(Picture: Kirthmon F. Dozier / DFP)

It’s been a rough 2008 in the Motor City. First their mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, aka the “Hip Hop Mayor”, left office amid a stripper party-murder scandal, a sexy text messaging scandal with one of his staff, and felony charges which led to time in jail.

Then the Detroit Tigers took what was expected to be a very promising season and washed it down the crapper with a 74-88 final record. This just five years removed from the worst season in National league history and one game away from being the worst in major league history.

Then there’s the auto bailout, which limps along with hopes that George Bush will now provide the mouth-to-mouth. Oh yeah, and Michigan’s been in a recession for 8 years.

In fairness, the Red Wings did win the Stanley Cup, or so the 8 or so remaining hockey fans have told me.

Which all brings me to…the Detroit Lions. Here they stand, on the precipice of something that has never been done by any other NFL team. Not the ‘76 Buccaneers (0-14); not the ‘90 Patriots (1-15); not even the ‘91 Colts (1-15). No, the 2008 Lions have a chance to take their place at the head of the list of worst teams in the history of the NFL by finishing 0-16.

The Lions stand today at 0-14. They possess the 27th ranked scoring defense and are dead last in scoring offense (32nd). The remaining schedule isn’t completely unmanageable- home for the 7-7 Saints, then closing out on the road with the 5-9 Packers. Better get it done against the Saints though; I hear Lambeau field is a tough place to play in December.

Even the owner of “0and16.com” has his website pointed to the Lions home page (tried it, I did). Nothing like kicking a city while they’re down, but should the Lions lose their remaining two games, they’ll not only memorialize the worst season in NFL history, but quite possibly the worst year for any American city, that is until next year.

You’re welcome.

It’s not every day that you see somebody throw shoes at the President, but that’s exactly what happened at a press conference in Baghdad. According to reports, the “pitcher” is Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, a reporter with Cairo-based network Al Baghdadia Television.

According to the BBC, it was more than an act of convenience- ie. need something to throw, am wearing shoes. Apparently in Arab culture, the shoes up the ante in the insult war making the display by the journalist his little version of shock and awe. Kudos to Bush for top-shelf reflexes though. Say what you want about his policies but that bob and weave was first-class.

Here’s the original clip:

And for all the hacky Obama supporters gleefully posting various iterations of this video and comments on Youtube, foreigners throwing objects at our President is never a good thing. Never. Perhaps in your immature, distorted world, it’s an appropriate response, but disrespect directed at our President is disrespect directed at America.

You’re welcome.

Nice of Billy Sims to scream “Boomer” a dozen times like a crazy person, even making the winning QB from Oklahoma a little uncomfortable

Besides Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford winning the Heisman Saturday night, we learned two very important pieces of information.

First, we learned that Florida is going to beat Oklahoma. The Heisman curse is real, and on top of not having experience playing in the NC like Tebow has, Bradford has to deal with fate. The last four non-USC Heisman QB’s have all lost their bowl games. Tebow lost the Capital One Bowl last year. Troy Smith lost the BCS championship in 2006. Jason White lost the ‘03 Sugar Bowl. Eric Crouch lost the ‘01 Rose Bowl. And now Sam Bradford is going to lose in the ‘08 championship game.

We also learned that there was a really, really good reason why the Heisman folks didn’t invite Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell. It turns out Harrell only got 4% of the total points compared with 3rd place finisher Tebow who had 29.3%. Harrell was far closer to 5th place Michael Crabtree at 2.2% than Tebow, and even if Crabtree and Harrell combined their points for some Red Raider pirate magic, they would have still only been at 6.2%.

How the votes came down for the top three was a bit surprising as well. Voters were split on Tebow giving him the most 1st place votes as well as the most 3rd place votes. Bradford got it done with a close margin in 1st place votes and an overwhelming lead on Tebow in 2nd place votes and three percentage points better on the same over baby Colt McCoy.

The results also present a fascinating scenario whereby, should Bradford and Tebow return next year, and McCoy returns as promised, the top three vote-getters will be back and the odds of another Archie Griffen double (mathematically at least, probably greater statistically). Also interesting will be that Bradford looks like he’ll actually be a good pro QB, which certainly hasn’t been the case historically.

You’re welcome.