For a few seasons, big Cecil owned Detroit, at least during the summers. He burst into town with a 51-home run season in '90, and he was one who you'd stop whatever you were doing to catch his at-bat. He struck out a lot, but oh, when he connected....
The Lions had a pass rushing maven named Al "Bubba" Baker, in the late-1970s, early '80s. As a rookie, Baker recorded 23 sacks, which is mind-boggling. And he was a loquacious, loud, barrel of a man who thrived on his notoriety, and was eager to add to it at every opportunity. It was a sad -- and quiet -- day when Baker took his act to the Cleveland Browns. At least for me.
Baker: Still the Lions' best sack specialist ever
Today, the Lions have a player who, like Big Daddy and Bubba before him, could own Detroit. If only he wanted to.
Shaun "Big Baby" Rogers is beginning to play the kind of defensive football that gets people into Pro Bowls unanimously and makes quarterbacks and offensive coordinators curl into the fetal position.
Rogers was a beast yesterday, in the Lions' 44-7 dismantling of the Denver Broncos. He made sacks. He disrupted the Bronco's feeble running game. And he, in a moment that could have been one of the biggest in Lions history had he wanted it to be, intercepted a pass with incredibly soft hands and charged 66 yards for a touchdown, adding a stiff arm at the end for good measure.
Rogers tumbled into the end zone, and Ford Field was quaking on its foundation. Watching the 350+ pound Rogers racing toward paydirt, the football looking like an M&M in his hands, while the crowd swelled and a roar grew with each of his pounding strides, was a watershed moment, at least in the Matt Millen Era. Rogers was among the first players Millen drafted, in 2001, and here he was, a behemoth running like a DB toward the end zone. The Lions already had the game well in hand, but Rogers' touchdown will be one talked about for years.
Yet it won't go down in history as one of the team's greatest (and funnest) plays, because Rogers won't allow it to be so.
Rogers (right) won't let us in to help better enjoy the ride
Rogers is still giving us all the silent treatment, and while he thinks he's doing it to just the press, he's doing it to all the fans who live and die with the team. Times are good now; the Lions are 6-2 and looking like they're getting better, instead of regressing. Rogers' play, excluding the TD, was awesome enough. But the interception and return should have been a moment we all enjoyed with him. It would have been great fun to hear him talk about it afterward.
Big Baby could own Detroit. Just like Bubba, and Big Daddy. Were he engaging and jocular, like Baker and Fielder, we would have been dying to hear him wax descriptive about his dynamic play. And we would have hung on every word, and smiled and laughed with his every large, round grin and hearty chuckle.
But Shaun Rogers does not want to own Detroit, apparently. He's content to do all his talking on the field. That's fine, I suppose, but it sure would be nice if he were to understand how powerful it would be for him to assume a more vocal, gregarious role with his football team.
Rogers owes nothing to anyone, I guess. Not even the paying customers, save for 100% effort every Sunday. Ahh, but they've wondered about that effort in the past. It's probably the no. 1 reason Big Baby clams up.
Detroit, in the fall, could be Shaun Rogers's oyster. It would probably expand to the off-season, too -- if he cared to have that happen. But he appears to not want that. There's no telling how much more fun this ride could be with the Lions if that weren't the case.
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