If you happened to tune in for the Detroit Lions first game under the Dan Campbell era, you most likely saw the moment on the sideline when Aubrey Pleasant ripped Lions CB Jeff Okudah a new one, telling him to “Do you (choice word) job!”
Well, former NFL wide receiver Steve Smith saw what Pleasant did to Okudah and he blasted the ‘shit show' the Lions got going.
From Detroit Free Press:
“We need to stop upping our standards for players and lowering our standards for coaches,” Smith said in video conference Tuesday. “We need to have them on the same playing field. We need to start revoking some of these dumb-ass coaches’ opportunities because that shit show they got in Detroit, it’s a train wreck waiting to happen and I’m sitting there, got my popcorn waiting for it.”
“I think it kind of goes to something that we need to address,” Smith said. The DB coach or the pass coordinator for the Detroit Lions, how he was dog cussing that third overall pick with the Detroit Lions. I thought that’s interesting. We can say we want to take and handle Justin Fields with delicate hands, but we’re going to dog cuss the DB?
“He put his name in the draft. He didn’t say pick me as the third overall pick. And I find it interesting, that young man obviously is in over skis. He can’t be — he can't cover people man-to-man. Why in the hell are the Detroit Lions putting that man in man-to-man coverage? They need to protect him the same way they need to protect a quarterback because we all know if the way that coach was talking to him, if Jeff would have responded in a way that, that coach was, they’d be suspending (him) and saying that, that player is detrimental. So I think we need to start holding coaches accountable and … start calling some of these coaches out to show that you can’t expect us players to be a certain way and then you not be that certain way.”
Smith further explained his comments to the Detroit Free Press.
“Man, I don’t believe in that culture change they keep barking about,” Smith said. “It’s worse. Their actions don’t follow through. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We question teams' ability to play well every year. Well, part of their ability to play well is what are they getting fed psychologically. Not just football knowledge, right?
“I mean, at the end of the day, here’s where it was a little disheartening: As men and women, what we all experience, we ask ourselves, who are we? Are we more than just football players? You can love someone and love on someone, but then when the rubber meets the road like in that game, what did that display about how they felt about Jeff Okudah, which is, if he doesn’t perform well, this is how you’ll be treated. And you can say, that’s not the culture. What is a picture worth?”
Yes, I’m supposed to take account for what Steve Smith says. What ever. Coaches have to coach. If that hurts your feelings, go join a fake sport like Quitage. F him. Go Lions.
Lions need safeties. And a no quit attitude. Better yet the Fords need to sell the team to someone who is dedicated and FOCUSED on the team making it to the Super Bowl. Or my prediction will occur: they get there when we have a Starbucks on MARS.
It is going to be the same old thing in Detroit. I agree they need new ownership. They have not had a real successful season since the Ford’s have owned the team. That has been a span of close to 60 years.