Dominic Raiola has played all nine of his NFL seasons in Detroit, never finishing with better than a 7-9 record and he let out some pent up frustration Sunday during the Lions' 17-10 home loss to the previously winless Rams, firing off some choice words at a group of Detroit fans who were heckling rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford. Detroit's final possession of the game consisted of four Stafford incompletions and after the final misfire landed well wide of its intended target, a few rowdy patrons let Stafford have it -- yelling "Hey Matt, throw it to me, I'm open, I'm open," according to Raiola, who quickly came to his QB's defense. The veteran center let fly with a few obscenities, according to MLive's Tom Kowalski, then spent the postgame defending his actions. "You want to pick on [Stafford]? I'm going to say something," Raiola said. "I understand the frustrations, I do. I've been here for 8 1/2 years. I love these fans, I love these people and I love it here. I'm just saying that I'm sorry if I was offensive to anybody, but I'm just being loyal to my teammate, one of my guys. It did strike a chord. You've got three or four guys yelling at him ... did they see what happened on the last drive? I don't think so. If you're going to call a guy out, know what you're talking about. He just got here. You want to run him out of town already? You know what I'm saying? That just hit home with me. Because I've been through it with Joey [Harrington]. I've been through it. They sent him packing and they're not going to do it to this guy. I'm going to be right here next to him.'' Source: NFL Fanhouse
I say let the fans have it. I lived in Michigan for 24 years....the lions suck...they have for a long time but its not JUST a quarterback or a defense or whatever and people can be mad or joke but when someone just came off an injury and is on a failing team already as a rookie. Cut the players a break...the worst of them are better than the hecklers could hope to be at the sport. SO I say Raiola LET IT RIP lol
Raiola is a bad center but he is smart stafford is the man with the money so hes backing the big dog in the race...hence if stafford loves him we cant cut him and he gets paid even though he has been at the center (pun intended) of the mess we call an Oline for his 8.5 years now
I didn't get to see the game but a couple of buds went to it and said the WR's were dropping passes left and right........What scares the hell outta me is the Lion's tacking a much needed WR high in the next draft!!!
Should've kept Furrey. That was a dumb mistake IMO. He was reliable and when CJ isn't in the game, at least you have a WR with some credibility.
