- 2 days ago
Are Lions fans upset with LaPorta's comments?
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00:00Good morning, 97.1.
00:02Dear John, I'm unhappy.
00:04I'm not being paid millions of dollars.
00:07We'll get to Dear John at 7.35.
00:10We've got the two grand slam coming up at 7.25.
00:13If Sam Laporta is up early enough, he could call in to win $2,000,
00:16which we hear he's hard up for cash.
00:20There are people who want to trade him.
00:24Text says, trade him.
00:25Hear me out.
00:25It's going to be a fire sale in Philly.
00:27LaPorta and picks to the Eagles for Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeGene.
00:31Mike and Brighton.
00:33A lot of moving parts there.
00:35Yeah.
00:37So you basically want the Eagles to do what we wanted the Tigers to do,
00:45sell and buy at the same time.
00:48Right.
00:51I would put money that LaPorta won't be a Lion next year.
00:54Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if he's not a Lion after the trade deadline.
00:58Matt and Howell.
00:59Oh, I think he'll be a Lion next year.
01:02And whether it's with a new contract or it's with the franchise tag,
01:06I think he'll be a Lion next year.
01:08For those that say trade LaPorta, it's not very smart.
01:14He's an instrumental part of this team.
01:16If you can't come to a deal, franchise tag him, then let him walk.
01:21LaPorta, the turd, needs to shut up and ball.
01:24This text says everyone wants athletes to be honest until they are honest.
01:28Then it's a big deal.
01:29We got to back away from the fake outrage, gentlemen.
01:32Guys are doing what we ask of them.
01:35Well, hold on.
01:36I always want guys to be honest,
01:38but that doesn't mean they get to have a soft landing with everything they say.
01:43Right.
01:43Yeah.
01:44I mean, you don't get a free pass.
01:47I want us to have real conversations, but those aren't always going to be.
01:50We can disagree with what he says at that point.
01:53Not freedom of consequences.
01:55Would I like to see Sam LaPorta get an extension and all of this to go away?
01:59Yes.
02:00Me too.
02:00I would love it.
02:03But, and Greg, can we play the very last one in regards to him,
02:09whether or not he's going to be a Lion or somebody else is going to pay him?
02:24So if he only says, I'm going to continue, I'm going to be a pro.
02:28I'm going to continue to do my thing and go and ball out.
02:30Stop.
02:30Period.
02:32Okay.
02:32Stop right there.
02:33Here's how I'm going to make the Lions pay me.
02:35I'm going to have a career year.
02:37Right.
02:37And, but, but then when he says, if I'm not wearing the Honolulu blue and
02:43silver, then so be it.
02:45I'll get paid somewhere else.
02:47That's where you lose people.
02:48Yeah.
02:49A lot of people want to see Sam LaPorta stay here and be paid.
02:53Yeah.
02:53If we would have done a topic 24 hours ago.
02:56Hey guys, Brad Holmes wants your, your input.
02:59Should they sign LaPorta?
03:00Well, we've done this.
03:01Yeah.
03:01Well, what do you think the response would be?
03:03If it was just a yes, no extend LaPorta.
03:05You don't know the numbers, but he's a critical piece.
03:06Do you want to keep him or not?
03:07I bet you to be like 80%.
03:10Yes.
03:10I would think so.
03:11And then, and then you get into the conversations, which we've had, would you, would you rather
03:15pay Brian branch or Sam LaPorta?
03:16If you have to pick one, but just on face value, LaPorta, you like him?
03:20Do you want to keep him?
03:20Is he part of this?
03:21Yes.
03:22I think you would have had upwards of 80% of the public saying, keep this guy.
03:26Now, I don't know what that response would be because you're going to get people who
03:29go, Oh, so there's nothing special about being here.
03:33Being here is just like being a Tennessee Titan, right?
03:36Being here is just like being a New York jet.
03:40Okay, cool.
03:42So we went through this all summer with Jalen Duren.
03:44Jalen Duren did not say anything.
03:46Everything was, well, Duren's camp.
03:48We're hearing this out of Duren's camp.
03:50Or we're hearing this about the Pistons offer and well, the, the, the weight clause and incentive
03:57or whatever it was, but we never heard from Jalen Duren.
04:00So when he ultimately signs his contract numbers, irrelevant, he signs his contract and then
04:06he has a press conference.
04:08He, he won a lot of people back.
04:11He won the press conference.
04:13Yes.
04:13Now, ultimately it's about what he does on the field or on the court.
04:16But if you don't hear this from Sam Laporta, other than, you know, Hey, yeah, there's contracts
04:23negotiate.
04:23I would love to have a new contract.
04:25I'm, I'm, I'm mad that I don't have a contract.
04:27I'm again, fine with all of that.
04:29Yeah.
04:30When he does sign a contract or if he does sign an inevitable contract with the lions,
04:36he has a press conference and everybody forgets about all of this.
04:39Yeah.
04:40It's just, you, it doesn't play well with the fan base.
04:45It can all be true.
04:47Well, again, you can feel disrespected.
04:50It's not relatable.
04:51Right.
04:52And I guarantee you every guy that's in a contract year has the thought and tells their agent,
04:59well, if it doesn't work out here, I'll go get paid somewhere else.
05:04That is 100% the conversation that happens between player and agent and player and team.
05:11Yeah.
05:12The idea of negotiating publicly is frowned upon, right?
05:15You'll hear it from teams and players and agents that we don't want to negotiate this
05:18in public.
05:19It has to get bad for you to do this.
05:21And I think this is intentional.
05:23You know, we had a comment a couple of weeks ago, kind of shutting down.
05:26Hey, you know, not, not optimistic, right?
05:29That a deal was getting done.
05:31Well, what were his comments a couple of weeks ago?
05:33Well, so it was initially reported that there were, they were, they were putting all of
05:41the contract talks on hold until after the season.
05:44Yeah.
05:44And then I, I thought we heard from Sam Laporta where he said, now that my agent and the team
05:51are going to deal with that.
05:53And yeah, you know, it, it, it made it feel like there were still conversations going
05:58on.
05:58He just wasn't a part of it.
05:59My read is those conversations have gone poorly and that's why this comes out.
06:06Let's get to the text.
06:07It says icing on the cake is him ending his statement with whatever Brian at work, Jansen dropping
06:14dimes and keeping it real this morning.
06:16You're getting paid millions of dollars to play a kid's game is spot on Texas.
06:21You shouldn't play another snap for the lions.
06:23Get rid of this big cry, baby.
06:26The court of public opinion is fueled by hosts on this station.
06:29It's not a big deal.
06:31What Laporta said.
06:32Okay.
06:33We don't ever tell fans how to feel.
06:35No, I'm just telling you how I feel.
06:38Yeah.
06:38And, and having been in that situation, I understand where he's coming from.
06:43What we do is hold up a mirror.
06:47We take calls from sunup to sundown.
06:49We are all about the opinion of not only ourselves, but everybody else.
06:54We cannot tell people to agree with us.
06:57They'll often call in to disagree with us.
06:59That's healthy, but I'm telling you, the feedback is not, well, I heard John say it.
07:03So now I'm going to parrot his talking points, or I heard something that Doug or, or Gator
07:08or Mike or Rico, people call in with their own opinions.
07:11They don't like this.
07:12So I do think it's, there has been a slight piling on here.
07:16Like I'm not as bothered by his comment.
07:17He shouldn't have done it.
07:18He did himself a disservice and people are, I think are overreacting to a degree.
07:22The tone deaf thing kind of bothers me.
07:25All these guys are millionaires.
07:26They all go to, they all make a lot of money and it's not relatable to the average job.
07:31I've always had that opinion that the, the blue collar angle kind of bothers me.
07:35It's like, you're taking it a little bit too personal.
07:37You, you pay and you, you support these players and you go to games and they all make these millions
07:44and they all want to make money and it's not the same world as a blue collar person.
07:49So him saying like, it doesn't, it doesn't bother you as much as it's been bothering other
07:53people.
07:53I think it's added octane being thrown on this.
07:56It shouldn't be there.
07:57When you say piling on, has John or I said anything over the top?
08:03I think the tone deaf thing's a little bit pushing it.
08:07So the world that he lives in, he is amongst other individuals that don't have to worry
08:15about putting gas in their tank.
08:16I just think that's where you're pushing it.
08:18The envelope, I, I, they all make a ton of money and they all are in a different world.
08:24He just said it.
08:25It's like, I'm not going to, because he said it, I, I, I, I've accepted the route reality
08:30long ago that this is, they're in a different world just because he said it.
08:34We, we should all know that already.
08:36Like if I, it's almost like saying, Oh, I'm not going to go to a game as a blue collar
08:40worker.
08:40Cause no, you do go to the game.
08:42So it's, I don't know.
08:44I just think it's pushing.
08:47I guess the thing is here is it ticks me off.
08:50I'm mad at him for doing what, for saying what he said.
08:53That's all we're saying.
08:54Cause it's right.
08:55But the Sam LaPorta wasn't a greedy guy that's wanting to get paid and out of touch with people
09:03who can't fill their tanks yesterday at this time.
09:05And I don't think he is that person.
09:07His background, Kirk Ferent said he's one of the best players I've ever had.
09:12One of the best people I've ever had.
09:15He really did himself dirty yesterday because I don't think he is who he's, he's not that
09:21guy.
09:22He's like playing a villain with his mustache on this podcast to try to leverage all season.
09:26No, I know.
09:27But it was, no, I'm not suggesting he grew the mustache to make the comments.
09:30I'm just saying optically, like he goes on this podcast.
09:34He's, he's trying to stir the pot.
09:36This is intentional.
09:36And yes, that mustache we were joking pre-show.
09:39It doesn't help him out here.
09:40John, are you willing to say who you potentially compared him to, to me in a break?
09:45Or not?
09:45If you don't have to, you don't want to.
09:46No, no, no, no.
09:48Because it's, it's more his voice and just the way he looks, the way he, no, I'm not.
09:52No.
09:53I think a texer's can guess.
09:53No, that, that, that is throwing him under way under the bus.
09:57Some people are backing Tom.
09:58A couple texts say, I agree with Tom.
10:00Let's not, you know, turn him into a bad person over.
10:02I don't think we're trying to turn him into a bad person.
10:04It's just understanding Tom.
10:07Maybe this is the disconnect.
10:09John is, is really echoing the backdrop of how these comments are landing with people
10:13right, wrong, or indifferent, right?
10:16Correct.
10:16And if he doesn't like how they're landing, Sam doesn't like how they're landing with
10:20people, pick better choices of words.
10:24I'm just like, don't take it so personal people.
10:27The guy made a real bad mistake with his comments and he didn't think it out, but here's how you
10:32can make up to me.
10:33Two touchdowns on Sunday.
10:35You got a lot worse athletes playing for your teams here in this town as a person than Sam
10:39Laporta.
10:40And I'll leave it at that.
10:41Can we get that power ranking?
10:44Bad people playing in Detroit.
10:46Tom's worst, worst human beings playing professional sports in Detroit.
10:50Yeah, let's go full Stoney blind ranking.
10:56Now I'm fascinated.
10:57Tim in Sterling Heights.
10:58Good morning.
11:00Hey, good morning, guys.
11:01You know, my take on this is Laporta's a great player, you know, and he wants his money.
11:07Great.
11:08He deserves the money.
11:09Yeah, I agree with that.
11:10And the one comment he made, he goes, he does this for the team and he did, he did
11:15in the kind of like, I'm doing you a favor kind of attitude.
11:19And that's what resonated with me.
11:20And I didn't like it's like, then I started to think, why are you doing this?
11:24I mean, you're doing it for the money.
11:26You're doing it for the love of the game.
11:28Maybe to get chicks.
11:30I don't know.
11:30You're doing it for your teammates.
11:31They're the guys you're in this with, but are you really doing it for the team or are
11:36you doing it for those, all those other reasons?
11:38And normally, I wouldn't think about it much, but he kind of said it in this, you owe me
11:43attitude way that that irritated me.
11:47How he said it, too.
11:48Yeah.
11:48Yeah.
11:49It's how he said it that got to me.
11:51It's like, you owe me, you know, because I do this for you.
11:54Man, you're doing it for a lot of reasons.
11:56For the Lions organization.
12:01John, why did you play?
12:03Yeah, John, go ahead.
12:04You can answer that.
12:05I mean, I played because I love the game.
12:08And I think all of these guys are playing.
12:11You don't play football.
12:12It hurts too much to play if you don't love it on some level.
12:18Some love it more than others.
12:20But you also play because you're getting paid a lot of money.
12:26That is a huge motivating factor, especially as you get to a second or third or any contract
12:34after your rookie contract.
12:35That all plays a part of it.
12:38Yeah.
12:38I don't think we want to be ignorant to this.
12:40Guys want to get paid.
12:42They want to get paid what they're worth.
12:43That's a totally valid human emotion.
12:47And whether that's a raise at your job, you would like.
12:50Sam wants to raise at his job.
12:52That emotion is understandable.
12:54But doing it this way is not okay.
12:57So people always ask me, like, what do you miss about playing football?
13:01Well, now that I had the chance to play in the NFL, the number one thing I say is the
13:06game check.
13:07I miss the game check, especially today's game check would be nice.
13:12I miss the guys in the locker room and the camaraderie.
13:15And then the third thing, and in terms of playing the game, I miss the physical contact.
13:20I miss the violence of the game because you could do things on the football field that
13:26you can't do anywhere else.
13:28And trust me, I'm very grateful that you can't do that at the workplace anymore.
13:32I have resisted to this point.
13:35I'm not sure how long I can hold out.
13:37I do just let people behind the curtain.
13:39Whenever these contracts get signed, I love seeing your reaction or TJ Lang's reaction
13:43to current NFL offensive line pay.
13:46Oh, boy.
13:47Well, and ask all the guys that played the 60s about when I signed my contract.
13:51Would love to make the money they're making now.
13:53Is that what a swing tackle goes for these days?
13:55Yes, yes.
13:56Well, I mean, swingers, you would know.
13:58Okay, stop it.
13:59Heather's News, two grand slam.
14:01Dear John, it's all coming up 97.1.