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December 27th, 2019

Ho, ho, ho! Some much-needed

holiday gifts for our sorry teams

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

It’s Christmas Day, and I’m working. If you’re generous enough to consider this work.

I’m also feeling generous, or at least wishful, and I’m wondering what we might be able to pull out of Santa’s magical sack to make things a little better for each of our sorry professional sports franchises. So here goes:

The Tigers: New ownership. Please. Sadly, this doesn’t seem as imminent as it once did, with real estate baron Dan Gilbert on the mend from a stroke. But it sure as hell doesn’t seem like the family much cares about this club one way or the other since Mike Ilitch died a few years ago. His heirs are running it into the ground, cutting payroll as the team has hit historic lows and attendance plummets at Comerica Park. Since major changes at the top of the food chain aren’t likely, I’d be grateful for a healthy Miguel Cabrera showing up at spring training in a few months and playing a full season in the middle of the retooled batting order that could make watching them a bit more palatable.

The Pistons: A medic with some magic potion. Quick. If only to allow us to see what this team looks like when it’s 100 percent healthy. Which it hasn’t been in the first 32 games of the season and isn’t likely to happen for another couple of weeks – if we’re lucky. When they’re close to full strength – and that means Blake Griffin playing on both legs instead of one – the Pistons have of, well, being at least a playoff-contending team. As they are now though, we should appreciate seeing the best rebounder in the NBA and a former MVP who’s still got it – before they inevitably trade away Andre Drummond and Derrick Rose.

The Red Wings: Patience. I know, I know. . . that’s like the proverbial shirt we get from Grandma every Christmas. But Grandma knew what was best, and so does Steve Yzerman. He inherited a mess, quite frankly, with a team that started a rebuild a few years to late, and in the meantime saddled itself with too many really bad contracts to unproductive veterans. It’s an expensive roster with way too many untradeable players. Sure, there’s promise in several youngsters who are at best two to three years away. There is light at the end of this dark tunnel, and it isn’t an oncoming train. Patience. . . patience.

The Lions: A clue. Is that too much to ask? If the Ford family isn’t going to sell the team or change out another apparently failing regime, they give us something. Anything they can do, show or say that gives us even the slightest bit of confidence that two years into this the Bob Quinn-Matt Patricia command actually knows what it’s doing. Should the fact that this roster has at least been fairly competitive and players haven’t seemed to quit in their coach (yet) be enough? It probably has to be, but the cynic in me says this fiasco isn’t going to look that much different a year from now. Like Santa Claus, the Lions keep expecting us to suspend our belief.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s hope for better days for our sports teams.

The envelope please:

Michigan State (6-6), minus-3.5 vs. Wake Forest (8-2) in the Pinstripe Bowl: Do not be misled by the line on this game. Wake started the season 5-0 and extended to 7-1 before losing its quarterback and finishing with three losses down the stretch, which included ACC rival Clemson. They Deacs have a high-powered offense, especially with QB Jamie Newman healthy again. Michigan State’s defense, which has struggled at times, will be tested. Meantime, the Spartans and their 101st-ranked offense will need to find a way to score some points against Wake’s pedestrian defense. Prediction: Wake Forest 23, Michigan State 13.

Michigan (9-3) vs. Alabama (10-2) minus-7 in the Citrus Bowl: Arguably the most compelling of all the bowl games, including the College Football Playoffs, with so many intriguing storylines: injuries to key players; stars sitting out (or playing not to get hurt) with their draft status on the line; Jim Harbaugh vs. Nick Saban on the sidelines with all their acrimonious baggage. Buckle up, this game should be everything and then some. Prediction: Alabama 35, Michigan 17.

No. 1 LSU (13-0) minus-14, vs. No. 4 Oklahoma (12-1): I’d like the Sooners if they weren’t missing two important players to suspension. Take the over. Prediction: LSU 49, Oklahoma 35.

No. 2 Ohio State (13-0) vs. No. 3 Clemson (13-0), minus-2: I’d like the Buckeyes (sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little) if QB Justin Fields was 100 percent. He’s playing on a bum leg, and it’ll cost them. Prediction: Clemson 33, Ohio State 27.

Detroit Lions (3-11-1) vs. Green Bay (12-3), minus-12.5: Both teams have a lot on the line here; the Packers need a win for a bye heading into the playoffs and the Lions need a loss to secure the third pick in the upcoming NFL draft (with a longshot at the second pick if Washington wins at Dallas. Prediction: Green Bay 31, Detroit 13.

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December 19th, 2019

Same empty refrain from Fords

to Lions fans: Wait ’til next year

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

So it turns out, the entire Ford ownership family is tone deaf when it comes to their football team in Detroit.

Principal owner Martha Ford and her daughter, Vice Chair Sheila Hamp Ford, can be just as dismissive of fans and media as Martha’s late husband, William Clay Ford, and their son, Bill Jr., once were.

We learned that this week when the Ford women and team President Rod Wood met with the media to quell any notion that they were firing General Manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia. Moreover, they said in no uncertain terms – and certainly more disappointing – the family has no intention of selling the team they have owned for 56 years.

William Clay Ford closed on the deal to buy the Lions for $4.5 million on Nov. 22, 1963. News of the purchase was but a footnote in newspapers the next day, which devoted most of their resources to covering the assassination of President John F. Kennedy – to some diehard Detroit football fans only the second worst thing that happened that day.

The Lions have since become a laughingstock in the sports world, a cheap joke that always provokes a laugh because it’s steeped in truth.

Now it only hurts when we laugh. The joke us on us – again.

We can’t help but conclude that from reading the letter from the Ford ownership to fans as tried to justify keeping on this failed regime for another season. The letter reads in part (with my words in parentheses):

“Our 2019 season has not gone as anticipated by anyone in our organization.” (Aw, ya think?)

“Our team has played hard and well enough to be very competitive. It has been well-documented that we are one of only three teams to have held the lead in each of our first 12 games. Unfortunately, all too often, we have come up a few plays short of victory. Our current win-loss record is ultimately very disappointing.” (All too damned true enough.)

“We also believe that the most successful teams in our league have a long-term plan, stability in leadership and exhibit patience to follow their plan. To that end, we are committed to year three of Coach Patricia’s plan.” (Just shoot me now.)

“To be clear, our expectation is for the Lions to be a playoff contender in 2020.” (Let’s cut the bull. Your GM fired a coach whose team had gone 9-7 the previous two seasons, saying the franchise has higher expectations. Make the playoffs next season, or gas both of them.)

“To our dedicated fans: You deserve a winning team that you are excited to cheer for and proud to represent.” (Can we have the Green Bay Packers, please?)

“Our entire organization is working to make the Lions a consistently winning team.” (We’ve heard that garbage for nearly six decades.)

“To our loyal season ticket members: Thank you for your continued support. We are announcing today that once again there will be no price increases for season tickets at Ford Field and several sections at the stadium will see price decreases.” (That’s supposed to make us feel better? They were already ungodly expensive. Did you notice all the empty seats for the Tampa Bay game, when you couldn’t even give away tickets?)

“Thank you for your continued support, Happy Holidays and GO LIONS! Sincerely, Martha Firestone Ford; Sheila Ford Hamp; Rod Wood (All we want for Christmas is for you to sell the team.)

People who understand money far better than I suggest that a sale of the team isn’t even a remote possibility until the passing of Martha Ford, when capital gains taxes will be far more forgiving.

So it remains a valuable family asset even while it embarrasses a legion of exploited, manipulated and mistreated fans.

The Lions franchise today is worth $1.95 billion, according to Forbes magazine in September. That’s the second least-valuable franchise in the NFL, worth about a half-million dollars more than Cincinnati. But do some simple math to conclude that this has been an enormously profitable venture for the family in equity alone – about $1.9 billion. Not to mention the hundreds of millions in profits the team has realized over the past 63 years.

Admit it: You wouldn’t sell either, and you probably wouldn’t care much what the idiots buying tickets and $15 beers thought, would you?

And so we suffer until another bumbling regime takes over some time after next season. Or until some other competent and competitive billionaire comes along, buys this sorry football team and transforms it into something worth investing in our dollars, and, more important, our emotion.

Are you listening Jeff Bezos? Mark Cuban? Dan Gilbert? We know those guys don’t have a hearing problem.

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December 13th, 2019

Careful what you cheer for, Lions fans;

Team can still be No. 2 where it counts

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

Like any other NFL Sunday at Ford Field, a sold-out crowd will spend the morning tailgating along Woodward Avenue and the environs around the stadium, then pack the house and cheer deliriously for the Detroit Lions to do the improbable: actually win a football game.

If those fans had any sense at all – which we know they do not because they will pack the house and cheer deliriously for their poorly coached and badly mismanaged football team – they would hope that Tampa Bay finds a way to beat the Lions with a quarterback trying to pass the ball with a broken right thumb.

Seriously, the Lions have already screwed the pooch on this season. They enter this game with a 3-9-1 record, a 3 ½-point underdog and, for the moment, holding the fifth pick in this spring’s NFL Entry Draft.

This is the time of year when the Lions are prone to screwing things up even more by winning games and squandering their lofty picks.

Here’s the deal: If they lose out and get a break or two from the teams ahead of them, the Lions could wind up with the No. 2 overall selection. While it’s unlikely they’ll catch 1-12 Cincinnati for the first overall pick that most likely will be used to select LSU quarterback and Heisman lock Joe Burrows, there is a most tantalizing (and likely the most coveted) player still available.

His name: Chase Young, the generational talent at defensive end, and widely considered to be the best athlete in the draft. He plays for Ohio State University, but fans in our neighborhood shouldn’t hold that against him.

The Lions haven’t spent many top drafts on Buckeyes over the years, but when they have it’s worked out pretty well: Consider halfback Howard “Hopalong” Cassady (1st round, 3rd overall, in 1956; and offensive tackle Taylor Decker (1st round, 16th overall, in 2016); or, perhaps best of all Buckeyes in Honolulu blue, inside linebacker Chris Spielman (2nd round, 29th overall, in 1988).

Other than Cincinnati, each of the teams below Detroit in the standings have imminently winnable games in the final three weeks of the season:

Miami (3-10) plays the Giants at New York and at home against Cincinnati before closing at New England.

Washington (3-10) closes out with two home games against Philadelphia and the Giants, ending at Dallas.

The Giants (2-11) need quarterback Eli Manning to somehow orchestrate two wins in their final three games: a game at Washington sandwiched around home games against Miami and Philadelphia.

Of course, it’s all moot if the Lions bumble their way to a victory in the final three games: Tampa Bay, at Denver and at home against division-leading Green Bay.

Go Bucs? I’m fine with that. Now how do we convince Lions fans?

The envelope please:

Lions (3-9-1) vs. Tampa Bay (6-7), minus-3.5: Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston can be very good, or very bad – often within the same game. He’s thrown 26 TD passes this season, and offset that with 23 interceptions. He comes to Detroit with a broken thumb on his throwing hand, but I’m thinking he could throw left handed and shred the porous Detroit secondary. On the other side of the ball? How ‘bout we just say a Hail Mary or two for David Blough, the Lions third-string quarterback with another return to Ford Field by Ndamukong Suh, the one-man demolition derby the Lions drafted No. 2 overall in 2011. Suh has jut 1 ½ sacs, but 13 quarterback hits and four fumble recoveries, returning two of them for touchdowns. Prediction: Bucs 24, Lions 13

DECEMBER  11th, 2019

Four NHL coaches gone. Who’s next?

Firing Blashill not the answer for Wings

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

Barely two months into the National Hockey League season, four coaches have already lost their jobs while in Detroit Jeff Blashill – his team mired in a miserable 12-game losing streak – continues to show remarkable staying power.

On Tuesday, Dallas fired coach Jim Montgomery for what General Manager Jim Nill described as “unprofessional conduct” without further explanation, other than to say it did not involve any past or present players, other Stars employees, or a criminal investigation.

A few weeks ago, Toronto fired former Wings coach Mike Babcock, which was followed by the resignation in Calgary of Bill Peters. Both men, who worked together behind the Detroit bench, have been accused by several former players of ruthless verbal abuse that has resulted in a new, zero-tolerance policy announced Tuesday by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

John Hynes was shown the door earlier in the season in New Jersey.

Meantime, the Red Wings hope to end the second-longest losing streak in franchise history Thursday in the second half of a home-and-home series with Winnipeg. On Tuesday night, they gave up their customary five goals to the Jets while scoring their customary one. Watching the game was hard enough, but when the TV camera panned the Detroit bench to show a shell-shocked, demoralized row of players hanging their heads I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer this can continue.

General manager Steve Yzerman has been the model of patience he had asked of all of us when he took the job last spring. He knew he had a roster that simply didn’t have enough NHL-caliber players. He signed a few free agents to fill some notable holes. He’s made some trades – some good, some not. He has shuffled players back and forth from Grand Rapids when the big team endured a slew of injuries to key players.

Nothing has worked. And I’ve no doubt that Yzerman knows that firing his coach isn’t likely to change things. He could bring back Scotty Bowman or the ghost of Toe Blake and it isn’t going to change things.

So Blashill, whose team squeaked into the playoffs his first season and will miss them again for the fourth straight season en route to a likely last-place overall finish, stays. And stays. And stays.

In fact, Blashill ranks fourth in the NHL in longevity behind the bench with his current team. Jon Cooper, hired by Yzerman in Tampa Bay in 2008, is the longest-tenured coach in the league – and he’s on the hot seat amid a horrendous season compared to the President’s Cup team he led

last year. Paul Maurice in Winnipeg and Peter Laviolette in Nashville were hired by their teams in 2014. Blashill came aboard in Detroit in 2015 after Babcock left for Toronto.

I’ve known Steve Yzerman since before then-coach Jacques Demers pinned the captain’s “C” on him as 20-year-old rising star in the game, and one thing I’ve learned is that The Captain always marched to his own drumbeat. Then, and certainly more recently as a team executive, he has refused to be influenced by media noise or the fickle fan base.

For that reason alone, I would not be surprised to see Blashill finish the season behind the bench. Perhaps few expected the Wings to be as bad as they’ve been this season, but no one sensibly expected them to compete for a playoff berth.

No, Yzerman is as patient as he is stubborn. Clearly he is taking this season to evaluate every facet of the organization, from players at all levels, to coaching staffs, scouting staffs and the analytics team. You might be sick of hearing of it, but it’s a process.

Besides, if not Blashill, then who? Change for the sake of change, just replacing one voice with another on the bench behind a bad team, fixes nothing. Yzerman experienced that in his third season, the last time the Wings finished last overall and wound up firing two head coaches.

So as bad as it gets, and theirs is precious little indication that it’ll improve much, don’t pin your hopes on a new coach. And seriously, blaming the coach for this debacle of a season. It really isn’t Jeff Blashill’s fault.

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DECEMBER 9TH, 2019

NHL’s #MeToo moment? Players

(and Wings) take abuse charges public

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

From the broadcast booth to behind the benches, from front-office investigations that have reached the highest echelons of the National Hockey League, it’s been a hell of a month.

And it has nothing to do with goals and great saves, with wins or losses or with agonizing losing streaks (winking at you, Detroit Red Wings).

It started with a nationally televised racist rant (“you people out there. . .”) that cost one of the most iconic personalities in the game his job – and Don Cherry refuses to apologize.

Then came accusations from a former player that coach Bill Peters repeatedly used “the N word” to berate one of his players when he was coaching in Carolina. Peters eventually moved on to Calgary, and when the Flames immediately began an internal investigation, Peters apologized publicly. Too late. The investigation reached the inner sanctum of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, where it continues.

Peters, the former Red Wings assistant coach, resigned his position on Nov. 27. Seven days earlier, Mike Babcock – the guy Peters worked for in Detroit – was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth year of an eight-year, $50 million contract.

Then the dam broke. A few days after Babcock was fired, news broke that he asked then-rookie Mitch Marner for a list of his teammates, ranking them from hardest-working to least-hardest. Rookies do what coaches tell them to do, but Marner – one of the Leafs’ best young players – was mortified when Babcock used the list to berate players during team meetings.

Inexcusable? Absolutely, at any level of coaching/leadership/management. But the players he coached in Detroit were hardly surprised.

“The worst person I have ever met,” former power forward Johan Franzen told a Swedish interviewer recently. “He’s a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit, or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason.”

Former Wings defenseman Chris Chelios witnessed some of it. One incident, he confirmed in an interview with the podcast “Spittin’ Chiclets,” took place during a playoff game against Nashville in 2012.

“Some of the things he (Babcock) said to him on the bench. . . he blatantly verbally assaulted him during the game,” Chelios said. “It got to the point where poor Johan, no one really knowing he was suffering with the concussion thing and the depression thing, he just broke down, had a nervous breakdown, not only on the bench but after the game in one of the rooms in Nashville.

“It was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

Chris Chelios spent 26 seasons and 1,651 games in the NHL.

Chris Chelios saw a lot.

And Chris Chelios was nearly a victim, too. In the same podcast interview, he explained how, near the end of his redoubtable career, Babcock decided to make him a healthy scratch for a New Year’s Day outdoor game in Chicago, Chelios’ home town. General Manager Ken Holland intervened and overruled Babcock, forcing him to play Chelios.

The coach’s solution? He dressed seven defensemen, sent Chelios out for the opening faceoff and then benched him for the rest of the game.

Babcock’s arrogant vindictiveness knew no bounds. And sometimes it just seemed mean and spiteful. Case in point: After 20 years with the Minnesota/Dallas organization, Mike Modano signed on with the Wings in 2010 for one last kick at the big silver can. It could have been a fairy-tale ending for a kid who grew up in suburban Westland, became the first overall NHL draft pick in 1988, and wound up in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Modano ended up retiring with 1,499 regular-season games played, but would’ve hit the 1,500-game mark were it not for Babcock making him a healthy scratch for a late-season game against the Minnesota Wild in 2011.

That’s just bleeping wrong.

No wonder the players so despised Babcock, especially the Swedes.

One former Red Wing, defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo, who had a cup of coffee with the team in 2012-13, told a Canadian sports network last week that Babcock was so hated that ever year team leaders went to Holland to try to get rid of their coach.

Holland’s response to the players: “You got a problem with the coach, come see me and I’ll do my best to find somewhere else for you to play.”

The general manager knew, of course. It’s his job to know. But he was in a tough spot. He felt he had one of the best coaches in the game, so he tried to keep him happy by looking the other way amid all the complaints. In that way, Holland enabled the persistent abuse until Babcock leveraged his way out of town with that massive contract from the Leafs.

Little wonder Holland backed away when Toronto and Buffalo got into a bidding war with a guy who suddenly has dim prospects for ever getting behind an NHL bench again.

First Cherry is fired for racial insensitive remarks, then Babcock gets the boot, then Peters exits the Flames over revelations he repeatedly used racial slur against forward Akim Aliu. Now the

Chicago Blackhawks are conducting a review of assistant coach Mark Crawford after former NHL player Sean Avery accused him of kicking him on the bench while he was playing for the Los Angeles King.

A time-honored tradition, the so-called sanctity of the dressing room, has been shattered. Buckle up. Many are hinting what we’ve heard so far is just the tip of an iceberg that will have far-reaching implications regarding the way the league handles its most precious commodity: the players.

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DECEMBER 6TH, 2019

Lions face major questions as another

disappointing season comes to an end

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

With coach Ron Rivera suddenly, surprisingly available, should the Detroit Lions consider firing Matt Patricia for an experienced, proven winner?

Surely that’s a reasonable question with the Lions bumbling along at 3-8-1 in Patricia’s second season after a 6-10 finish as a rookie coach. Especially since General Manager Bob Quinn fired Jim Caldwell, the coach he inherited, after a 9-7 finish. The bar is higher than that around here, Quinn explained.

Which essentially makes the question about Patricia’s future inadequate.

Shouldn’t owner Martha Ford – who has made no secret about setting a high bar herself – consider sweeping house again by showing both Quinn and Patricia the door?

Team President Ron Wood was thinking in the right direction when he hired Quinn from the New England Patriots, the model of NFL success. And after a couple of years, Quinn replaced the only Detroit coach with a winning record since the Lions parted ways with Joe Schmidt in 1972 with Patricia.

Clearly whatever success those two had with the Patriots has not translated to Detroit, and there is little inclination that it will the way things are going.

Patricia’s strong suit is defense; he’s hailed as a genius in that part of the game. Quinn has spent a lot of money on that side of the ball. The Lions have the worst defense in the league.

Offensively, with any of the three quarterbacks they’ve been forced to use this season because of injuries, the Lions have played well enough to win. In too many games, their defense has folded like the house of cards it is, failing to make a play when needed most, resulting in painful and unnecessary losses.

But even Mrs. Ford knows close doesn’t count. The NFL ain’t horseshoes. And since taking over for her late husband, she has made little secret of her own high expectations for this franchise.

Now she faces some critical decisions. And we can only hope.

The envelope please:

Detroit, 3-8-1, at Minnesota, 8-4, minus-13: Lions third-string quarterback David Blough performed well enough to give his team a chance to beat the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving

Day. But Patricia’s defense caved again. Now Blough has had more than a week to prepare to face the Vikings – in Minnesota, a house of horrors for the Lions for generations. But it’s not the offense that worries me. Led by Michigan native Kirk Cousins at quarterback, the Vikings beat the Lions 42-30 in October. Little wonder the Lions are underdogs by two touchdowns, which sounds to be right: Prediction: Vikes 30, Lions 17

And some major college conference championships, just for fun:

No. 1 Ohio State (12-0), minus-16.5, vs. No. 8 Wisconsin (10-2): The Buckeyes have beaten every one of their opponents this season by an average margin of 28 points. They beat the Badgers, 38-7, in late October. Which makes the line on this game feel odd. It is. Prediction: Buckeyes 33, Badgers 10.

2 LSU (12-0), minus-7, vs. Georgia (11-1): This game pits the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense of LSU vs. the No. 2 scoring defense in the land. But LSU can play some defense, too. The question is, can Georgia score enough to make it a game. The answer: nope. Prediction: Tigers 31, ’Dogs 20.

No. 6 Oklahoma (11-1), minus-9, vs. No. 7 Baylor (11-1): A lot on the line in this one, with the winner likely replacing Georgia in the College Football Playoffs if the Bulldogs lose, as expected to LSU. This should be a classic, an encore after Oklahoma overcame a 25-point deficit to beat Baylor, 34-34, in three weeks ago. The Sooners learned something in that game, and showed something. Prediction: Sooners 31, Bears 24.

Central Michigan (8-4), minus 6.5, vs. Miami OH (7-5): One of the best stories in college football this season, the Chippewas in the MAC Championship Game after going 1-11 last season. Can they keep it going under first-year coach Jim McElwain? Absolutely. Prediction: Chips 23, RedHawks 20.

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NOVEMBER 28TH

‘As the Stomach Turns’: Living with

historically bad Detroit sports teams

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

The Red Wings lost, 6-0, Wednesday night, shut out for the second straight game. It was their seventh loss in a row, during which they have been outscored 29-13. They lost their starting goaltender in the game’s 10th minute, and the backup – who was supposed to start but didn’t because of the flu – finished the game. The defense in front of them gave up a disgraceful 54 shots on goal, the most by a Red Wings team in 45 years.

The Pistons lost for the seventh time in nine games, 102-101, at Charlotte to a team on a five-game losing streak missing its best player. They had plenty of opportunities in their final possession, which included three inbounds attempts in the last 12.3 seconds. They failed to get off a shot.

With their starting quarterback nursing a broken back and their second-stringer hobbled by a hamstring injury, the Lions – who have lost four straight games and seven of their last eight – have announced they’ll start David Blough, an undrafted rookie out of Purdue University who hasn’t thrown a pass in the NFL against the visiting Chicago Bears today.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Try not to choke on your turkey.

For dessert, perhaps a rare Michigan victory over Ohio State on Saturday?

The envelope, please:

Detroit (3-7-1) vs. Chicago (5-6), minus-5.5: As news of the Lions’ quarterback situation worsened in this short week, the line on the game went from pick ‘em to the Bears favored by nearly a touchdown. It shouldn’t be that close. Try to keep your meal down after watching this one. Prediction: Chicago 23, Detroit 9.

Michigan State (5-6, 3-5 in the Big Ten), minus-21.5 vs. Maryland (3-8, 1-7): After starting the season way, way overrated as the No. 18 team in The Associated Press Top-25, the Spartans are desperate for a victory that will make them bowl eligible. That’s how bad this season has turned out. Prediction, for what it’s worth: Michigan State 24, Maryland 13.

No. 13 Michigan (9-2, 6-2 in the Big Ten) vs. Ohio State (11-0, 8-0), minus-9: I was sorely tempted to take the Wolverines in this one; I really wanted to. They’re playing as well as they ever have, perhaps better on both sides of the ball, in Jim Harbaugh’s five years as head coach. Surely the Buckeyes won’t drop another 62 on Don Brown’s defense this season. But even if quarterback Shea Patterson has the game of his life, it may not be enough against Ohio State’s

historically great defense. And a lot of late money is pouring in on OSU to lengthen the odds; that worries me. Prediction: Ohio State 31, Michigan 24.

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NOVEMBER 26TH, 2019

As Harbaugh tries once again to beat Ohio

State, there’s a little Max Mercy in us all

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Writer

In the movie “The Natural,” Robert Duvall’s character Max Mercy was a slime-ball sports writer – which may or may not be redundant, depending on your point of view.

Near the climax of one of the greatest sports stories of all time, Mercy has a conversation with the would-be hero, Robert Redford’s Roy Hobbs, who is under immense pressure to deliver a controversial championship for the fictional and woebegone New York Knights.

Like so many sports stars before and after him, Hobbs loses his patience during Mercy’s persistent prying. Like an annoying gnat that won’t stop buzzing around the eyelids.

Hobbs: “Did you ever play ball, Max?”

Mercy: “No, never have. . . But I make it a little more fun to watch, you see?

“And after today, whether you're a goat or a hero... you're gonna make me a great story.”

I am reminded of that scene as we discuss, ad nauseum this week, Jim Harbaugh’s unrelenting pursuit of one lousy win again archrival Ohio State.

Michigan is playing its best football in the 4½ games since its narrow loss at then-unbeaten and No. 7 Penn State. The Wolverines have been as dominant as they’ve been at any time during Harbaugh’s five seasons in Ann Arbor. Yet his Wolverines still opened as an 8.5-point underdog. Probably about right, all things considered.

So what if they pull off the upset?

For starters, it would be the biggest win of Harbaugh’s rocky tenure as coach at his alma mater.

And it wouldn’t be enough.

Half of Harbaugh’s critics will say it’s about time that he finally managed to beat the program’s bogey man after four straight losses. The other half will gleefully point out that his teams are still 2-9 against Top Ten opponents, that after five seasons the nation’s third-highest-paid coach still has no Big Ten championships and no national playoff appearances.

In other words, Harbaugh will be damned if he does win the game Saturday, and skewered if he doesn’t.

That’s the game. No capitalization necessary, at least outside of Ann Arbor and an anguished fan base beginning to wonder, after all, if this is the coach that will restore the program to actual national prominence.

But at his news conference Monday, Harbaugh seemed to downright downplay the game.

“Very aware of the rivalry, having played in it, having coached in it, grew up here, my dad was a coach,” he said. “As I likened the Michigan State game to a state championship, this is even bigger – this is two states’ championship, Michigan and Ohio. We’re excited about it. We’re excited for the challenge. I’m excited for the game. Up for and ready for the challenge.”

Translation: What was once a perennial national marquee game has become a quaint, regional rivalry. They even understand that in Columbus. And it will continue that way until Michigan finds a way to win more often than it has lately. One lousy victory over the past 15 years does not a rivalry make.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

On Saturday at the Big House, either that ugly streak will continue – or Harbaugh gets that gorilla off his back with an upset victory that will damage Ohio State’s chances for a berth in the College Football Playoff.

Either way, for those of us in the sporting media, Jim Harbaugh’s going to make us a pretty good story.

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NOVEMBER 12th, 2019

Sour Grapes: Don Cherry stands

by his words even after his firing

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

First things first: I’ve always liked Don Cherry. He entertained me long before I ever got into hockey media, and when I got to know him he was always kind, cordial and willing to help a guy with a fledgling radio show back when sports-talk radio was born in Detroit.

“Call any time,” the iconic Hockey Night in Canada commentator would say. “If I’m home and pick up the phone, I’ll give you all the time you need, don’t worry about it.”

And I took him up on it because Grapes was great radio just like he was great TV for nearly four decades.

One more thing: I am in no way defending the comments he made that got him fired, using his bully pulpit (and few ever did it better), to criticize certain citizens in Canada who failed to honor his nation’s military by wearing a poppy symbol on their lapel on Remembrance Day.

“You people that come here, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that,” Cherry said during his traditional first-intermission segment on Saturday night. “These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.”

Remembrance Day in Canada, like Veterans Day in America, honors those who have served in the armed forces. Ahead of the Nov. 11 commemoration, Canadian veterans groups and volunteers distribute poppy pins and stickers in exchange for donations, and the poppies are worn as a symbol of honor.

Two days later, Cherry, 85, was fired by Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada for those divisive comments aimed at immigrants. Sportsnet, Hockey Canada and the NHL released statements condemning Cherry’s remarks.

But true to form, Cherry wasn’t backing off, conceding only that if he had it to do over again, he’d choose a few words differently.

“I know what I said and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honor our fallen soldiers,” Cherry told the Toronto Sun. “I speak the truth and I walk the walk. I have visited the bases of the troops, been to Afghanistan with our brave soldiers at Christmas, been to cemeteries of our fallen around the world and honored our fallen troops on ‘Coach’s Corner.’”

And while the Canadian sports media – many of the same ones who crowded around the TVs in arenas around Canada during Saturday night games to listen to Cherry, nod and snicker – tripped

all over themselves to denounce he remarks that got him fired, the Internet nearly broke with people flocking to social media to support him.

This isn’t at all surprising. Nobody knows his audience better than Don Cherry, save for a certain president south of the Canadian border who shares his first name.

I remember when Sergei Fedorov broke into the league in 1990 and had a spectacular rookie season with the Red Wings. He scored 31 goals among 79 points, running neck and neck with Chicago goalie Ed Belfour in the Calder Trophy conversation. Cherry used no small amount of his time on the air to openly campaign for Belfour – that good Canadian boy.

When I ran into Grapes at a radio appearance on a show then hosted by Mitch Albom, I confronted him and point blank asked if he was lobby for Belfour or against Fedorov because he was Russian. What I got in response was what we call in journalism a non-denial denial of sorts.

“Keith, you’ve got to remember who I work for,” Cherry said. “It’s called Hockey Night in Canada.”

So it is. And so, too, the time has finally come to silence a great voice that made us laugh sometimes, made is cringe too often, but always, always made us love and appreciate the game of hockey just a little bit more.

I’ll miss Don Cherry.

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NOVEMBER 8th, 2019

Can Lions’ generous defense lead

to upset over woebegone Bears?

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

Maybe the oddsmakers in Vegas figure that this is the game embattled Chicago Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky will use to turn his season around. Maybe, like so many Detroit fans, those gamesters have lost faith that the Lions will ever get their act together on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe they’re just convinced that the Lions have established a pattern of coming close, but finding ways to lose, and they’re just rolling with it.

Whatever their reasoning, it’s hard to bet against them. After all, those massive, gleaming high-rise casino hotels along The Strip didn’t get built by losing bets to schmucks like us who think we know better.

Yet I cannot help but wonder how they set a line favoring the bad news Bears by 2½ points over a Lions team that could easily be – with break here, some decent officiating there, and one or two fewer boneheaded play-calls at critical moments – 6-2 instead of 3-4-1.

So yeah, this line is screaming to plunk a few shekels down on the Lions.

This should, by any measure, be a fascinating game. Not just because it involves two of the longest-standing NFL rivals in one of the great basilicas of the game, but because of the teams’ strengths and weaknesses match up.

On one side, we have one of the best offensives in the league lead by quarterback Matthew Stafford against one of the stouter defenses featuring one-man wrecking crew Khalil Mack.

Stafford is on a roll. He has thrown for more than 300 yards and three-plus touchdowns with an interception in each of his past three games. His 19 TD passes are second in the league, his 2,499 passing yards are fourth, and his 106 efficiency rating is fifth.

But Mack leads a defense that ranks in the top third of the league in most categories – and sixth in points allowed, averaging 18 per game.

In other words, even if Stafford is at the top of his game points are going to be hard to come by.

Which makes the flip side of the game that much more captivating: How Trubisky and one of the worst offenses in the league can take advantage of one of the worst defensive teams.

Chicago’s offense has been impotent in the second season under Trubisky, the second-overall pick in the draft last year who as a rookie led the Bears to a 12-4 record and the playoffs. So far this season, the Bears are 3-5, and they haven’t played nearly as well as that record indicates.

The Bears rank 29th among the NFL’s 32 teams in total yards per game (266.8), 30th in passing yards (186.2), 27th in rushing yards (80.5) and 28th in points per game (17.8).

But the Lions – and this is a shameful indictment on head coach and so-called defensive guru Matt Patricia in his second season – rank as bad or worse on the defensive side of the ball. Detroit ranks 31st in total yards allowed (424.1), 30th in passing yards (288.4), 27th in rushing yards (135.8) and 27th in points allowed (27.1).

Talk about the movable object against the resistible force!

And the stakes are sky-high. Playoff chances go on life support for the team that loses this one. Then we could be saying something similar 18 days later, when the rivals meet for a rematch at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day.

Prediction: Lions 24, Bears 13

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Illinois (5-4, 3-3 in the Big Ten) at Michigan State (4-4, 2-3), minus 14.5: The stakes couldn’t be higher for either team. The Illini, who beat Wisconsin and nearly knocked off Michigan, can secure a bowl bid with a win. A loss by the Spartans would cripple their chances of a bowl bid. The line on this game is beyond baffling, considering MSU’s enigmatic offense and a defense that during its second bye round in three weeks lost linebacker and second-year captain Joe Bachie, suspended by the Big Ten after tests detected performance-enhancing drugs. Prediction: Upset Alert, Illinois 24, Michigan State 23.

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OCTOBER 28th, 2019

Wolverines serve notice:

They’re not through yet

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

OK, anybody who even remotely expected No. 19 Michigan to beat No. 8 Notre Dame by 31 points – even in a cold, driving rain at the Big House – raise your hand.

Now put your damned hand down, because we all know you have a tenuous relationship with the truth. And perhaps everyone else might reconsider some of those nasty things they’ve been saying about coach Jim Harbaugh and his embattled team of which so much had been expected.

You know it’s bad when students take to social media and viciously attack a player for his mistake on the playing field. Something real fans wouldn’t dream of doing.

Alas, Michigan put its season back on the tracks with an astonishingly impressive 45-13 victory over the not-so-Fighting Irish – a pick ’em game according to oddsmakers who at various times ahead of kickoff had either team favored by a point or two.

To be fair, the win didn’t put the Wolverines any closer to winning their first Big Ten title in 15 years – three coaches ago. But with their second victory in a dozen tries against a top-10 opponent, they sure have to be feeling better about themselves.

So to, must Harbaugh. And let’s give him some legit credit here, too. Remember how he was universally mocked after the 10-3 win over Iowa, when he insisted his team’s offense was coming together, getting closer to what he expected it to be? They typically fawning Detroit media even made headlines out of what the university’s mammoth fan base was thinking: “What game were you watching, Coach?”

Well, in the three games since, including that heartbreaking loss at Penn State, Michigan has averaged 36 points per game. All credit to the offensive line, which thoroughly dominated an overmatched Notre Dame defense. The Wolverines totaled 437 yards in the game, 303 on the ground, which meant quarterback Shea Patterson didn’t have to do all the heavy lifting in order for his team to have a chance to win. He was an efficient 6-12 passing, for 100 yards and two touchdown.

On the other side of the ball? The Wolverines were every bit as good. Stuffing the run and holding a team that won 18 of its previous 20 games – and appeared in the College Football Playoff last season – to just 180 yards of total offense, 47 on the ground.

Never mind the rain, that’s how those great Michigan teams under Bo Schembechler won so many games – and Big Ten titles.

Of course, none of that matters of Michigan coughs up a hairball at Maryland next week, or discovers another way to lose to Michigan State in Ann Arbor after a bye week, or loses to lowly Indiana after that. The Wolverines should win all three of them, making them 9-2 when, in all likelihood, unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Ohio State visits Ann Arbor on Nov. 30.

In other words, Harbaugh and his staff have about a month to coach up their team before yet another epic battle. And if Michigan plays like it did against both top-10 teams in the past two weeks, well – raise your hand if you think. . .

Never mind. Just buckle up and enjoy what should be a rousing regular-season finish.

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Coach’s hot corner?

Rebuilding or not, with the Red Wings’ losing streak at eight games and counting and red hot Edmonton visiting the Pizz-Arena on Tuesday evening, fans are getting restless.

Rabid Blarney Stone Broadcasting listener Ken Clapp from Mio wrote recently to ask how long this can continue before General Manager Steve Yzerman pulls the plug on Jeff Blashill’s coaching career in Detroit.

Blashill was on and off life-support through his first four seasons, yet he received a golden parachute of sorts, a new two-year deal, as a parting gift from former GM Ken Holland. To the great dismay of many.

But fans who think changing suits behind the bench are delusional. Yzerman could bring back the diamond-knuckled Scotty Bowman and the result wouldn’t be much better. The Red Wings just don’t have enough NHL talent, especially on their blue line.

Since the day he was hired, no one with any sense expected Blashill to win a Stanley Cup – or even make the playoffs, to be perfectly honest. What he was expected to do is what he does so well, and that’s develop young players. He is doing that.

Besides, how would it look for Yzerman, who preached patience from the moment he returned to Detroit in his new gig, if gassed his coach barely a dozen games into the season? Not good.

That said, Blashill has to up his game, too. A gutsy, third-period comeback that turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead can not be squandered like it was Saturday night. A bench penalty for too many men led to a late, tying goal and the eventual OT game-winner by the defending Stanley Cup champs.

That cannot happen and Blashill, to his credit, took responsibility. Like he acknowledged, points are too hard to come by as it is.

Sure, a guy standing next to Blashill would be the obvious choice if Yzerman were to make a mid-season change. Assistant Dan Bylsma – a Michigan native like Blashill – coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup finals in 2008 and 2009, both against Detroit. The Wings won the first meeting, Pittsburgh the next. So Bylsma has the bling, and the cred.

But I just don’t see that happening. Instead, expect the I-96 shuttle between Detroit and Grand Rapids to be awfully busy as Yzerman shuffles his youngsters up and down to get a feel for what he has among his understudies. From there, he can determine what his team needs through trades, free-agent signings and, most importantly, the entry draft.

Firing the coach resolves nothing, in this case.

In other cases, well. . . we’ll see how things unfold in East Lansing after the football season.

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OCTOBER 23rd, 2019

Did Belichick really snooker

Detroit on the Patricia deal?

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

As wild-ass conspiracy theories go, this one makes a lot more since at the moment than it did even a few weeks ago.

In fact, after watching the Detroit Lions defensive debacle against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, and a virtuoso performance by the New England defense in shutting out a New York Jets team that had beaten the Dallas Cowboys the week before, the theory makes too much sense.

It goes something like this: Evil genius Bill Belichick, mastermind of six Super Bowl titles with the Patriots, convinced Lions General Manager Bob Quinn that Matt Patricia would be the perfect head coach for the beleaguered Lions. The three men worked together for years in New England, Quinn serving as director of pro scouting and Patricia as defensive coordinator.

In Quinn’s first two seasons in Detroit, with Jim Caldwell serving as head coach, the Lions went 9-7, making the playoffs in 2016 and missing the next. That wasn’t going enough, Quinn said. We’ve set the bar higher than that.

He fired Caldwell to hire Patricia, and the result as an immediate turnaround, all right. The Lions went 6-10 in Patricia’s rookie season, and they’re headed in that direction again if he can’t figure out how to coach his defense.

Through five games this season, Detroit looked fairly competitive, getting a lot of love from around the country after they were jobbed repeatedly by officials in a last-second loss in Green Bay on Monday Night Football.

Then came the Vikings in a critical divisional game at Ford Field.

And.

It.

Was.

No.

Contest.

On the strength of Matt Stafford’s golden right arm, the Lions scored 30 points. Plenty enough to win a game on your own field, right? Not.

It wasn’t even close as Detroit’s defense folded. It looked like men against boys at every level.

Can’t blame the officials this time, eh?

Suddenly, the Detroit Lions have much bigger headaches than the guys in the striped shirts.

What was supposed to be the strength of their team – its defense – is clearly their biggest weakness, soft, porous, and generous to a fault. Disgraceful.

By land or by air, the Vikings moved the ball at will – 32 first downs, 6-10 on third-down conversions, 166 yards on the ground, 337 passing for a total of 503.

Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins – embattled no more after throwing four TD passes in each of his past two games – was so comfortable in the pocket he could have set up a table and enjoyed a cup of tea with his offensive linemen. The Lions didn’t record a sack. Barely touched him, in fact.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Patriots traveled to MetLife Stadium in New York the next day, and their defense under coordinator Brian Flores absolutely destroyed the Jets in a 33-0 rout. The Jets managed just 12 first downs, two on 11 chances on third down. New York managed just 154 total yards.

Worse, the Pats’ jailbreak defensive rush forced four interceptions and three fumbles, two of which were lost. Quarterback Sam Darnold, who was mic’d during the game, was heard telling his teammates on the sidelines he was seeing ghosts out there. (And by the way, shame on ESPN – and the NFL Films official who approved it – for airing that comment.)

To be perfectly honest, that defensive display I saw on Monday by the Patriots was what I had expected from this Detroit defense Quinn and Patricia had assembled. This season was supposed to be different. Better, much better, in Year 2 under the genius head coach.

They spent $90 million in the off season to bring in edge rusher Trey Flowers, who has just one sack and three quarterback rushes in seven games. They added defensive lineman Mike Daniels, who defected from Green Bay to Detroit specifically to play for Patricia. (Daniels has missed more time than he’s played due to injury.) They added Justin Coleman and Jahlani Tavia.

Granted, the defense hasn’t been healthy and all together for a single game this season. A’Shawn Hand, Daniels and cornerback Darius Slay have missed games and been less than 100 percent much of the season.

And now, curiously (or inexplicably), they’ve traded away one of their key players on the back end, safety Quandre Diggs, for a draft pick.

How are we expected to interpret this? Is there another shoe to drop? Will they make a move before the Oct. 29 NFL trade deadline to shore up their troubled run game now that Kerryon Johnson has been sidelined yet again, for several weeks at least? Scoring becomes more difficult when the offense becomes so one-dimensional, as Detroit’s has been for years.

For now, though, the Lions have to get their defense off life support. That begins, Flowers insists, by stopping the run first. Teams have to earn the right to rush the passer, he said. If they cannot, then they’ll see a lot of play-action plays that prevent defenders from pinning their ears back in the race toward a quarterback.

It may seem like a Catch-22, but Patricia and his defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni better figure it out fast. They can start with a better effort against the woebegone New York Giants on Sunday at Ford Field.

Detroit opened, shockingly, as a 7-point favorite over the Giants, which says a lot more about the visitors than home team.

So if the Lions stink out the joint again, we can start a new conspiracy theory: Bob Quinn, in an effort to save his own ass, is seriously considering cutting his losses with Patricia and elevate Darrell Bevell as acting head coach for the remainder of the season. Who knows were Patricia would wind up, but it sure as heck isn’t likely to be on the sidelines with Belichick.

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And furthermore. . .

Speaking of conspiratorial conjecture, or wild-eyed rumors, how about the one that has Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh exploring an exit strategy that will get him out of that pressure cooker at the Big House and back to the NFL?

Two thoughts: 1) This just doesn’t seem like something Harbaugh would do. Championships or not, he has been successful in restoring some national luster to that program. And 2) Could you blame him?

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OCTOBER 17th, 2019

MSU’s Dantonio at a crossroads?

And what about UM’s Harbaugh?

By KEITH GAVE

Sports Director

Mark Dantonio might well consider this just another “dumbass question,” but I’m wondering how he’d respond to the growing speculation around college football that his days at Michigan State are numbered.

The winningest coach in Spartans’ football history has five games remaining on the schedule this season – six if his team is lucky enough to beat the three worst teams in its division, finish a lackluster 7-5 again, and qualify for some lower-tier bowl game.

To be fair, as disappointing as MSU has been in three of the past four seasons since Dantonio led the Spartans to the College Football Playoffs, he has probably built enough benevolence to make him immune from being fired. At least for now. But at what point does the guy say enough is enough and walk away with his legacy cemented as the coach who turned around a long-dormant program and returned it to national relevance?

Surely it’s at least in the back of his mind during this bye week after two straight horrific road losses at Ohio State and Wisconsin – with Penn State on the horizon at Spartan Stadium next week. A brutal streak of games against three of the top seven teams in the nation.

Which explains why a lot of smart money says this is the year it comes to an end for Dantonio. And then? Enter Luke Fickell, from Cincinnati via Ohio State – the same path Dantonio took to East Lansing? Again, that’s where the smart money is betting.

Perhaps it’s time. Michigan State’s program has gone way off the tracks since that 12-2 season in 2015.

There have been serious recruiting issues, with the Spartans targeting players of questionable character with checkered pasts in a misguided attempt to hang with the elite programs.

A former assistant, Curtis Blackwell Jr., once the director of college advancement and performance/camp director for the football program, is suing Dantonio and other MSU officials for wrongful dismissal following allegations that he was involved in the coverup of a sexual assault report against three football players. A federal judge has ordered Dantonio to sit for up to seven hours of questioning in a deposition following the football season.

Now some of his top players are heading for the exits. In the past two weeks, four players have entered the transfer portal, including the top two running backs entering the season, Connor Heyward and La’Darius Jefferson.

Together, that’s more than enough for the university’s embattled administration to offer a gentle nudge – with a lovely parting gift of, say, a good chunk of the $4.3 million retention bonus Dantonio is due on Jan. 15?

And as long as we’re asking such “dumbass” questions, what’s Michigan going to do, after all the promise, hope and hype entering Jim Harbaugh’s fifth se