Thursday evening bloviating

I'm finding it hard to get whipped up into a froth of rightous indignation today, so I'm just going to fire off a few quick thoughts instead...

I had the beer and chips all ready to go, ESPN News tuned in, I was set, I tell you... Set for what you ask? I was told we were to see the NFL armageddon today. Salary cap apocalyspe! Roster bloodletting all around the league! Cats and dogs living together! Big names out on the street! And what did we get? An extension of the deadline and three more days of speculation. I want my Drew Brees! Where's in the Hell is Simeon Rice! Man, what a damn letdown.

So where do the Tigers stand in the local sports landscape? Their first exhibition game of the season was this afternoon, and the flagship station, WXYT, didn't bother to broadcast it. If you weren't paying close attetnion, you wouldn't have known the Tigers were even playing. All you heard were occasional "Updates" from Dan Dickerson. Not even a "Voice of the turtle" reference. I can't ever remember a time when the Tigers first spring game wasn't broadcast. How the far the once mighty Tigers have fallen. Next thing you know, they won't have any games broadcast on over the air TV. Oh yeah, that's already happened. That fact doesn't look to be changing anytime soon, either.

I've given up on WDFN. I've been a loyal listener since the first day they went on the air. I've barely listened to the station over the last few weeks, and don't feel like I've missed a thing. I think the last straw was couple of weeks ago. It was a half hour of Mike Stone talking about old shirts in his closet. An utterly fascinating topic...If you are into "Project Runway." I just can't take the lame "Guy talk," with just a smattering of sports anymore. No more drops. No more old bits. No more lame games. No more run into the ground catchphrases. Just...No more. Not that WXYT has the best sports talk around, but at least they talk sports.

Thank God the Pistons signed Tony Delk, if only to just shut me up. Seriously, after all my ranting and raving about point guard depth after the Darko trade, getting Delk for absolutely zip is another feather in Joe Dumars cap. Not that you can replace Chauncy Billups if the unfathomable happens, that he gets hurt. "Knock on wood." But Delk adds a veteran presence, someone who has shown in the past he can play. He can step in and, at the very least, not screw things up. Delk has to be thrilled to be on a championship contender, and won't biatch about playing time. I doubt you could say those things about Arroyo, who is happier getting minutes, even if it's on a bad team. You'll get no complaints from me on the Delk pickup.