the season, you'll be able to use it, but it's not a waste of, even if we don't use it, it'll go to next year's cap, which, 10 and a half million dollars. That's a big chunk of money so that we can definitely use it. When they released Camp Sutton, they did it with what they call a post June 1st designation, which essentially spreads out. The cap hit over two seasons as opposed to just the one season. So either way of how this goes, the lions are going to be on the hook next year for six and a half million of his, of the signing bonus that we've already paid for him. There's really nothing we can do to get out of that. We're paying like 2. 1 of his signing bonus this year. We're stuck with that. But what we're trying to get back is the 10 and a half million that we've that was a guaranteed base salary. So the salary cap hit is over 19 million right now. If we can get this out of there, the cap hit total would be this 8. 72 million over this year and next year.

Jacob Litton: 4:13

Which is a big difference,

Jason Harwood: 4:14

huge difference. Especially when you're going to be resigning, Aiden next year. We're hoping to Liam, there's, iffy, we want to resign. That money that yeah, Decker, we have a lot of cap room, which they teams like to have cap room during the year because they like to be able to, use that to sign players, someone get injured, they need to sign a player. So you need to have cap space. But the thing is, if you don't spend it, then you get to use it for next year. So this, it'll be vital for us to have this money for next year when we sign that big Aiden Hutchinson contract.

Jacob Litton: 4:47

right, definitely.

Jason Harwood: 4:49

Yep.

Jacob Litton: 4:49

It was a quick process as far as their, went, before they determined that they were going to suspend them for eight games. And I don't know if typically they do, the salary cap things in the middle of the season. So you're hoping that we get an answer on that relatively quickly too, and they just put that money right back to us. It's not the worst thing if we have to wait until the end of the year, whatever,

Jason Harwood: 5:09

no.

Jacob Litton: 5:10

Obviously, it'd be better to do now

Jason Harwood: 5:11

and also I, they don't necessarily get all of it back. It's not like an all or nothing situation. So they could, they could give us any point back, but I'm sure the sooner that, the bean counters and the Alliance organization know how much we're going to get back, the better they could plan all of this out.

Jacob Litton: 5:28

counters.

Jason Harwood: 5:29

did a set of bean counters in that.

Jacob Litton: 5:31

does that

Jason Harwood: 5:32

You've never heard of that? That's an old term. You wouldn't get it. Our older audience will get that.

Jacob Litton: 5:37

it. Bean counter.

Jason Harwood: 5:38

counters. It was like back in the day, they used to count beans. Oh my god, that's right. Another reminder.

Jacob Litton: 5:45

of more elaboration.

Jason Harwood: 5:46

You've never heard of this? Bean counters are the people that are the Accountants, they're the bean counters, man.

Jacob Litton: 5:53

I'm just not going to get the reference. So I guess we'll just move

Jason Harwood: 5:56

Cam Sutton's no longer on the team, we don't have to, see Puka Nakula running past him in Week 1 like we saw in the playoffs. We might be getting some money back. So this all, May work out, in, in the lion's favor, because I think like we referenced before in our, one of our podcasts that at some point cam Sutton was going to be making more money than Carlton Davis on this team.

Jacob Litton: 6:16

Right now, we were paying him more than Carlton Davis.

Jason Harwood: 6:19

So that's crazy.

Jacob Litton: 6:20

of A get out of jail free card for us. Cause this happens, we're able to cut him. We're able to recoup some of that money just because

Jason Harwood: 6:26

I know. Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 6:28

You don't have to overpay him.

Jason Harwood: 6:30

exactly, who knows, cam Sutton could have been a valuable part of this team if the, what he didn't happen and say, and he was, maybe second cornerback or, third cornerback that, he's not guarding Justin Jefferson. He's guarding, number two or three, but like we said before, cam Sutton, wasn't a guy that was going to man up and,

Jacob Litton: 6:48

yeah.

Jason Harwood: 6:49

So

Jacob Litton: 6:49

dislike Kim Sutton or think that he necessarily was the only problem on the defense or, the only corner liability. We just asked a lot of him. And you're right. Maybe with a couple of the rookies and everything coming in, maybe we could have used him a little bit differently than what we had to do last year, but the way we had to use them last year, it didn't work

Jason Harwood: 7:11

no.

Jacob Litton: 7:12

And we had to have an improvement.

Jason Harwood: 7:14

Yeah. Yep. No, and now we don't have to worry about any of that I mean what he's accused of and everything like that was a total shock based on what I'd Heard when we signed him. He was a high character player, but he just didn't handle this situation Very well at all. Just you know, not talking with the team for a couple weeks Just not turning himself in and you know You

Jacob Litton: 7:35

yeah. That's Just a wild situation.

Jason Harwood: 7:38

Yeah, I've never quite seen anything quite like that and what's surprising is the sealers knew all this and then still signed him.

Jacob Litton: 7:46

Yeah, you know, They knew what they were getting. They knew what the league was looking at. I don't know if they were hoping it was going to be four games or maybe they knew all along it was probably going to be six or eight and they were just prepared to deal with it.

Jason Harwood: 7:56

Yeah,

Jacob Litton: 7:56

make a lot of sense for them to sign him when he's in the middle of this investigation and they don't know what the resolution is going to be.

Jason Harwood: 8:04

yeah, and that I don't know what that, you're not saying that okay, we're signing We're okay with what he did But when you're signing before the resolution and all that it just the optics aren't good I can tell you that Surprising from sealers organization, I guess I, maybe they felt comfortable with them cause he's been there before,

Jacob Litton: 8:21

Trying to help him out, help the team out. I don't know.

Jason Harwood: 8:24

So that was the big news of the day. Still, still to be determined how much it's going to help the lines, but the length of the suspension is the big thing for me the lines are probably going to get a sizable chunk, if not all of that money back. Cause it's basically, you're going to deem the lines were, had their rights to. Void his contract. Yeah, exactly. Cause eight games is very sizable. I think the NFL is a lot more aware of the optics of that now because, Ray Rice was originally going to get four games for his suspension and, or not even that, I don't even remember. And then, Jamo was going to get four games for, Betting on a college game in his facility.

Jacob Litton: 9:02

Historically, the NFL is terrible at their suspensions.

Jason Harwood: 9:05

exactly just the consistency of them.

Jacob Litton: 9:07

no consistency

Jason Harwood: 9:09

Yeah. I've had enough talking about that. Let's move on to the next thing. I'm going to do a little fun exercise here. Jacob, I want you to pick an active former lion. So he's going to be someone active in the league, we're not going to take into salary cap considerations or anything like that, just someone that you would think that you would like to see on this team and it could be for a variety of reasons. So go ahead. I'm all at you start and we can hit on some of these players and see what you think.

Jacob Litton: 9:35

Okay. This actually was hard for me looking at the. that are active, that used to play for us. And I don't really see anyone, any glaring upgrade over who we have right now. I think the one that I want back, I guess would be Darius Slay. Obviously, you know, our corner room is improved right now, but Slay was awesome, had a lot of love for him when he was here, he was pretty much, he was a shutdown corner. was like the only bright spot on the defense. It seemed like for a while. The team wasn't doing good, but you could always count on Slay to perform. And his best years are behind him, I guess you would say, but still a solid player, solid person got love for the city. That's who I'm going with. It's like,

Jason Harwood: 10:22

Yeah, I liked that pick. He was definitely on my list. Think he's one of those players that, hey, you're picking him because you liked him when he was here. You want him to be able to experience some winning with this franchise, right? That's the way I look at it. Along the same lines, Yeah I must say Quandre Diggs is the other one.

Jacob Litton: 10:39

player, man.

Jason Harwood: 10:39

I knew that was probably your player. I loved Quandre Diggs when he was with the Lions. He just is a screams football player and I think he'd fit in right with the Lions. The Dan Campbell, the grit, that's,

Jacob Litton: 10:53

100%.

Jason Harwood: 10:53

he was all of that and I loved Quandre Dixon is here and, he, had a falling out with Matt Patricia, like so many of the players and we've invited Graham Glasgow back, we got Jalen Reeves Maven back it's time. To bring, quandary digs back and, I, you could make an argument that we could have some safety help. We need a veteran safety back there. You got branch, you got. Iffy, you got Kirby back there, right? No matter what you, the two of the three you pick, they're young and quandary digs has seen it all. He's a pro bowl player. He, teased him a lot and he's still available. So, you know, I, I love to see quandary digs back in there. What? What do you got to add to that?

Jacob Litton: 11:38

that yeah, he was my second. I only had two people on the list. I freaking love quandary digs, man. And you're right. He would slot right in this team. He had the right attitude, the right mindset, the grit, the tough, hard work, leadership, everything that you want. He had that. And uh, You know, it rubbed Matt Patricia the wrong way. Patricia had his own idea of how he wanted the team to be run. He didn't like any pushback from players. and it's an accountability issue. I think, digs is holding people accountable and he's wanting to pull the best out of everyone. And that didn't sit well with Patricia. That was crushing when they got rid of digs, man

Jason Harwood: 12:18

especially they didn't get anything for him.

Jacob Litton: 12:20

You got nothing for him. And then you just see him thrive. Which is good for him. It was good to see him thrive, like all love for him. But at the same time, like it should have been here. I, would be 100 percent OK with bringing digs back,

Jason Harwood: 12:33

For the fit on this team. If we're going on that angle, who would help the team the most? I think Quandary digs. Now it depends on how, what price we got him for Dix is still out there just like Justin Simmons for the Broncos, you know These guys are probably sitting out hoping not hoping that someone gets injured they're if that an injury happens that opens a slot for them.

Jacob Litton: 12:53

hoping for the right.

Jason Harwood: 12:54

Yeah

Jacob Litton: 12:54

right. Opportunity to come

Jason Harwood: 12:56

I'd like to see Quandary Dix get back here and experience winning and get to go to Ford Field and Feel that energy and be on that side of it. Plus I don't want them to go back to Seattle cause we play them and we play them in what week four or whatever. So I don't want to, I don't want to see him on Monday night, playing against us.

Jacob Litton: 13:13

Hey, man, we could be speaking this into existence. Nino, come back to us, man.

Jason Harwood: 13:18

All I'm gonna throw another name at you. See if you thought about this name Matt Prater. He's still, active out there.

Jacob Litton: 13:25

know, I saw that. I did. I did think about that for a second.

Jason Harwood: 13:28

I could see that he could come back and fit in this team. I liked Matt Prater. We had some inconsistencies at kicker until he came and then he cooled it all down and he was a good kicker. I liked Matt Prater.

Jacob Litton: 13:42

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 13:42

I'm sure he's lost some in his leg by now, but I. I could see a Matt Prater making it on this team. You got any other names or you want me to throw some more out there?

Jacob Litton: 13:52

no, let's hear it. I looked at the list, so I know all the players, but the guys, the only ones I put on there were slaying dicks.

Jason Harwood: 13:59

Jamal Williams,

Jacob Litton: 14:01

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 14:01

He would definitely be slotted. You know, They're running back at best. He might even be behind Craig

Jacob Litton: 14:08

You know how much I love Jamal

Jason Harwood: 14:10

Yeah, I know.

Jacob Litton: 14:11

His personality and just everything he brings to the team.

Jason Harwood: 14:14

Yeah,

Jacob Litton: 14:15

I was not happy losing him. Obviously we upgraded,

Jason Harwood: 14:18

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 14:19

definitely played better than, Williams did.

Jason Harwood: 14:22

Yes, what you want Jamal for, is that morale, that, he just, he speaks with emotion, he was all in, and it was shocking when he left I agree with you that I like a running back room now much better than when he was on the team. And I think it shows in, DMO's ability to break tackles. And like Ben Johnson said, turn those four yard runs into seven, eight yard runs and the seven, eight yard runs into 15 yard runs, those that's why he's able to do,

Jacob Litton: 14:52

Jamal really helped turn on, turn things around for

Jason Harwood: 14:54

Mm, Oh yeah,

Jacob Litton: 14:55

and uh, you know, got that image forever in my brain of after that Packers game, we won, but we weren't going to the playoffs. He's staying there. Like he's holding the football. He broke the record and everything. calls out the media. He's like, you know, we heard what you guys are saying. He's we're the Detroit Lions, man. that was just a really cool moment.

Jason Harwood: 15:14

That was a that was a very emotional moment for him. He, and that's, when that happened, I was like, there's no way they're not signing this guy. That's, and I think everybody was in that same boat. We were like, we're going to have this guy back for sure. Cause how are they going to let him go?

Jacob Litton: 15:29

He wants to be here, we want him here.

Jason Harwood: 15:31

Right. And he had just broken Barry Sanders records. Regardless of what you want to think about that, whether that was an offensive line record, he did have a ton of one yard runs, but. Sometimes that one yard is the hardest one to get on the field and he was consistently getting it. He was consistently getting it. So, you know. I Didn't like how everything shook out at the time, I just was sad losing him, but I was happy for the moment we said David Montgomery, cause I was tired of seeing him in Chicago's backfield. So

Jacob Litton: 16:03

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 16:03

Speaking of Chicago's backfield, DeAndre Swift, he's still out there. That was another name that was on the list. I wasn't enamored with that. That was a quick pass for me. But you have any thoughts about that?

Jacob Litton: 16:15

No, cause I think that Jameer Gibbs is a better version of what DeAndre Swift is. So I don't. He wouldn't fit in the backfield with them right now.

Jason Harwood: 16:24

no, he'd be nice to have third, cause I think Deandre Sif works very well in small amounts cause he, just seems to get injured with us he did at least and, but yeah, no, he's. Wasn't gonna work out. Same thing with TJ Hawkinson. We got Sam Laporta. Sam Laporta is essentially a better version of TJ Hawkinson. So I, I was happy with that. Jonah's still out there. Jonah Jackson obviously signed, but we went over that. We got Zeitler, so we upgraded with that.

Jacob Litton: 16:54

See, that's the thing, you're spitting these names out of the former Lions, and it's like almost everyone you've had, I feel like we've upgraded at their spot.

Jason Harwood: 17:00

Yep. And he still got Matt Stafford out there.

Jacob Litton: 17:03

that's a questionable one.

Jason Harwood: 17:04

I like golf. I just, and we'll, we can maybe talk about this. But yeah, golf is the guy he's won us over. So I, and like we said, the Matthew Stafford chant just, doesn't work as well as the Jared Goff chant. A couple of other, linebackers that. We drafted did not do anything for us was Kyle Vannoy and and Tavai who Tavai just signed extension with the Patriots. So it's those guys that, we drafted just didn't work out, but then they went to the Patriots and, they somehow thrived over there.

Jacob Litton: 17:33

I don't know if that's just a scheme thing or what? I don't know. I mean, the athletic ability, it's not like they're killers.

Jason Harwood: 17:40

Yeah. I don't know. Vannoy looks really good for a few years though. And he parlayed that into a couple of pretty good contracts. Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 17:48

I got much better

Jason Harwood: 17:51

Domic and Sue has not retired yet, so I, what's your feeling on,

Jacob Litton: 17:55

was on my list, but he didn't even play last

Jason Harwood: 17:58

yeah, I know.

Jacob Litton: 17:59

So that's why I was like, I don't know if he counts. I kind of had him as my, uh, one of my mentions in the other one

Jason Harwood: 18:06

We can leave him for there. I mean, I Connect with especially Quandary Diggs and Darius Slay very emotionally, because when they were with the team, they were the bright spot. There was the void of talent and they were the talent and you, they, Kwander digs played how I want people to play football with passion. Obviously skill, he was just here, he just, a hard worker, Darius slay had the skill and, Definitely was not without confidence, especially after he started, balling out, he was, he'd let you know about it.

Jacob Litton: 18:39

You need some of that swagger,

Jason Harwood: 18:40

Big, play slay.

Jacob Litton: 18:41

right? Big place like Missing.

Jason Harwood: 18:44

For sure. All right. So same, we're going to move on next segment, same thing, except for you got to pick a retired lion that you would add to this team. And for my list, I just picked from my era later. I didn't, I'm not, we're not going to Bobby Lane is not, yeah.

Jacob Litton: 18:59

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 19:00

Walker, Bobby Lane, Dick Night Train Lane. Dick Night Train Lane? Do you know who that is?

Jacob Litton: 19:04

I have heard of him.

Jason Harwood: 19:05

He's a hall of famer for the Lions. Yes. Those guys aren't going to be on my list and I'm assuming they're not on Jacob's list either.

Jacob Litton: 19:11

So I have a question for the retired

Jason Harwood: 19:13

Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 19:15

you did the active lion and just name every single player that used to play for us? Or do you actually have only a couple of players?

Jason Harwood: 19:21

I I listed all those cause I wanted to touch on all of them, I like to have the answers for the test, so I am prepared. I don't come in here, and say, Oh, what are we going to do?

Jacob Litton: 19:31

OK,

Jason Harwood: 19:31

I have almost 20 players. I have listed well, they're not all the players I'm picking, but I wanted to have them out there so I could just throw the names out and get a reaction, because I think that's a fun part of doing it, so.

Jacob Litton: 19:42

okay, that's fine.

Jason Harwood: 19:43

So,

Jacob Litton: 19:44

are going to pretty much every line that.

Jason Harwood: 19:47

I'm gonna name quite a few lions, and I'm gonna, and they're, they're all names that you'll know. I

Jacob Litton: 19:52

Right.

Jason Harwood: 19:52

Outside of maybe one or two of these, I would bet you would know all of them. I'm gonna let you start again though I forgot to add that you get them as they were with the lion. So Adrian Peterson, while technically a lion, if you brought him back, You would get him as he was with the lions. All right. So

Jacob Litton: 20:09

I didn't put too much information about the first guy on my list because it's too easy of an answer. that would be Calvin Johnson. That's the obvious answer. When you ask, of course we want Megatron back. You want to put him on this team, give golf another huge weapon. One of the best receivers to play a game. He had to be at the top of your list also. Right. Was he number one?

Jason Harwood: 20:31

That's the number one. So it was tough because obviously Barry

Jacob Litton: 20:36

when you talk about the team right now, obviously Barry Sanders top running back. But how does he fit with the team right now?

Jason Harwood: 20:42

exactly. but I could tell you that any person my age would tell you that during our time with the lions, everyone's complaint was if we had Dallas Cowboys line at the time and Barry Sanders was running behind it, it would be amazing to see. So from that argument, I definitely would love to see Barry Sanders behind. The number one offensive line in the league because what he did without that was just insane But if we're gonna talk about hey, let's how are we gonna improve this team right now? I think Calvin probably improves this team more than if we had Barry right now That's the way I that's why I would say Calvin over Barry just in this instance Can you imagine having you have Calvin on one side? You got Jamo on the other and you got Amun Ra on the slot That'd be unstoppable.

Jacob Litton: 21:35

Yeah. That's why I didn't really put too much information, because that's the obvious answer. It's

Jason Harwood: 21:40

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 21:40

answer.

Jason Harwood: 21:41

Yeah. It's part of this is not just Hey, this is the answer. Let's explore some other, fun things, just like we did with the last category. There's some players that I would really like to see have some winning ways with the lions. But I when Calvin was with us, there would be sometimes where they would have two cornerbacks just lined up it's not like there was a safety shading his way. They would just put two corners or a corner and a safety straight on, on the line on Megatron. If you did that, it'd be to your detriment. Cause Amun Ra would E2 up over the middle and J Mo could just fly.

Jacob Litton: 22:13

Yeah, they used to do that in the Red Zone.

Jason Harwood: 22:15

yeah,

Jacob Litton: 22:16

to let Megatron score, so we're gonna put two people right on him at the line. Do that when you have Laporta and Amon Ra. You could have Gibbs coming out of the backfield. There's just too many weapons there. You

Jason Harwood: 22:24

yeah.

Jacob Litton: 22:25

people on him. And then if you do put one person on him, guess what? We're running a fade and you're not gonna stop it. You can't jump that high. You can't get there as quick as Calvin can.

Jason Harwood: 22:33

I would love to see Barry Sanders run on this line. But as far as what would improve this team right now? I definitely choose Calvin, someone told me I had to have Barry Sanders, I'm not losing too much sleep. I can tell you that. So did you have any other players on your list over there before I go?

Jacob Litton: 22:49

I had three people on my list. Calvin was number one, but like I said, he was too easy. The other two are I'll tell you, I'm gonna let you go next, but I'll tell you that the other two I picked were both linebackers

Jason Harwood: 23:00

Okay.

Jacob Litton: 23:00

trying to think who could help the team right now.

Jason Harwood: 23:02

Okay, cool.

Jacob Litton: 23:03

let you go, who was next?

Jason Harwood: 23:05

So for me, it was Robert Porsche. I love to see him on the other side of Aiden and obviously he could help right now because he was just really good for his time with the lion. So that would be neat to have him on the other side But do you want to do your linebackers or you want to do one?

Jacob Litton: 23:22

Let's, because we already started talking about him, so let's just do the honorable mention, which was uh, Sue.

Jason Harwood: 23:27

Okay.

Jacob Litton: 23:28

It was like, when we talked about this Sue technically never retired and he

Jason Harwood: 23:31

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 23:32

again. But he didn't play last year.

Jason Harwood: 23:34

Yeah. Oh

Jacob Litton: 23:35

He would be a monster to get on the line right now.

Jason Harwood: 23:38

my god,

Jacob Litton: 23:39

obviously the real issue would have with him would be his personality and how well he's willing to just be a part of the team without being the number one guy.

Jason Harwood: 23:47

right

Jacob Litton: 23:48

But I mean, Sue everything that he did while he was here, all pro everything, like that would be a huge get up front.

Jason Harwood: 23:56

Yeah, if you're at suing his prime against even DJ Reed on one side or a Lee McNeil either one It wouldn't matter that would be

Jacob Litton: 24:03

them and

Jason Harwood: 24:04

Oh, I

Jacob Litton: 24:05

want to play.

Jason Harwood: 24:08

No. Can you imagine? Especially after Domican stomps on you, and

Jacob Litton: 24:12

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 24:13

Oh, man.

Jacob Litton: 24:14

All right. But the next guy I had on my list let's see if he's actually on your list

Jason Harwood: 24:18

Okay.

Jacob Litton: 24:19

An odd one for me. So I actually put on here, DeAndre Levy.

Jason Harwood: 24:22

Ah, yes. He's on my list. Yes. I love. Mm hmm. Mm

Jacob Litton: 24:27

Linebacker for us. 2014 season was his prime. He was second team, all pro led the league in tackles. Just a huge defensive leader for us. And I think that was like year, maybe five for him or something. So it was like, he was just getting better and better. He had been in the thick of it, just We made the playoffs that year. signed that big contract in the off season. He gets injured in preseason. And then, he had that whole kind of fallen out where it was like, there was the rumors that maybe he wasn't as hurt as he said he was and that he was just holding out Caldwell and everything said he's really doing everything he can to get back on the field. But I think he only played like another four games total over the next couple of years. So the way it ended was really ugly, but prime DeAndre Levy was a monster that season.

Jason Harwood: 25:16

I know.

Jacob Litton: 25:16

that if we could get him back and add him to the linebacker corp right now, that would be huge. That would be awesome.

Jason Harwood: 25:23

Yeah, he's definitely on my list, and I love Domican. DeAndre That whole falling out, and injured, not injured, he said he could come back, the lion said he can't come back, that, that was, left a sour taste in everybody's mouth, but his play when he was in his prime did not, it was, he was special to watch, and yeah, I like our Lampbacker room, we don't have anyone that's playing, that was making plays on the level that Levy was making plays. That's your first linebacker? Who, can I guess your second one? Steven Tulloch? Is he your other one?

Jacob Litton: 25:55

you got it. man. That's the other one.

Jason Harwood: 25:57

What'd you like about him?

Jacob Litton: 25:58

same kind of thing defensive leader and he wasn't exactly flashy. It wasn't like he was all pro or whatever But I mean he was a leader back there. He was a tough player He was you know, one of those gritty guys before it was our motto I guess I

Jason Harwood: 26:12

Yep. Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 26:15

man, except you know when he injured himself celebrating

Jason Harwood: 26:19

Yep, that, that's a, that is a Lions thing, totally, too. At that time, it was like, of course our guy gets hurt, and it makes everyone even laugh at the Lions another linebacker that's on my list is my favorite line of all time, Chris Spielman. Um, so yeah, you didn't really get to see him play, But he, him and Tulloch kind of reminds me of Spielman, just someone that's dependable, hardworking so Jason Hanson's on my list cause we could always use a dependable kicker. And I like the name too. Jason's pretty good. Another hard nosed gritty player that you'll remember is Kyle Vandenbosch too. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when Swartz got him and he's got the right contacts in and he was just It's a hard nosed player. I liked Van de Bosch. Haloti Nata was another player that would wreak havoc in the center of the line. I liked his time here along with Snacks Harrison. That's another player

Jacob Litton: 27:13

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 27:13

that would, it was good. Dre,

Jacob Litton: 27:16

seem to be past his prime when we got him though.

Jason Harwood: 27:18

he did, he that first season, he seemed like, okay, we got something, we got a pretty good deal for him, but then, after that I don't know if it was just, he was done with the whole regime of the lions and they washed him out or whatever but glover quinn

Jacob Litton: 27:33

I really Like Glover Quinn.

Jason Harwood: 27:34

Theo Riddick was a great player. I loved him. And another player that could help us right now is Cliff Averill too. I liked, just that a guy off the edge, you know, when lost him to Seattle.

Jacob Litton: 27:46

That was another one that sucked to see him leave when Averill left.

Jason Harwood: 27:49

it did. I know. Herman Moore is also on my list. I like Golden Tate. Those guys, again, wide receivers are gonna fall. You know, second to Calvin. Lomas Brown's another just offensive lineman that was great during the Lions time. So those are the guys that I got listed. So anything else you want to add on that?

Jacob Litton: 28:08

Nope. I had my couple of guys,

Jason Harwood: 28:11

Yeah, and I have my 20

Jacob Litton: 28:12

added some good ones, but yeah, then you also start just to add everyone that used to play for us.

Jason Harwood: 28:18

I just like for everyone to know how smart I am and how much I study. All right. All right, man. We're gonna move on to another topic. This one is on our buddy, Matthew Stafford. There is rumblings that people would want a tribute video of him when he comes to town in week one. What's your thoughts on that?

Jacob Litton: 28:39

I go back and forth about this because on one hand. For everything that he did for us, he definitely deserves a tribute video, but do you put it on when he's playing for a rival team and when we're in the midst of, the season like this, or is that something that when he's done playing, we can invite him back and play a tribute video? When he's not in uniform getting ready to play a game against us, that's just where the toss up is for me I definitely a hundred percent think he deserves to have you a tribute video done by us. I don't know that I would really show him that much, try to show him that much love and support right before you play the first game of the season and we're trying to take his head off in about 10 minutes.

Jason Harwood: 29:21

Yeah, at no way would I ever have a tribute video of someone while they were playing. Now, if this was, his Last season, like he's did the farewell tour or something like that. I could maybe see the argument just so that you could, you know, wave him. Goodbye. Week one when we're, playing an NFC team. No, it's the other quarterback. And not only that. The guy that we got, they traded for each other.

Jacob Litton: 29:48

It's just weird.

Jason Harwood: 29:49

it would be just so awkward. Just the whole situation. I like Matthew Stafford, beyond what's going on right now and the dynamics of everything that has happened. I like Matthew Stafford. I think he deserved better in his time here. But at the same time, he never won us a playoff game, but the guy that we have quarterbacking for us has won two. Let's just say Jericho takes us to a super bowl in the next couple of years and wins us, do you look at Matthew Stafford's the same? Because yeah, he put up a lot of yards and did a lot of stats, we didn't get to the playoffs very much with them. And when we did, we never won a game.

Jacob Litton: 30:24

you know, I hope It comes to that. that Goff wins the Super Bowl for us and then we have to have the debate of who had the better career because Goff had the Super Bowl, Stafford had all the years, all the chaos, all the different coaches. I hope that's a debate we can have in the future because Goff wins the Super Bowl here.

Jason Harwood: 30:42

yeah he wins a Superbowl. He wins in my book there's no, no other way around it.

Jacob Litton: 30:48

You also make the argument then at that point is you look at every single player and all the line and every, the coaching staff and all the other right pieces we've had around Jared Goff And Stafford didn't have most of that,

Jason Harwood: 31:01

Yeah, I agree with you. And that's a great argument, but at the end of the day, quarterback's going to be judged on playoff wins, Superbowl, and there's no doubt. Doubt in my mind. Matthew Stafford won a Super Bowl over with the Rams. He can do it. He could have made the argument that he did with the Lions, but he just didn't do it. And, whether it was taken from him, like in the Dallas game, he might've got his playoff win and this might be a different argument. I've definitely don't agree that he should have one while he's still playing. Like I said, maybe outside of a retirement and the game is, doesn't have any implications on whatever, say it's the end of the season.

Jacob Litton: 31:38

about that, though, when they do these farewell tours, usually do that for, in the NBA or in baseball, they go around and they make a big event, even for opposing players that didn't play for the team, they give credit, Miggy had that tour everywhere that they went, they gave him some respect. Those games don't matter as much when you're playing 162 or, an NBA, when you're playing 82 games, it doesn't quite matter just as much, but in the NFL, every game matters so much. I can't imagine them actually doing it while he's still active. While he's still playing.

Jason Harwood: 32:11

And if they do, it might be drowned out in Jared Goff chants, right? The whole video, they're just and what would Kelly Stafford say about that? I don't know. I don't see that ever happening. You're right. Every game in the NFL is weighted so heavy compared to an NBA or MLB game. So yeah, I, it, I don't think it's going to happen, but I, and I don't know why some people still want to hang on to Stafford when, We got a really good quarterback playing for us right now. So

Jacob Litton: 32:39

right.

Jason Harwood: 32:39

me, I want to come up with an analogy for you. Cause I know you like star Wars. I like star Wars. Matthew Stafford is like Anakin Skywalker to me. So he was supposed to be the chosen one, the number one pick. He's supposed to bring us still playoff win. Again, Anakin's supposed to bring balance of the force. Stafford gets traded to another team. Now he's Darth Vader. He's on this other team. In trading him, we got Jerr Goff who is ushered in and he's won us two playoff games. So matt Stafford did bring us, two playoff wins by trading him So I think Matthew Stafford is Anakin Skywalker. What do you think about that?

Jacob Litton: 33:17

Who, what would that make Jared Golf

Jason Harwood: 33:19

Huh? Jairus Luke Skywalker.

Jacob Litton: 33:21

I think you're close with the analogy. I don't know that I like it. I don't think it fits perfectly here, but, uh, I see what you're going

Jason Harwood: 33:27

It doesn't fit perfectly, but he's supposed to, bring us the title and he couldn't even win us a playoff game, but eventually he did, by turning to the dark side. That's pretty good on that. Anything you want to add?

Jacob Litton: 33:40

No, I'm good.

Jason Harwood: 33:41

So we get ready for our fun segment here. I get to ask you first, Jacob, ready for the Honolulu blitz. All right. You ready?

Jacob Litton: 33:56

I'm ready.

Jason Harwood: 33:57

All right, what team did Sam Laporta score his first NFL TD against?

Jacob Litton: 34:03

So the Vikings,

Jason Harwood: 34:04

Nope. Nope.

Jacob Litton: 34:06

Jema was against the Vikings,

Jason Harwood: 34:07

Yeah, JMO was against Vikings. Yeah, that was fun.

Jacob Litton: 34:10

Laporta?

Jason Harwood: 34:11

Falcons. So he had that play in the inside the den, I think it was one of those Jared Goss says, This is the play, boys. And it was Clayus Campbell almost sacked him, and he just threw it up and Laporta was just wide open,

Jacob Litton: 34:24

remember seeing that interview with Laporta. I was like, man, that hung in the air forever.

Jason Harwood: 34:28

I know it had to be

Jacob Litton: 34:29

open and he knew, he was like, this is it, this is my chance.

Jason Harwood: 34:32

in previous lions iterations. So the SOL lions, it would have hit his face mask and bounce out of his hands or something like that.

Jacob Litton: 34:39

Ebron would have dropped it.

Jason Harwood: 34:41

Yeah, then he would have blamed the media. Uh, Who scores more TDs this season, Laporta or Amun Ra?

Jacob Litton: 34:50

Oh man, that is a great question. I'm still gonna, you know what? I'm still gonna say Amon Ra.

Jason Harwood: 34:59

Yeah, I think Amun Ra was a good choice, but man. Laporta could be, especially with Joshua. I know it's he's red zone demon out there.

Jacob Litton: 35:06

exactly. He's got all those red zone, you know, teams are more aware of him now. They're going to be looking out for Laporta more, but at the same time, the dude finds ways to get open. We find ways to get him the ball, especially with the red zone thing. We've got a lot of targets though, too. So I think a Manra is a better. More consistent, better. If you're betting a better pick, is have more

Jason Harwood: 35:27

Yeah. So someone's going to gift you tickets to the Lions game this year. You don't have to pay for plane. You don't have to pay for a hotel. You don't have to pay for anything. What game are you going to choose?

Jacob Litton: 35:39

I'm flying out to San Francisco and I'm watching them play the 49ers.

Jason Harwood: 35:44

Monday night. All right, cool. All right. This one's a non Lions question. If you had to pick right now, Jared Goff is not on the team. If you had to pick right now, who would you rather have? Dak Prescott or Jordan Love?

Jacob Litton: 35:57

Dak Prescott,

Jason Harwood: 35:58

Dak Prescott. Alright.

Jacob Litton: 36:00

Jordan Love plays front of me. So I mean, Dak Prescott's

Jason Harwood: 36:04

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 36:06

rather have Dak.

Jason Harwood: 36:07

Yeah. Alright. Who makes the playoffs first, the Pistons or the Tigers?

Jacob Litton: 36:13

The tiger's

Jason Harwood: 36:14

Tigers. All right. Yeah, I won four in a row today. So

Jacob Litton: 36:19

me out. I was having a good night and here

Jason Harwood: 36:20

I don't know. No, it's all right, man. I'm talking a little Tigers. I love Tigers. All right, man. That was fifth one. My turn. Demo's

Jacob Litton: 36:28

All right, here we go. Question. What Lions players who started at least one game last year, so someone that started at least one game for us last year, what Lions starter, I guess you would say has previously started for the Chicago Bears? So there are three Lions that started for the Bears before us.

Jason Harwood: 36:48

number one.

Jacob Litton: 36:50

Yeah, you got the easy one.

Jason Harwood: 36:52

I know that's the way I go, man.

Jacob Litton: 36:55

One was really easy. The other one I would have known. The third one on this list, I didn't know until

Jason Harwood: 36:59

okay. Alright, I'm trying to think of where it would be. Not any of the offensive line.

Jacob Litton: 37:09

offense, one defense,

Jason Harwood: 37:11

Okay,

Jacob Litton: 37:12

and you got the offensive player.

Jason Harwood: 37:13

so it's the defensive line. Okay, or defenses, yeah.

Jacob Litton: 37:16

player.

Jason Harwood: 37:17

Oh um, is it Vildor or Dorsey? One of those two. Uh,

Jacob Litton: 37:23

You got it.

Jason Harwood: 37:24

okay. Yeah, Yeah, that's right. And then they caught him and then we picked him up and then he was a starter for us. So yeah, that tells you where our cornerback room was last year. And the third one, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna wave the flag. So what was the third one?

Jacob Litton: 37:39

The third one is actually Badgley.

Jason Harwood: 37:42

Okay. Oh,

Jacob Litton: 37:43

for the Bears too.

Jason Harwood: 37:44

I didn't, I might've known that at one point.

Jacob Litton: 37:47

six or seven teams that he's kicked

Jason Harwood: 37:49

Yeah. All right. You had one on special teams, one on defense and one on offense. All right.

Jacob Litton: 37:54

Who was the last Lions player to return a kickoff for a touchdown? A punt, but a

Jason Harwood: 37:59

not a kickoff Agnew.

Jacob Litton: 38:04

It was.

Jason Harwood: 38:04

Yeah, all right. Yep.

Jacob Litton: 38:06

Care to guess what year?

Jason Harwood: 38:07

No, let me see Say 17 or 18. I don't know.

Jacob Litton: 38:16

it was 2019.

Jason Harwood: 38:17

2019. Okay. All right.

Jacob Litton: 38:18

Crazy that's been that long.

Jason Harwood: 38:20

I know

Jacob Litton: 38:22

Okay. What two quarterbacks had seasons with at least five game winning drives for the lions?

Jason Harwood: 38:28

two quarterbacks

Jacob Litton: 38:29

two quarterbacks that had seasons where they had at least five game winning

Jason Harwood: 38:32

Stafford would be one of them.

Jacob Litton: 38:34

Yep. That's the easy one. He did it twice in 2014 and 2016.

Jason Harwood: 38:39

It's cuz he was always behind so he had plenty of opportunity to

Jacob Litton: 38:43

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 38:43

back But some of it was his own doing.

Jacob Litton: 38:46

that's this other guy too.

Jason Harwood: 38:47

Oh, yeah I'll say Kitna. No, I don't know

Jacob Litton: 38:53

Further back.

Jason Harwood: 38:54

Further back? Nah, all right. It wasn't Joey Harrington, because I don't even think he had five wins, so

Jacob Litton: 39:00

Right. I think you're getting warmer. A little

Jason Harwood: 39:02

warmer. A little bit further back, was it Scott Mitchell? No? That's too far back?

Jacob Litton: 39:08

the year was 2000. Charlie

Jason Harwood: 39:12

I don't even remember. I, all these years ago, who was it?

Jacob Litton: 39:18

Batch.

Jason Harwood: 39:19

Charlie Batch. Oh, man, that was 2000, huh? Wow, I would have, yeah,

Jacob Litton: 39:23

And that's crazy. He had five game winning drives that year.

Jason Harwood: 39:26

yeah. Oh, Charlie Batch. Best backup that Ben Roethlisberger ever had. Ha. All right.

Jacob Litton: 39:33

so that's the trivia part. Now

Jason Harwood: 39:35

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 39:35

opinion questions here.

Jason Harwood: 39:36

All right.

Jacob Litton: 39:37

what current lion do you think would make the best head coach? When his playing career is over a

Jason Harwood: 39:42

Ooh. Jack Campbell seems like he's gonna be a good a head coach, but he's pretty young.

Jacob Litton: 39:49

Little early, we don't

Jason Harwood: 39:50

yeah, a little early, but I think that he just seems all about football. I don't think Aiden's gonna be a good coach. I think Jared Goff is actually gonna be a good quarterbacks coach, but not a head coach. I'm going to go with, I'll go with Jack Campbell, but Brian Branch also speaks to me, someone that's super intelligent, so I think he's going to be a coach someday too.

Jacob Litton: 40:09

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 40:10

Fuji.

Jacob Litton: 40:10

the dilemma I had when I was thinking about it myself is that I feel like there's a few of them that would probably make good position coaches to try to picture them as a head coach man, I don't even know who I would pick for that.

Jason Harwood: 40:19

Yeah. There, it's hard because they have a very young team. So it's, a couple of years ago you could say, Oh, Brockers would be in there or just, they had some seasoned vets, but it does, most of these guys are pretty young. So yeah, I think Taylor, Doug, I mean, Frank seems like someone that would be,

Jacob Litton: 40:39

Frank does a lot of other activities

Jason Harwood: 40:41

Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna,

Jacob Litton: 40:43

it.

Jason Harwood: 40:43

yeah. He's gonna enjoy fishing and stuff like that and hunting and all that. Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 40:48

All right. And last question, which is funny because the last question that you asked me If you had to lose one sports team in Detroit. So if they had to pull one team out of Detroit and relocate them, who would you give up out of the major sports teams? And once they re once they relocate them, would you still be a fan of that team? Or would

Jason Harwood: 41:09

Yeah. It wouldn't be the Tigers or the Lions. I couldn't lose them. Now the Red Wings and the Pistons have been in that boat at some points in my life, too, because in the 90s when they started to win those titles, I was a full on Red Wings fan and just really loved hockey at the time. If I had to lose, I'd lose. Probably the Pistons is how I would lose. But man, it's bad boy years and stuff like that. I love the Pistons during that time it's easy to pick the Pistons just because of how they played the last decade or greater But it's so hard. I love all our teams. So I don't know who would yeah, who would you give up?

Jacob Litton: 41:46

I think the pistons are like the easiest answer just because the team's not doing so well,

Jason Harwood: 41:52

Yeah

Jacob Litton: 41:52

is terrible right now. Fact that our arena that we play in, was. Specially designed for the Red Wings, We piggybacked on, now we have Little Caesars Arena, it doesn't.

Jason Harwood: 42:02

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 42:03

It, it's just a weird circumstance. I, we already talked about that before. I wish they would sell the team,

Jason Harwood: 42:09

Yeah.

Jacob Litton: 42:10

but I wish they would sell.

Jason Harwood: 42:12

Yeah. Well,

Jacob Litton: 42:13

Don't want to lose any team that hurts me to even think about them not being around.

Jason Harwood: 42:17

yeah I even in my me when I was in my darkest days with the Lions I wouldn't want him to leave. I would never want to lose that team. The piss is just because they're losing doesn't make it like that automatic answer for me. But I just, I'm not a huge fan of NBA basketball right now. It's just not my, not really into that style of play that they're playing right now. I'm more of a bad boys.

Jacob Litton: 42:42

Jason misses the short shorts.

Jason Harwood: 42:43

this is short shorts. Yeah, that's what I'm missing. No, No, that three point line doesn't ruin it, but I'm chucking up threes all the time and no contact in the lane. To me, if you're going to go in that lane you're going to expect some contact. And even if you're, a superstar player or not, that's my argument on NBA basketball, but all right, man. This is a good episode. I had fun reminiscing about some of these old lions and, I came prepared, you less so, but, it's all good, man.

Jacob Litton: 43:12

you just listed everybody that used to play for us,

Jason Harwood: 43:15

I did.

Jacob Litton: 43:16

fun too, because people listen to this. They're going to remember all these guys too.

Jason Harwood: 43:20

Yes, exactly. And that was my point, is that,

Jacob Litton: 43:22

memories know, you're not bumming everybody

Jason Harwood: 43:24

yeah, no, and I just wanted Some of those guys deserve credit because they played on some really rough Lions teams that didn't see him much winning that, we're lucky enough to get to experience now. All right. Till next week, man. Hope you have a good week, Jacob. And I hope everyone listening does too. So go Lions.