"PRECEDENT": Detroit Lions Face BACKLASH as Rod Wood Seizes Frank Ragnow’s Signing Bonus

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It's a Tuesday and our Detroit Lions are getting dragged nationally.

You are Locked On Lions, your daily Detroit Lions podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast

Network, your team, every day.

Welcome to everybody, Matt Terry, with you Locked On Lions Locked On Podcast Network

We're going to Tuesday, March 31st, a lot to get into today.

We will have a call of the day at the end of the show.

If you want to be our call of the day, it is simple.

Leave us a message on our SpeakPipe voicemail system at SpeakPipe.com slash dairy podcast

page.

Dan Campbell spoke yesterday out at the League meetings in Arizona about a rebirth.

We will get into that.

Rodwood speaks.

And that's really where we're going to start today because yesterday we joked around

a little bit about the Justin Rodgers versus Dave Burkett battle that is going on between

two of the great lion beat riders.

And those guys do such a fine job and they are both fantastic riders and Justin of course

have the Taylor Decker story from the other day where he went to Arizona early, met with

Decker at his home and Decker kind of trashed the lions a little bit, being upset about

how they handled his situation.

And then Dave Burkett got an exclusive without going lion's president to, to, to himself

Rodwood on a bevy of topics.

And there were some topics from yesterday that were in that mix, including Rodwood talking

about the lion's cash situation and how they weren't in on Max Crosby.

And then today, it broke this morning at Freep.com, a Rodwood story in regards to the fact

that, yes, wood and the lions, once again, tried to recoup and did recoup Frank Ragnows

signing bonus when Ragnows retired.

Lions made the decision last year to recoup portions of the signing bonus given to all pro

center Frank Ragnows, who of course retired with two years left on his contract.

Rod confirms it to Dave in the story in the free press, quote, our president goes all

the way back to Barry Sanders, wood said, and if Barry Sanders paid back money, and I

think the reality is they're not paying back their money, they're returning our money.

Because they were paid in advance for services that they hadn't completed.

And quote, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my gosh.

What absolute nonsense this is.

Why is Rodwood talking?

Now he's going public and saying, well, this is our president, Calvin, Barry, and now Frank

Ragnows.

The lion actually has Frank Ragnows, who played with like a punctured lung, who like his toes

like he couldn't even move his toes at one point, play through bevy of injuries.

If he would have kept playing, would have been a hall of famer, similar to Barry, and

similar to Calvin Johnson.

And here's the outgoing team president.

Once again, speaking and just putting his foot in his mouth.

And nationally, the lions are getting absolutely ransacked for this.

Everybody's chiming in.

I'll tell you what, Gaines media poster boy, Alex Anzaloni had to say.

Jason Kelsey is chiming in and everybody is tooling on our team.

Now again, this has nothing to do with Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell, and the organization

on a football level.

Rodwood likes to talk apparently and knows that once he retires, nobody wants to talk to

him anymore.

He's going to retire and go back to being somebody that nobody knows, right?

When he worked for four to states, why on earth would you publicly admit that you took

back some of Frank Ragnows bonus money?

Why?

Why would you do this?

Oh, my gosh.

And you're citing tradition as as as why you did it and precedent.

Right now at three million and pro rated, pro rated signing bonus payments remaining from

the contract extension.

He signed in 2021 and it looks like the lions took back nearly two million of it.

Brad, a rod kept going, quote, it's the lions money.

It's not the players money.

Oh my god.

No, no, you're not doing this again.

You're not dragging the lions into this again, Rod.

Why?

Rod ruined the lion's relationship with Calvin Johnson and it had to be fixed and thank

you, Mike, Disney and others for repairing that relationship because as I've told you

the story, numerous times are unlocked on lines.

Calvin Johnson wanted to retire.

Calvin was going to do it the week before the Bears game.

He goes down the hallway where the coaches are.

He goes to Jim Caldwell and says coach, I love you.

I'm done.

I'm going to retire.

Caldwell calls Bob Quinn, believe it was Bob Quinn and Rod Wood upstairs.

Quinn says, hold on a second, Calvin.

Let's think about this and Rod immediately turns to Calvin and says, did you earn all

your bonus?

And Calvin's like middle finger to the air, F you and Calvin's like, I'm done with the

lions and the relationship now is being repaired and has been repaired.

Like goodness.

And now he's going public doing a victory lap on Frank Ragnar.

You couldn't just let it go a couple million dollars, let Frank keep it.

The guy played with punctured lungs and everything else for you.

The best center to ever probably play the game for the lions.

I mean, yes, Kevin Glover was good and others, she's man.

It makes yesterday, he said, from a cash perspective, we're going to be league average,

making Sheila look cheap.

Okay.

Today, he makes him look even more cheap because it's our tradition, it's our money.

And now I get it.

Some of you are going to say, well, don't other teams do this?

Some do, some don't.

Remember, Jerry Jones said with Tony Romo retired, we let him keep his bonus.

I'm trying to remember some other owners that have said, we would not do that to our players.

No wonder Taylor Decker has an analysis retirement yet.

He wants to keep his money.

Pay that man his machini, all right, oh my God, why?

I know what some of you are going to say.

I know what some of the listeners are going to say.

I can see the YouTube comments coming through when I post this video and I know what you're

going to say on our Twitter and locked online social media.

I know what's going to happen.

Stop picking on the line, stop talking about the stuff off the field.

I'm telling you, this is a bad look.

You might have disagreed with me on the Taylor Decker stuff.

But how can you as a fan disagree with me on this?

This looks horrible.

Barry Sanders was furious with this franchise for not letting him keep his bonus.

It took a lot to get Barry back and in their good graces.

Same goes for Calvin Johnson.

I know Frank Ragnar was not Barry or Calvin, but Frank Ragnar was pretty damn good.

Nick Baumgardner from the athletic.

Sheila has been a huge breath of fresh air and Detroit has done some tremendous things.

We'll surely keep doing them, but this sort of stuff just can't continue.

You work so hard to build goodwill with the locker room and this stuff crushes it in seconds.

It's nonsense.

Sheila Hamp needs to stop this now having Rodwood site tradition as a reason why a guy who fractured

his throat for you had to give money back is bull bleep.

That's from Nick at the athletic.

I'm going to tell you what Alex Anzaloni and also Jason Kelsey had to say in a second,

but I feel badly for Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes.

I do because they're team president who claimed when he took the job that he's going to stay

out of football can't stay out of football.

He just can't help himself.

He can't help himself and I know he's on the way out.

He is supposed to talk.

I believe in the Detroit economic club in a couple of weeks.

He might not show up.

The Lions might tell him.

Sheila might call him and go, do not show up.

You're going to be sick that day.

Who knows what he's going to say yesterday through the ownership on the bus and said,

ah, from a cash perspective, we're league average.

How could the Lions be league average when in cash when they're when they're swimming

in it?

The last few years, y'all are paying crazy money for those tickets and for the swag and

everything else.

The Lions are a hot ticket in this town.

It makes Sheila look cheap.

Now today, oh, yeah, oh, Frank Ragnar.

We made him pay back his bonus.

We.

Hey, yeah, yeah, it's precedent precedent.

Didn't you learn anything from Barry and Calvin?

All right.

You don't believe me?

Gains media poster boy, Alex Anzaloni chiming in as well as Jason Kelsey.

We'll tell you what they had to say coming up next here on a Tuesday edition of Lockdown

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All right, it's a Tuesday edition.

Everybody locked on lines locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network

Matt Derry with you on a Tuesday, March 31 into Wednesday, April the 1st.

Thank you to all of our every dayers who are out there will say about the every day

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chat and everything else on our locked on lines every day or club.

All right.

So it's not just me that's kind of dragging the rod wood today, former lion's linebacker

and gains media zone, Alex Anzaloni, the flowing locks, the blonde bomb shell.

We miss Alex already, who of course played five seasons for the lions chimed in on Twitter

today at Alex Anzaloni 34 and criticized the lions as well.

He quote tweeted day, Brickett's tweet.

Of course, Brickett had the article in the free press with rodwood from Anzaloni, quote,

played through fractured throat, one week postmanistic, a meniscus cleanup with stitches

barely out, inoperable, unrepairable toe, et cetera.

Hey, let me get that pro rated signing bonus back three laughing emojis do business as

business is being done.

That was from Alex Anzaloni today.

He's not thrilled with what rodwood had to say about recouping the rag now money.

Then Jason Kelsey from ESPN and the former center for the Philadelphia Eagles also chimed

in saying, quote, let me say this first of a player truly just retires about reason

or because they've lost the desire to play.

I completely get an acknowledged team should be able to recoup compensation when players

don't fulfill their contractual obligations and agreements.

However, Frank was known for being hurt and playing through injuries.

Most players wouldn't play through constantly broken foot torn peck multiple knee injuries

back issues.

It was always something I'm sure he was continuously dealing with multiple ailments

to try and continue playing the game.

His body clearly deteriorated blah, blah, blah.

So while I get to the team as a right to ask for money back, Kelsey says in the spirit

of the agreement, I think it's BS Frank is being asked to return money.

This was clearly a player that the game had physically taken his toll on and his body

was clearly no longer holding up the rigors of the NFL.

It wasn't just some player deciding he didn't want to play anymore.

Wasn't that simple and these signing bonuses are there to protect players from the inevitable

injuries they incur on the field.

And quote, again, now you got Kelsey chiming and adjacent Kelsey is extremely popular and

well liked around the league and very good on TV, all right.

What's interesting about this is, too, what I just forgot about is that Frank Ragnar

tried to get back and play last year.

Was Frank Ragnar trying to come back and play last year because he wanted to play or was

Frank Ragnar trying to get his money back?

Now, again, he re got re-injured, failed his physical and had to shut it down and so here

we are.

Americans collected $7 million in arbitration from Calvin Johnson, but actually Barry Sanders

$7 million.

Calvin was 1.6 million, the famous 1.6 number.

I'm going to put this to rest and put this to bed, but I'll tell you, it is not a good

look once again and now nationally for the Lions.

They look cheap and they look heartless when they do things like this and it took a lot

of effort from a lot of people in that organization, all right, to bring Barry back.

I'll say it, he doesn't want me to say his name, I'll say it, Bill Keyness from the Lions,

let go, worked his ass off to get Barry back in the good graces, graces.

From all reports and indications, Mike Disney did the same with Calvin.

I don't know if Frank Ragnar is going to hold a grudge, I don't know if Frank Ragnar

cares, I don't know if Frank Ragnar will, if they invite him back, we'll refuse over

this stuff, he hasn't spoken about it, it's just bad form, it's bad form, all right, some

good news.

Let's talk about some good clerk, did you tell him the good news, all right, Dan Campbell spoke

yesterday at the league meetings in Arizona, by the way, you think the Lions are a laughing

stock, how about this one?

The NFL coaches, not all the general managers were there, but a lot of them were, Brad Holmes

was not, but all the NFL coaches gather at these league meetings and they talk and they

all take a group picture, many of you might have seen the group picture that is all over

social media, team picture of all the NFL coaches, get the hard balls together in the

front, get the floors together in the front, it's cute, all right, you didn't see in the

group photo Todd Monkin, the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, you want to know why

Todd Monkin was not in the picture, he was getting his hair cut and the haircut was

running late and so he missed the picture, he was getting his hair cut for the picture

and he missed the hair, and he missed the picture.

So we're sitting there kind of tooling on the Lions, but the Browns are Browns again.

Dan Campbell was talking yesterday and used the term rebirth going into this season, he

is well aware that there is a transformation going on of the roster process because guys

like Amique Robertson, Alex Anzaloni, Taylor Decker, David Montgomery, all gone.

Campbell said yesterday quote, it happens every year, you lose some guys you got really

fond of that really helped you out big time, we lost a lot of those guys, then it's also

kind of a rebirth, you get an opportunity to bring in some new fresh guys from other places

that you feel like fit you and they bring a new kind of energy, so that's exciting.

End quote, Campbell also went on to say that he feels better about the offense right now

than he did last year and he feels like they're going to hit their stride again this season

and it's going to be a lot of fun.

He also said that while free agency is just one piece of the roster building phase, he's

excited about the draft quote, we got the draft and then you got free agency after the

draft and then trades are available, oh, in the waiver wire after training camp where

we found guys before, that's how we found John Kaminsky four years ago, there's so many

things that you have at your disposal that man, we are far from done.

End quote, a rebirth, I never really thought of this lion situation this year as a rebirth

when you talk about the amount of veteran players that are gone, but I'm excited about

that I'm looking forward to.

I think everything that happened last year happened for a reason.

I think Dan knows he made a mistake with his offensive coordinator situation and the

John Morton thing just was not good.

They've got to get past the Taylor Decker situation, which they will and other veteran

players like last gal and others that won't be back, but they needed to hit the reset button

a little bit after you have really the same group back and running it back for the last

three, four years, and now you've got some fresh faces with that being said, part of the

rebirth in my opinion for this franchise is that the guys that you paid a lot of money

to have to contribute and step up.

Alim McNeill must earn his keep this year.

James and Williams has to be better and it's not all on JMO.

I thought JMO was under utilized last year, especially early in the season by John Morton.

Kirby Joseph's got to be healthy and playing because he is a huge part of what this team

does.

Those are three massive contracts that the Lions handed out where the guys weren't either

weren't on the field at the end of the year or just weren't big contributors.

So that is also part of this rebirth.

And I do believe the players like Roger McCreary, Christian Isian, Cade Mays will play

big roles this year, DJ Wannum has to perform if he's going to be the edge rusher opposite

of Aiden Hutchinson this year.

Now again, they can draft somebody at 17.

That person could be the person we'll see.

But I like Dan Campbell's comments about rebirth and I do think fans should be excited

because there is such a good core here.

And Campbell pointed out yesterday just how good JMO gives is and how he's just scratching

the surface.

And again, made reference yesterday too.

They want him out at wide receiver at times too, throwing him the football out on the

perimeter.

All right, coming up next call of the day.

It's been a while since we've had a call of the day.

It's a female every day or the checks in.

We will do that coming up next.

And speaking of every day or everybody, don't forget to check out the every day or club

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And as promised, it has been a while since we have done this, but it is a time for our

call of the day.

We are called the day to simple.

Leave us a voice mail.

Keep it about a minute or less.

Please do not swear at speakpipe dot com slash dairy D E R Y podcast page Cindy Williams

chiming in today.

She is our call of the day.

Let's take a listen.

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Hey, Matt, my name is Cindy Williams, I've been every day listener and really enjoy.

I originally am from Holland, Michigan, but now I reside in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2023 and 2024, the Lions came close to making it to the Super Bowl.

Both those years we had one thing in common injuries.

We were plagued by injuries and at the end of the year, it absolutely showed.

Now back in 2021, Matthew Stafford won the Super Bowl with the Rams.

I have a feeling it was because the Rams then picked up Von Miller, Odom Beckham, Jr.

and running back Sony Michaels to help with their postseason run before the trade deadline.

Now my question is, do you think the Lions could have done something similar in 2023 or

2024?

If so, you think we could have made it to the Super Bowl.

Just a question.

Have a great day, Matt.

Thanks again.

All right, Cindy, thank you.

Great to hear from Cindy Williams, a new caller to our call the day segment in one of our

every day.

Thank you so much, Cindy.

It's interesting.

She referenced O'Dell and running back and Von Miller at the deadline, the Rams went

for it that year.

When they made that trade and obviously doled out a couple of the first round picks and

Jared Goff, two Detroit to get Matthew Stafford, they were going for it.

And that season also, the Rams were extremely, extremely healthy.

That was a healthy football team.

Going back and thinking about a couple of years ago and thinking about what the Lions did

at the deadline, you remember the much decorated Zadaria Smith pickup from 2024, I believe.

Trying to think back to 2023 when the Lions were in the NFC Championship game and could

they have done more.

Look, I don't think we ever sat back, Cindy, and said it was a move they had.

There were moves that had to have been made at the deadline.

That's never been a Brad Holmes thing.

Brad Holmes has his roster.

And once it's kind of the season's going, unless there's injuries, I think he kind of sticks

with it.

The biggest issue that the Lions had in the NFC Championship game that year and why they

didn't go to Super Bowl was they didn't play well in that second half.

Ball hits Kindle, Vildor in the face and pops in the air.

Poor play calling on those fourth downs, not kicking fuel goals, not getting stops and

kind of sitting on that lead is why this team didn't make it to the Super Bowl.

I'm trying to go back and remember who they could have picked up and everything else.

That year, it's tough to say, it really is.

I just think the way that Brad Holmes operates and that front office operates, they're not

going to, look, are they going to go out and get a player that they need to get at the

deadline if need be?

Like I said, they've done it before in the past with the Darius and others.

But they like holding on, they like holding on to their draft capital and they're not

going to overspend on deadline day for somebody that they don't think is not going to be

a big help at that time.

So no, I don't look back on it and think about it that way.

Yeah, the Rams went for it and made numerous moves and everything else, but they're also

very healthy that year and you're and Cindy's right.

The Lions had so many injuries, especially two years ago, the 2024 season when they went

in as the one seeded 15 and two and lost the commanders and that defense that day at so

many bit players, then you lose a meek Robertson like the first series.

Injuries is what hurt more in my mind hurt more than not picking up guys.

And look, Campbell, Dan Campbell said it yesterday and we just read you the quotes.

I mean, if they are willing to go out and find people and they are willing to sign more

players and I don't know, get a cam Jordan or somebody like that late.

I hope they do that.

I hope they do that because they the roster is good, but there's still some depth pieces

needed.

There's still another edge needed draft, but they got nine picks, probably move up at

some point to try and secure a better player.

We know Brad, Brad Holmes has had some unbelievable drafts in the past and that's what you have

to hopefully bank on.

And the fact that guys have some bounce back years and that the offensive and defensive

lines perform better than they did here ago, you still got to win up front.

So we'll talk more about that later on this week.

Charles Robinson from Yahoo Sports, either tomorrow or Thursday, we're going to get Charles

on the show and get his thoughts on the lions and everything else.

We'll do a little bit more tomorrow on the league meetings too in Arizona and some of the

things that the competition committee is thinking about.

We'll do that tomorrow right here on a Wednesday edition of Lockdown Lines, but this has

been a Tuesday.

Thanks for checking us out.

We're into April tomorrow tomorrow is April in the D everybody.

How about that?

We'll do that tomorrow right here on Lockdown Lines.

Thanks everyone.

Have a great day.

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