49ers give back - (12/19)

The San Francisco 49ers players and staff volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank to distribute and serve food to those who need it most during the holiday season

The Best of Frank Caliendo - (12/19)

Spend some time with Robert De Niro, George W. Bush and of course, John Madden. It's the best of Frank Caliendo from the 2007 NFL on FOX pregame show.

Pro Football Wire - (12/19)

NFL announces Pro Bowl lineups, Falcons fined for Vick support, Cowboys' Williams suspended for tackle and more news.

Bose FOX Football Rewind - (12/19)

The FOX Football Rewind brings you the latest news and notes following Week 15 in the NFL. Find out which teams clinched a playoff spot and more.

NFL Leaders: Week 15 - (12/19)

Check out the top performers from a sloppy Week 15 in the NFL. Jamal Lewis is a top performer after running for 163 yards in the snow against the Buffalo Bills.

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Lions could set a futility record - (12/18)

The Lions are bent on making history -- all bad -- in the freefall that has eliminated them from the playoffs.

Expect big numbers this week - (12/18)

Few of you are lucky enough to be playing this week.

NFL playoff watch - (12/18)

There's little drama left. Only the AFC North (Cleveland and Pittsburgh) has not been settled. So, the focus turns to the wild cards:

Charting the NFL - (12/18)

Charting the NFL Taylor gets posthumous NFC Pro Bowl spot  Sean Taylor, who died Nov. 27 after being shot during a burglary at his Florida home, was voted to the NFC Pro Bowl team posthumously on Tuesday.  Taylor, a Redskins defensive back, got a starting position on the team at free safety. He was among the leaders in fan balloting for a team selected by a combination of fans, players and coaches. Rosters, 9D Showing Vick tributes earns 5 Falcons fines  Roddy White and four other Falcons were fined by the NFL for violating uniform regulations with tributes to Michael Vick during last week's Monday night game.  Vick, the Falcons suspended Pro Bowl quarterback, was sentenced to 23 months in prison on federal dogfighting charges the morning of Dec. 10. The Falcons played at home against the Saints that night.  After scoring a touchdown, White displayed a "Free Mike Vick" T-shirt under his jersey. He, along with tight end Alge Crumpler and cornerbacks DeAngelo Hall and Chris Houston, were fined $10,000 each. Crumpler, Hall and Houston all wore black eye strips with written tributes to Vick, which the league called "displaying an unauthorized personal message."   Wide receiver Joe Horn was fined $7,500 for pulling up White's jersey to show the black T-shirt with handwritten white lettering. The fines were confirmed Tuesday by NFL representative Randall Liu.  Hall also had a poster of Vick on the field during pregame introductions. The Falcons lost, 34-14. Personnel dept.   Cowboys safety Roy Williams appealed the one-game suspension levied because of his third "horse-collar" tackle. His case will be heard today.   ESPN.com said Falcons owner Arthur Blank wants former coach Bill Parcells to become the team's vice president of football operations.  Parcells could accept or reject the job as early as today, ESPN.com said, and he is giving it serious consideration. Parcells would not become Atlanta's new coach, but ESPN.com said he would be authorized to hire the team's next coach, as well as re-organize the personnel department. Detroit News wire services

Still Two Games Left and No One Cares - (12/17)

If you go back to November 4th, the Lions had destroyed the Denver Broncos to improve to 6-2 and unheard of excitement existed in regards to Lions football.  With hopes of a playoff run on everyone's mind, we all as fans made the mistake of raising our expectations.  If you were skeptical throughout all of this, then kudos to you as your expectations probably never did go up.  For everyone else, we are all looking at another disappointing end to a once promising season.
Despite the fact that the Lions did win 6 games, to me, I don't see this season as being any more successful than 2006's 3-13 team.  You can say all you want about how great the first half of the season was, but what matters is the final record of a team, not how many wins you have after 8 games.
The problem with Detroit is that they are about to finish the year on an 8-game losing streak.  Although a Chiefs team that is almost as bad as Detroit comes to town on Sunday, there's still a great chance the Lions will lose.  Being that there really is nothing left to play for in the public perception, many fans have officially given up on the Lions.  Granted people officially putting the Lions to rest came a little later than usual, but in the end it still happened.
Although most fans have lost interest in this team, these next two games are important.  If the Lions can beat Kansas City, then one goal coming into this season would be accomplished: lose less than 10 games.  Again, it may not mean much to us considering this team could have achieved that goal over a month ago, but for this team it is big.  I would like to see this embarrassing streak come to an end, and all it takes is 1 win.
Should the Lions win on Sunday and then pull off an upset in Green Bay (keep dreaming considering the Packers could be playing for homefield advantage), an 8-win season would be great to see.  Reaching .500 has been something I wanted the Lions to do for a while now, and although the path taken to 8 wins wouldn't be pretty, 8 wins is 8 wins.
If you just looked at the Lions record when the season is finished but didn't see how they got there, then 6-10 would provoke a reaction of something like, "sounds about right."  For me personally, I predicted them to go 6-10, so that would be a record I expected.  Should Detroit end up at 7-9 or 8-8, then looking at the record alone, many would say this was a successful season, as sad as that may sound.  Problem is, there is more to a record than wins and losses.
It's one thing to lose one week and win the next, but to start the year 6-2 and realistically have a shot at finishing 6-10 is simply inexcusable.  I'm getting sick of watching this team go out there one week and play well enough to win only to follow it up a week later with a complete joke of a game.  As harsh as this may sound, Rod Marinelli's job should be in question if the Lions don't win at least one of their final two games.  Mike Valenti of 97.1 FM The Ticket shared similar thoughts about the situation, but he called for Marinelli to be fired if this team finishes 6-10.
I don't disagree at all with a statement like that.  Valenti was right on as no team should end the year on an 8-game losing streak after such a promising start, especially since it's not like injuries played a huge factor or something like that.  Sure, Roy Williams being out has hurt us lately, but before that most players were perfectly fine.  Even though some may think Marinelli should get his walking papers if the losing streak continues in these final two weeks of the season, there is no chance of that happening, just as there is no chance Matt Millen is fired.
What it all comes down to for me is that this team pulled a fast one on us.  It wasn't intentional by any means, but of course, the football gods were looking for new ways to torture Lions fans.  Rather than just give us another possible 10-loss season for the Lions, we get our hopes up as the team starts out the season 6-2.  Believe it or not, Detroit making the playoffs was a realistic possibility.  Even after the loss to Arizona and the loss to New York, and to Green Bay and Minnesota, the playoffs were still reachable.  There was no excuse for losing all of those games in the first place, but there was still a chance.
Then came the game that sums up this season.  Detroit plays great and leads for 59 minutes and 42 seconds against Dallas.  Then, as time is starting to run out, the Cowboys score after the Lions had two chances to put the game away, and that was it.  2007 officially came to an end.  Now, the rest of this season is just going through the motions for me and it appears to be the same for the team.  If they don't care, then why should we?

More Detroit Lions news...

Still Two Games Left and No One Cares - (12/17)

If you go back to November 4th, the Lions had destroyed the Denver Broncos to improve to 6-2 and unheard of excitement existed in regards to Lions football.  With hopes of a playoff run on everyone's mind, we all as fans made the mistake of raising our expectations.  If you were skeptical throughout all of this, then kudos to you as your expectations probably never did go up.  For everyone else, we are all looking at another disappointing end to a once promising season. Then came the game that sums up this season.  Detroit plays great and leads for 59 minutes and 42 seconds against Dallas.  Then, as time is starting to run out, the Cowboys score after the Lions had two chances to put the game away, and that was it.  2007 officially came to an end.  Now, the rest of this season is just going through the motions for me and it appears to be the same for the team.  If they don't care, then why should we?

Week 15 Fantasy Take: Playoff Stunner - (12/17)

All season long my two fantasy teams (one on CBS and one on Yahoo!) have really been complete opposites.  My CBS team stunk for the first 7 games of the season, winning 0 games.  Things got better as the season finished considering I managed to win 5 out of the final 6 games, but there was just far too much ground to make up in the playoff race.  At the same time, my Yahoo! team had been great all season long.  After a couple of early slip ups, I got a big winning streak going before falling in the final week of the year.  Regardless of the loss to close out the regular season, I was still very confident going into the playoffs. Although I didn't come out on top in the end, I didn't lose by a single point to be eliminated, and I didn't have to watch Brian Westbrook stop a yard short of a touchdown on Sunday, which actually prevented a lot of fantasy teams from winning, so no matter how bad it feels to lose, I can't even imagine the feeling of losing like that.

Lions Blown Out By Chargers 51-14 - (12/17)

And now the season is officially over. Detroit went to San Diego yesterday hoping to pull off an upset to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.  Instead of prolonging the false hope another week, the Lions decided to pack it in once and for all.

Sorry Yogi: Lions Prove its Over Before its Over - (12/16)

Eight down, and six in a row, and two to go. What fools we have been. Playoffs? What the, who the, how the?!? PLAYOFFS (credit to Jim Mora Sr.)? If I understand it right, with one more loss (Chiefs in Detroit, at Green Bay), the Lions will become the third team in NFL history to [...]

Game #14 - Detroit Lions (6-7) at San Diego Chargers (8-5) - Open Thread - (12/15)

Chargers win 31-20

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