Detroit Lions Take Step in Right Direction, Sign Cornerback Brian Kelly

The Detroit Lions took a step in the right direction on Saturday, as both ESPN and NFL.com reported that the team had reached a three year deal with veteran cornerback Brian Kelly. Kelly, a longtime mainstay in the Tampa Bay secondary, became another in a lengthening list of former Bucs to join up with their former head coach Rod Marinelli this off-season. Already safetys Dwight Smith and Kalvin Pearson and defensive tackle Chuck Darby have joined the Lions, and Kelly is a key addition.

One of the weakest parts of the Lions defense the past, well, forever, has been their secondary. And after trading away Dre Bly before last season, and cutting Fernando Bryant this off-season, it was looking like another lost year for the Lions secondary. But after acquiring a young ballhawk of a cornerback in Leigh Bodden in the Shaun Rogers trade, and signing veterans like Smith, Pearson, and now Kelly, who have extensive experience not just with the Lions defensive scheme but with the Lions defensive coaching staff, it's a net plus for the Lions. The team is now stacked at defensive back, with five quality safetys (although veteran Kenoy Kennedy likely won't be with the team next season), two new starting corners (Bodden and Kelly) and decent nickel and dime backs (the team re-signed both Keith Smith and Travis Fisher, and the underachieving but still learning Stanley Wilson will be back). That's a step in the right direction.

Now I know that this post has a different sound and a more upbeat feel to it as compared to yesterday's post criticizing the Lions free agent moves thus far this off-season but Kelly is a big addition at a key area of need. Since that post we also signed defensive tackle Chuck Darby, who while not nearly as talented as Shaun Rogers, brings a work ethic far superior to anything Rogers brought to the table. That's not to say I'm now thrilled with the Lions off-season, because I'm not. We still need a running back and an offensive tackle, and it looks more and more as if one of those two positions will be filled in the first round of the draft, something I wish wouldn't happen because of our past draft history and are desperate needs on defense. We still need at least one defensive end, a middle linebacker, at least one outsider linebacker, and probably another defensive tackle for good measure. This team still has a lot of holes, and needs a lot of improvement. But I always get sucked in to being bullish on the Lions chances.

As much as I love to complain about their coaching staff and their personnel moves, I'm an optimist at heart when it comes to the Lions, which I realize, given their history, is beyond silly. I always end up seeing the positive in the Lions moves, and see big things in their future. I feel that way today with how we've solidified our secondary and turned one of the biggest weaknesses on the team into one of the biggest strengths. There's a long way to go, but at least for one weekend day, it was a good day at Ford Field.

What I'm Watching and Reading -- Damages and John Adams

With the Bar Exam behind me, and with moving into my new place pretty much complete, I've settled into a nice pattern of doing nothing as I try to recharge and get ready to start work and the real world in April. I wake up, watch Morning Joe that I DVR, eat lunch, read books and watch my DirecTV and newly growing collection of Blu Ray DVDs, I watch Hardball, and well, life is good.

So what have I been watching and reading (aside, of course, from MSNBC political coverage)? Mainly one set of DVDs and one biography, at least for now. First with the DVDs, I've started watching Damages, the FX show about a cut-throat (literally as well as figuratively) law firm run by Glen Close. Close's firm is running a hundred-million dollar class action lawsuit against a crooked CEO played by Ted Danson, and the show is told from the perspective of the firm's newest associate, who may have only been hired because of her connection to a key witness in the case. The show flashes back and forth from the present time to the past (where the bulk of the story takes place) as the viewer tries to piece together why things did not turn out so well for the young associate (being arrested for murdering your fiancée is never a good ending). The cast is great (and has anybody ever realized that Tate Donovan, who plays Close's confidant, looks like a twin brother of former DNC Chairman and current Hillary Clinton campaign chair Terry Mcauliffe?) and the show is very addicting. I've been hooked on the episodes and I may finish blowing through them this weekend (there are only 13). Great show, well worth checking out. Sort of like The Firm on steroids.

Damages has been so addicting, I've fallen behind in reading, and getting through a fair number of books this month was a key goal of mine. Instead of continuing and trying to finish one of the numerous books I'm in the middle of (I read through half of Bill Clinton's My Life before law school started and never finished it, and there are numerous sports books, including Mark Frost's The Greatest Game Ever Played I'm partway through) I started reading David McCullough's biography of our second, and mostly overlooked President, John Adams. While Washington and Jefferson get most of the headlines in the history books, Adams was no less important, and HBO, next week, will begin airing a multi-part mini-series) based on McCullough's book starting Paul Giamatti as Adams and the great Laura Linney as his wife Abagail. I'm about 100 pages in right now, and as to be expected from a McCullough biography, it's a great read. I was hoping to have the 400-page-plus tome finished by the premiere on March 16, but that's looking less and less likely by the day, but I'm going to try.

Underwhelmed by the Detroit Lions in Free Agency

We all knew the Detroit Lions were not going to be extraordinarily active in free agency. MLive.com's Tom Kowalski told us that weeks ago. A combination of a salary-cap crunch and the Lions not being thrilled with the players out there led to that, but so far, the Detroit Lions now have far more holes than they had a week ago, and for a team that wasn't very good to begin with, this is not good news.

We've lost both Boss Bailey (Denver) and Teddy Lehman (Tampa Bay) leaving us with who again at linebacker? The perpetually disappointing Paris Lenin and the oft-injured Alex Lewis. And Donte Curry, maybe? Of course we have Ernie Sims, but that's it. Now, yes, Bailey has never lived up to his potential, and Denver gave him a lot of money, and Lehman was also constantly injured, but still, it is not as if linebacker was a position of strength for the team where we had a lot of depth. Perhaps the theory is to draft a middle linebacker and shift Lenin to the outside, but I'm not encouraged.

We also have yet to find a replacement for T.J. Duckett, who took off for Seattle. As Nick Cotsonika writes in the Detroit Free Pres if the season ended today, due to injuries to Kevin Jones and Brian Calhoun, your starting running back if the season ended today would be Aveion Cason. And we wonder why the Lions are the way they are. Now, the Lions may draft a running back, but considering all the other needs we have, another top pick on an offensive player is the last thing the Lions should be doing. And for all the talk the Lions were going to sign Warrick Dunn, that seems more like wishful thinking than reality at this point.

We've also lost our starting right tackle (Damien Woody), cut our starting cornerback (Fernando Bryant), and traded away our Pro Bowl defensive tackle (Shaun Rogers). Now, that's not to say all these moved were bad. Rogers had more negative intangibles than positives he brought to the team, and I like the cornerback we acquired from Cleveland (Leigh Bodden). But our other additions? Two safetys (Dwight Smith and Kalvin Pearson) when safety is a position we were actually okay with (with two young players, Daniel Bullocks and Gerald Alexander, and a veteran Kenoy Kennedy) and a tight end (Michael Gains).

The Detroit Lions have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and months. We need a running back, at least one offensive tackle, a defensive tackle (though rumors are we may sign Seattle's Chuck Darby to fill Shaun Rogers' shoes), at least one defensive end, probably two linebackers (at least), another cornerback. And the problem is, most of these are starters we need, not depth positions. And given how free agency has gone so far, I can't see the Lions being too successful in filling these holes.

There is No Such Thing as Momentum in Democratic Primary Politics

It's "momentum" versus the "math" or so the media would lead viewers to believe. Barack Obama's momentum was snapped after twelve consecutive victories yesterday and Hillary Clinton has the momentum today. Hillary Clinton is "putting her coalition together" (white women over 45, those making under $50,000 a year, and Catholics). Voters are having "buyers remorse" about Barack Obama.

None of these things are true (as Chris Matthews pointed out on MSNBC's coverage of the primary last night). Here's what is true. Hillary Clinton had a very good night last night. She outperformed in Ohio, she won Texas, she picked up some delegates, and she likely froze in place the mass roll-out of Super Delegates for Barack Obama. But her victories last night had nothing to do with buyers remorse or momentum.

We look at exit polls and we say "the coalition is coming back to Hillary Clinton" but that's a complete fallacy. These voters have never left Hillary Clinton. White women over 45 in Ohio are not the same as white women over 45 in Wisconsin or white women over 45 in Virginia or Maryland or Washington state. Just because this demographic voted one way in one state doesn't mean the same demographic group will vote the same way in a different state. Citizens of Ohio and Texas have different concerns than voters in Virginia and Maryland. They aren't fungible, they aren't the same.

As Chris Matthews pointed out last night, you can't have buyer's remorse if you haven't bought anything, and these are all new voters, new states. It's not as if the voters in Virginia and Maryland and Washington state which gave Obama 20, 25-point wins have jumped ship. Voters in different states will vote different ways because they aren't the same.

For the same reason, momentum is simply illusory. The candidates are tied to the DNC nominating calender and what we see as momentum is really just individual states voting the way the those states are going to vote. Whether Ohio was on Super Tuesday or on March 4th, it was likely going to be a good state for Senator Clinton. Whether Louisiana was on Super Tuesday or February 9th, it was going to be a good state for Senator Obama. Yes, Barack won 11 contests in a row, but that was because he had a good run of states which favored him either because of demographics (high African American populations and/or large pockets of highly educated, wealthy voters) the nature of the process (caucuses), or the individual circumstances of certain states (states like Washington and Virginia have not been hurt economically like Ohio). It had nothing to do with momentum. So, now, similarly, Senator Clinton has no real momentum.

And the easiest proof of that is the next two contests. On Saturday, there is a caucus in Wyoming. On Tuesday, there is a primary in Mississippi. Barack Obama should win both by double digits, and potentially by 20+ points. So does that give him the momentum back? Of course not. That's because the results in Wyoming and Mississippi are not at all dependent on how Ohio or Texas or Rhode Island voted.

Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have legitimate claims to certain "talking points." She's won the big states like California, New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio (though I do get incredibly frustrated every time she mentions Michigan and Florida in that list). But unlike Clinton's claims to the contrary, Obama has won big states too, like Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. He's won Colorado and Washington state, she's won Texas. The bottom line is, he's won more states, more delegates, and more votes. And her taking away the nomination at the convention is my biggest fear, not because I think she'd be a bad President, but because doing so would mean tearing the party apart, and would mean that African Americans and young voters, whom Obama has energized like never before, would abandon the party, and would guarantee defeat in the fall.

So we don't know what will happen next. Obama will likely gain back any delegates he lost yesterday in Mississippi and Wyoming. And Pennsylvania will have a six-week run up to the primary which will make Iowa look like child's play. And he still leads in delegates. And Michigan and Florida will likely have to re-vote at some point.

What we do know though is that all this talk about "momentum" and "buyers remorse" is nonsense. And don't let the media or the campaigns try to tell you any differently.