If you are a fan of the Detroit Lions, it often seems like our team gets screwed by the NFL and the officials more than any other team in the league. Heck, it does not seem like we can go more than a couple of weeks without seeing #DetroitVsEverybody trending on Twitter because of a call or decision that went against the Lions.
That being said, anyone with a brain knows the NFL is not purposely out to get the Lions. Yet, on Tuesday, a reporter took the time to actually ask Lions team president Rod Wood if he feels like the Lions are purposely treated unfairly by the NFL. (I am not kidding, a professional reporter actually inquired about this)
Wood’s response, which addressed the Lions game against the Bucs not being rescheduled and bad calls against the Lions, was that the organization has a good relationship with the league and that they are not purposely treated unfairly.
From Detroit Free Press:
“I think we have a really good relationship with the League, notwithstanding some of the evidence to the contrary,” Wood said. “I have a lot of contacts in the league that I talk to regularly. I think they are as supportive as they can be and I don’t think intentionally treat us any different than other teams, even though it might appear that way.
“With regard to rescheduling the (Buccaneers) game, certainly it could’ve been done, but the game had been moved to Saturday. It was a national TV game. I don’t think that we were treated any worse than Denver was a few weeks ago when they had to play a wide receiver from their practice squad at quarterback. There’s been other teams unfortunately that have had difficult issues with COVID-19, and this was our turn. I understand why they made the decision. We asked, but I don’t think it was because of any ill will towards the Detroit Lions on that front.”
“Officiating, clearly we had our share of calls that we wish went the other way,” Wood said. “I think a lot of other teams probably feel the same way, too. I do see reports after every game that we send in to the league, asking about specific calls. Quite often they acknowledge it probably could’ve gone the other way, sometimes they point out that we’re wrong and how we look at it.
“So we have a good relationship with the league and hopefully we don’t have to rely upon refs’ calls to win games; we just go out and do it ourself. That’s what we should be trying to do.”
Props to Rod Wood for answering a question that we all know the answer to.
