FanHouse Detroit

Detroit Lions rookie Gosder Cherilus and San Diego Chargers rookie DeJuan Tribble were both ordered to serve one year of pretrial probation yesterday in connection with an incident that happened last year when they were Boston College teammates.

Cherilus and Tribble were both charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with a fight at a bar. Cherilus, who was the Lions' first-round draft pick, was ordered to pay $52,000 in medical bills for a man who was injured in the fight; it's not clear whether he was ordered to pay the bills because he was more culpable than Tribble or because he will make significantly more money than Tribble, who was a sixth-round pick.

For the Lions, this news is particularly embarrassing coming on the heels of the revelation that second-round pick Jordan Dizon was arrested for drunk driving just before the draft. When your players are losers on the field and trouble-makers off it, that's not a good combination.

In fairness, Brandon Inge is not blaming his inability to properly lift a pillow for the entire extent of the injury that has him headed to the disabled list. The injury has been bugging him for a while, and this just put it over the top. Because, lifting pillows can be a pretty dangerous activity.

Inge said he aggravated the injury moving a pillow for his three-year-old Monday night. He said if not for that mishap, he probably would have tried to continue to play with the injury, which he said has bothered him since he suffered it on June 1 in Seattle.

Told of Inge's account of the pillow, Tigers manager Jim Leyland said, "That's a first."

Yes indeed it is. There are tons of horrible injuries in baseball (meaning stupidly ridiculous ways that the players get hurt) but this is kind of absurd. I mean, sneezing (Sammy Sosa) and Guitar Hero (Joel Zumaya) are at least respectable.

Okay, not sneezing. But if you move your three year old's pillow around and see a vertabrae lying on the ground when you're done, just pull a Vladrad and tell everyone it happened while you were lifting weights or something.

Via FanIQ

As Watson noted earlier, Baron Davis has been mentioned in some pretty hefty mega-super-uber deal between the Warriors and the Pistons. The rumor is that an Al Harrington and Boom Dizzle for Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups swap would go down. The problem?

Baron can still opt out of his contract, meaning the deal simply could not happen. But Dizzle, through his agent, appears content to get paid $17.8 million next year and stick with the Warriors.

"It doesn't seem likely," [Todd] Ramasar said. "The market could change anytime, but it's unlikely."

[...]"Baron's adamant about remaining a Warrior, but we've yet to come up with an extension," Ramasar said. "As of right now, there's no guarantee that those talks continue, and from a player's standpoint, it becomes emotional."

Here's the second catch -- Baron can't officially not opt out until next Tuesday. And because such a deal between the Pistons and the Warriors would almost certainly have to include a draft pick (as MW, the 14th pick seems reasonable).

Of course, those timelines don't exactly match up. But it's not like the Warriors can't simply pick who Detroit wants and then make the trade for Big Shot and 'Sheed immediately following Baron's decision.

Now, there's puh-lenty of risk involved with that, namely that Baron doesn't opt out. But you would have to figure that Joe Dumars and Chris Mullin would have the particulars worked out ahead of time. Either that or Dumars just told him to hit up on the swell piece Tuesday if he didn't do anything crazy tomorrow. (Read: this smells like a dead end).

When Joe Dumars put his entire roster on the block, he opened the door for a summer of crazy rumors. First came the Carmelo Anthony rumors, which became so rampant that 'Melo demanded an explanation from Denver's front office. Today's speculation du jour? Baron Davis to Detroit.

Geoff Lepper of the Contra Costa Times got the ball rollling by citing an unnamed source within the Warriors who indicates that the Pistons "are now looking at Davis" and would be willing to offer Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace in return. In order to get the money right, Lepper speculates that Al Harrington, who's already thinking about requesting a trade, would be thrown into the mix.

As Tim Kawakami correctly notes, the Pistons would be getting the short end of the talent stick in a Davis/Harrington for Chauncey/Rasheed swap. Could the Warriors sweeten the pot by throwing in the 14th overall pick? Well, possibly, but this deal can't happen on draft day (read: tomorrow!) since Davis has until July 9 to decide if he's going to opt out of the final year of his contract. So unless the Warriors happen to pick someone the Pistons really like, that's a dead end, too.

In other words, there are simply too many moving parts in this deal to think everything could line up perfectly. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News called this rumor "a total fabrication." I won't go quite that far -- Lepper's source isn't just making things up for fun, right? -- but it's possible Detroit's interest has been exagerrated or distorted, much like their alleged "pursuit" of Anthony.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

The locals thirst for a roster explosion. At least 26 other fan bases would trade for this roster in a second. The NBA: Where 'The Grass is Greener' Happens!

Picks: #29, #59.

Needs: Depending on the depth of Joe Dumars' detonation, depth requirements could pop up all over. In particular, the land behind Tayshaun Prince is a bit dry.

Best case scenario: Assuming Amir Johnson plays power forwards in days ahead, a smaller forward like Ryan Anderson (who has a touch of 'Sheed, at least on offense), J.J. Hickson, or Jason Thompson would look good in Pistons blue. At the end of the draft, a defensive-minded combo like DeMarcus Nelson could potentially pay dividends.

I think the obvious answer to that question is no. Realistically speaking, there have been far worse quarterbacks in the NFL than the piano man, I mean, there's got to be a reason guys are sitting below him on depth charts even though we're far removed from any semblance of hope that he'd live up to his draft status. But what if you take into account the whole statistical shebang, including the amount of opportunities with which to suck? That might be a different story.

Or at least that's what Pro Football Reference thinks, as they've compiled their list of worst quarterbacks in the league's history, which -- if your surname isn't Imus -- you should be smart enough to realize is headlined by Joey Harrington. The reasoning is a stew of numbers and equations (here's the method behind the madness). It's definitely worth checking out for the comprehensive perspective it takes, even if it took me three reads and the assistance of a Mensa member to understand.

That being said, I'm a firm believer in the eyeball test, and I stand by my very subjective scientific opinion that Harrington isn't the worst. There are surely a couple of inferior quarterbacks in history. There are even a couple of current quarterbacks who are worse. Hell, there are a couple of quarterbacks currently on the Chicago Bears who are worse than Harrington.

Or maybe I've just got a soft spot for someone who can tickle the ivories.

The Detroit Tigers may be playing their best baseball of the season right now, winning eleven of their last fourteen games to move withing six games of the White Sox, but closer Todd Jones and his teammates have something else on their minds right now: San Francisco Chronicle Giants beat reporter Henry Schulman.

While the Tigers were in San Francisco last week, Schulman wrote a column in which he referred to Ryan Raburn as a "scrub" after Raburn hit a home run off of Jonathan Sanchez. Well, Jones writes a column for the Detroit Free Press, and in his latest effort he explains why he and his teammates do not appreciate such remarks.

When we read that, we lost our collective minds.

Henry Schulman just called one of our teammates a scrub.

Isn't that a little harsh? I can't think of anybody who has ever played in the major leagues as a scrub -- not even Bob Uecker.

Although most football fans younger than 40 don't know who he is, Lem Barney is one of the all-time great Detroit Lions. He played his entire career in Detroit, from 1967 to 1977, he made seven Pro Bowls, and he had a Deion Sanders-like flare, scoring seven touchdowns on defense and four on special teams.

Barney is also extremely diplomatic in his assessment of the current state of his old franchise. Here's what he said in a Q&A with the Detroit Free Press:

What is your opinion of Matt Millen? Hey, that's not a fair question. You are going to get me in trouble. It's hard for me to say. I will be a Lion the rest of my life.

But? I think he has the capability to be a good general manager. He's just had some ups and downs. ... You can't just blame Matt. Players have to want to win, too. You have to be hungry enough.

Well, actually, Millen hasn't really had his ups and downs, unless you consider a 7-9 season an "up." And as for having players with a hunger to win, isn't it Millen's job to acquire such players?

It's understandable that Barney doesn't want to bash Millen, because he views himself as an ambassador for the franchise. But maybe if a few people would offer a few honest assessments of just how badly Millen has damaged the team, Lions owner William Clay Ford would finally make a change.

Ah, Barry Sanders, you left us too soon. Your retirement altered the future of the running back record book, robbed us of precious highlights, tormented a city, gave Ricky Williams a justifiable precedent for ditching Miami, and might have been the reason your coach, Bobby Ross, lost his job. Luckily, Ross isn't bitter. Right.

"I don't know if Barry really loved the game, but he worked hard at it," Ross said. "He did what he was supposed to do. I always wanted him to be a leader, but he didn't really want that role.

PFT explains quite thoroughly why Sanders was, in fact, a tremendous leader, and illustrates the absurdity in the designation. I can't quite pen it as well as Florio, so check out what he has to say (after you finish here, that is).

But even if Sanders wasn't a leader, as Ross said, so what? Barry Sanders wasn't paid to be a leader. He was paid grab a ball and bring it to a particular destination. And he did that quite well, no matter where on the field he was.

The idea that the most talented players should also be team leaders always seemed bizarre to me. You can't force guys into that role -- either they are or they aren't -- and putting pressure on Sanders to be more than he could be might have been the primary reason one of the greatest players in the game's history gave it up and never looked back, leaving a city clinging to hopes of a comeback years after the fact.

The NCAA is set to announce the host cities for the 2012 through 2016 Final Fours. Ten cities have put in bids for the event ... meaning half will go home disappointed.

Ranking the field:

1-Indianapolis: This is NCAA headquarters and they love having the Final Four here. Since the 2010 Final Four will be held in Indy, expect the new Lucas Oil Field to get the 2015 or 2016 event.

2-New Orleans: The NCAA loves N'Awlins (four previous trips) and it will have been at least a decade since the last one at the Superdome (2003). The dome seems to be in fine shape and they are also trying to land a Super Bowl in the (somewhat) near future. I think the NCAA gets this done in 2013 or 2014.

3-Phoenix: I think that Phoenix/Glendale is the next great stop for sporting events. The Super Bowl was a huge success a the new stadium and I think the Final Four would love to grab some of that. I see the 2012 or 2013 Final Four getting awarded here.

4-San Antonio: San Antonio has become a bit of a great place to have a Final Four. They have had three of them from 1998 to 2008. I think the love affair could continue with the 2016 event. However, one strike against the Alamodome could be that they have been there quite a bit of late.

5-North Texas: The new digs and the potentially amazing capacity makes this very, very attractive. Imagine over 100,000 watching the NCAA Championship game! It could happen. The strike against it could be the fact that this means over-Texas-ing this event (San Antonio in '08, Houston in '11 and now Dallas?). If Dallas pulls this off, it could steal San Antonio's bid down the road.