DETROIT – The Detroit Lions season is still days away and they are already finding ways into the national spotlight. ESPN, the NFL Network and media outlets around the country are having a field day with this one.

Lions running back Tatum Bell’s bag-snatching fiasco this week at the Lions facility was recorded on security surveillance cameras. In case you’re living in a cave and missed it, Bell is accused of, and was videotaped, stealing Rudi Johnson’s Gucci bag from the locker room.

In an interview with The Detroit Free Press on Wednesday, Johnson insisted that Tatum stole his stuff; “All this happened once he got released. He came here to get some stuff out of his locker. That’s when he scooped the bags up. Some real shyster, conniving stuff, man.”

Tatum who was cut by the Lions to make room for Johnson said he thought the bags belonged to another released Lion player who was also sent packing that same day and that he was asked to pick up the bags.

First of all girls, stop fighting amongst yourselves and what the hell is a grown, macho-type guy like Johnson, doing with a Gucci bag to begin with.

So here we are before the season’s first Lion fumble in the red zone and the Lions have already found a way to look like a bonehead organization. Reminisent of when Roy Williams refused to tip a pizza delivery guy, like when Coach Marty Morningway won a coin toss in overtime but gave the ball to the home team Chicago Bears who marched down the field and won.

What are the real facts surrounding this snatch-and-grab circus?

Who cares!?

It’s time to put on the pads in Atlanta and try to win this Sunday’s opening game, a battle many believe a showdown between the two sorriest francises in the NFL.

It’s time to lace ’em up and play some NFL football!

There lies the problem. The Lions normally are not capable of playing NFL football. There record over the last several years under Matt Millen proves that. And where is Matt while all this bickering and embarrassment surrounds his Lion’s team?

I haven’t seen Millen comment on this yet. Maybe he’s still walking around looking like a homeless drunk. Millen looks like a guy who’s in the witness protection program lately, in disguise . . . incognito. He may be tired of being recognized in public by ticked off Lions fans.

Tatum has reason to be pissed off at the Detroit Lions organization for destroying his career but he doesn’t have the right to steal another player’s belongings in retaliation.

Tatum is a guy who had rushed for over 1,000 yards prior to coming to Motown and was promised playing time which he rarely saw. When he asked to be traded, the Lions benched him for the remaining games of that season, ruining his chances to pursue a contract during the following free agency period.

Bell, like many other star-caliber players and coaches made the mistake of coming to Detroit then were stuck in a situation that ripped their careers apart at the seams. (Google Marcus Pollard, Damian Woody and Steve Mariucci)

That’s another whole issue and article in itself but getting back to week one for 2008 let’s ask the Lions; can you somehow stop finding ways to embarrass yourselves?

It’s difficult enough for the football fans of Detroit to stay loyal to an NFL organization that remains in our near the cellar in their division year after year; never lives up to their promises and preaches character to their players while giving one of their coaches a little slap on the wrist after he was arrested and charged for driving through a Wendy’s drive-thru naked? (Google Lions Joe Cullen)

Are you ready for some Lions football!

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