While it might seem like a ways out to think about the 2024 NFL Draft, it’s never too early to start making plans to attend next year’s ceremony.
The 2024 NFL Draft will be taking place in Detroit, Michigan, in the area around Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza from April 25-27.
Motor City will host its first-ever NFL Draft next year with plenty of buzz surrounding the Detroit Lions and how they’ll fare in the 2023 season.
Players like USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. should headline next year’s draft class.
While Kansas City did a great job hosting the 2023 NFL Draft, the baton will be passed to Detroit as NFL fans book their travel to see who their favorite teams select in next year’s draft cycle.
For now, fans will buckle down for summer anticipation for the upcoming season and begin to build out their big boards for the 2024 draft process.
We called upon Lions expert Jeff Risdon to get the lowdown on the Vikings’ NFC North rival
The Minnesota Vikings are about to play their first game outside of the state of Minnesota since they beat the Buffalo Bills 33-30 on Sunday, November 13th. While they are playing outside of the state, they still get to play indoors and won’t play outside until January 1st when they take on the Green Bay Packers.
Sunday is the first of three NFC North road games the Vikings will play before seasons end. The Lions have won four of their last five games and are playing really good football. Jared Goff has only thrown one interception compared to seven touchdowns over that span.
To get a better understanding of where the Lions are, we sat down with Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire for all the details.
Detroit’s Ford Field to host 2027 College Basketball Final Four
The last time Detroit’s Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions) hosted the College Basketball Final Four, Michigan State basketball was present, knocking off Connecticut before falling to North Carolina in the National Championship.
The Spartans will hope for some similar, but hopefully even better fortune, when March Madness comes back to Detroit in 2027, as it was announced on Tuesday that the Final Four will return to Ford Field for the 2027 March Madness Tournament.
Ford Field in Detroit will host the 2027 Final Four
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
Beginning Thursday night and through Saturday, the Buffalo area is expected to be hit with a lake-effect snowstorm that could drop upward of four feet of snow, The Weather Channel projected Thursday morning. “Major to extreme impacts” are expected to be felt in the region, according to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, which advises against travel and driving in the predicted conditions.
The Bills will play two games in Detroit in five days because they are scheduled to face the Lions at Ford Field on Thanksgiving.
Important numbers are by the phone, lock up when you leave and please don’t break the tables. https://t.co/sDPwNslBlZ
En teoría, ser un jugador de beisbol profesional suena como algo muy divertido, pero luego, cuando ves lo que algunos de estos pitchers pueden hacer con una pelota, es más fácil disfrutar de la vida aburrida de nosotros los que no jugamos beisbol. …
En teoría, ser un jugador de beisbol profesional suena como algo muy divertido, pero luego, cuando ves lo que algunos de estos pitchers pueden hacer con una pelota, es más fácil disfrutar de la vida aburrida de nosotros los que no jugamos beisbol.
Vean esto, por ejemplo. Joey Gallo, el jardinero derecho de los Yankees caminó hacia el plato para enfrentarse a Alex Lange de Detroit, y lo único que pudo hacer fue quedarse parado en la caja de bateo preguntándose cómo diablos el relevista le había hecho un lanzamiento con una cantidad ridícula de movimientos antes de que, básicamente, llegara al corazón de la zona de strike.
Esto no debió ser un momento divertido para Gallo:
Alex Lange, Ridiculous 98mph Front Door Two Seamer. 😲
Does Braylon Edwards have bitter feelings about Notre Dame? After all, the Irish beat Michigan in two of the three meetings they had during his time with the Wolverines. Regardless, he and digital show host Ryan Ermanni don’t think Kyle Hamilton is worth the second overall selection in the NFL draft, which is held by the Detroit Lions. Considering their show is based in Detroit, it would make sense as to why they’re so invested in who they don’t want the Lions to pick:
Kyle Hamilton is the one guy @RyanEFox2 does not want the Lions to take at number two.
— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) April 4, 2022
Is Hamilton worthy of being the second overall pick? Probably not, but it still is very interesting to see two guys so invested in not wanting one player drafted in a certain spot. Are they that worried that Lions executive vice president and general manager Brad Holmes is going to take him? Maybe it should happen just to force them to support a former Notre Dame player, even if it’s begrudgingly.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
The club plans to build a replica of the iconic clubhouse that burned.
Oakland Hills Country Club president Rick Palmer was at home just minutes from the iconic clubhouse near Detroit on Thursday when he learned the 100-year-old structure was on fire.
“I got the call from (general manager) Christine Pooler about right when it happened,” said Palmer, who retired last year after owning a trucking company and who has been a member of the club in Bloomfield Hills for 26 years. “She at that point says, ‘We’ve got a real issue here and it could be severe.’
“From a personal note, I walked out the door and my wife said, ‘What’s the issue?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think Oakland Hills is on fire.’ And she said, ‘What do you mean?’ because we always have issues. And I said, ‘No, literally.’ ”
The fire grabbed national attention, torching one of the most historic private clubhouses in the United States. The club has been host to numerous championships since its inception in 1916, including six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Amateur, two U.S. Men’s Amateurs and three PGA Championships.
The clubhouse at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, burns on Thursday, February 17, 2022. (Eric Seals/USA TODAY NETWORK)
The cause of the fire in which nobody was injured has yet to be determined, and the Detroit Free Press reported that an exact cause of the conflagration may never be determined. The club had a fire-suppression system, but the flames could have spread inside wooden walls and under floors. The point of ignition may have been destroyed, leaving few clues as investigators pick through charred remains.
Palmer said Monday the club is working with its insurance providers to determine what might be salvageable and what next steps the club will take in rebuilding. It’s too soon to have answers, he said, although the club has initiated conversations with several architectural firms. It likely will take years to rebuild the structure.
One thing is certain after hearing Palmer speak: The golf and many other activities will carry on, even in the short term as the spring season begins. The fire didn’t damage the club’s two courses, the South and the North.
“Keep in mind, besides other than the clubhouse fire, our tennis building, our golf operations building and out maintenance facility were all untouched,” Palmer said. “… Our membership is fully behind us. We will be as strong as ever.
“I can report that at our board meeting this past Saturday morning that the board easily made a unanimous decision and determined that the restored, rebuilt clubhouse will be a replica of what the iconic clubhouse was before the fire. Our membership and the national golf community really made that an easy decision for us to make, because of the outpouring of how special it is – even our (recent) golf course architect, Gil Hanse, who wants our clubhouse to match his beautiful restoration work.”
The recently restored South Course at Oakland Hills Country Club (Courtesy of Oakland Hills)
Hanse and his design partner Jim Wagner in 2021 completed a restoration of the club’s South Course, originally designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, and that track is slated to host the U.S. Women’s Open in 2031 and 2042. The South Course ties for No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The club’s North Course ties for No. 196 on that list.
The U.S. Golf Association has voiced its support to Palmer that there should be no issue with the planned Women’s Opens, and the club is still in talks in with the USGA about hosting other possible championships.
“Our partners at the USGA have been incredibly supportive in their calls,” Palmer said.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaGsIeCMTrE/
That extends all the way to how the club might operate in coming months and years as the clubhouse is rebuilt, everything from what functions might be possible to where will members grab lunch after a round of golf. The USGA has offered its expertise in building temporary structures to help Oakland Hills while the clubhouse is rebuilt, and a local company has provided space for displaced club employees to continue working.
“We want to move quickly, but we want to move slow in order to move fast because we’re really making not just a 2022 decision, but a 2023 and potentially 2024 decision, depending on the process,” Palmer said.
Firefighters from multiple departments remain on the scene the day after the fire, cleaning up equipment and putting out hot spots at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township. (Kelly Jordan/Detroit Free Press)
He said it was a terribly emotional experience watching the clubhouse burn, but he expressed his gratitude that none of the approximately 25 employees who were present were harmed. He said in peak season the clubhouse sometimes has as many as 300 employees present. He also expressed gratitude that the club only “lost things” and not people.
The extent to which things were lost is still being determined. The club is operating as if the building is a total loss, Palmer said, while official word from the insurance company is pending.
The clubhouse also was packed with memorabilia from decades of championships, some of which was salvaged even as the building burned.
Walter Hagen was the first club professional at Oakland Hills and this portrait of him is likely to be among the irreplaceable artefacts lost in this appalling fire – pic.twitter.com/nAZdduUY8o
“We had the fire crews come in and announce to us that they had a window, and asked where was the memorabilia, where was it at?” Palmer said. “And they kept going in and out of the facility and actually passing that (memorabilia) out to our employees, who formed kind of a breadline and loaded that into a van. There are a lot … of our valuable items that got recovered, and we’re just assessing whether they are fully OK.”
It will take time to catalogue what items were lost and what was rescued and its condition, Palmer said. The club is working with its insurance company to assess all those concerns.
“Watching the great work by the firefighters who, between the weather and the wind and where it was going,” Palmer said, “they were fighting an heroic uphill battle right from the start.”
Firefighters are battling the blaze at the historic golf club, home to numerous major championships.
The clubhouse at Oakland Hill Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit — and site of numerous major championships — caught fire Thursday morning.
At about 10 a.m., flames licked the clubhouse roof as black smoke billowed.
Several departments responded after the fire broke out in the clubhouse attic. The clubhouse, which was completed in 1922, was adorned with irreplaceable golf tournament memorabilia and art going back a century.
Much of it likely will be lost in the fire or badly damaged. Early reports indicate the fire will destroy the central part of the building.
Oakland Hills Country Club was founded in 1916 by Joseph Mack and Norval Hawkins, two Ford executives, at a meeting of 47 friends and associates at the Detroit Athletic Club.
They decided there would be 140 charter memberships at a cost of $250 apiece.
Walter Hagen, an 11-time major winner, was the club’s first head professional.
Sometime between late October, 1916 and late January, 1917 Donald Ross first visits the Oakland Hills property. He tells Joe Mack, “The Lord intended this for a golf course.” In his commentaries on golf architecture, Golf Has Never Failed Me, Ross comments: “I rarely find a piece of property so well-suited for a golf course.” He designs the South Course around the 10th and 11th holes – holes he will later call the finest consecutive par 4s he has ever designed.
Since then, the club has hosted to 14 golf majors or USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Amateur, two U.S. Men’s Amateurs and three PGA Championships — including the 90th PGA Championship in 2008. The club has also hosted the 1922 Western Open, the 1964 Carling World Open, and the 35th Ryder Cup, in 2004.
Oakland Hills is home to two highly rated golf courses. The South Course, designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, ties for No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The club’s North Course ties for No. 196 on that list.
The clubhouse was designed by C. Howard Crane and opened in 1922. It has undergone several renovations.
You don’t get to 0-7 without doing a whole lot of things wrong.
Detroit threw everything possible at the Rams – playing like a desperate team that knew it had absolutely no shot at winning without gimmicking it up – and still lost.
The key for the Eagles is to get out to a good start. They’ve got a way of coming back and making things interesting late, but a good first quarter would do wonders against a Lion team that can’t score.
Philadelphia might have an awful run defense, but the Lions won’t be able to grind it out enough. There isn’t enough of an Eagle passing game early, but the Lions have allowed 250 yards or more five times in seven games.
Worst of all, Detroit can’t come up with a third down stop. This is where Jalen Hurts has to use all his skills to simply keep things moving.
Philadelphia moving the ball early is much, much easier said than done.
Part of the problem is its own defensive issues on third downs. There isn’t enough of an Eagle pass rush to make a difference, and Jared Goff need to get into an early rhythm and hit his short to midrange throws.
The Lion running game hasn’t been bad at times over the last few games – it ran for a season-high 137 yards against the Rams – and the secondary isn’t too bad at keeping the big plays to a minimum.
Detroit continues to be way, way overdue to catch a big break its way.
That was never going to happen against the Rams, and it sure didn’t happen against the Bears, Vikings, or Bengals. However, Philadelphia is almost as bad – it just as two wins.
It took a minor miracle in a big comeback against Carolina from the Eagles being on a six-game losing streak. This week, a big late rally from Hurts won’t be enough as the pain finally ends.
Will Jared Goff rise up after being quarterback-shamed by head coach Dan Campbell?
The Lion offense went nowhere against Cincinnati in a 34-11 loss. Goff was bad, the running game was worse, and the game didn’t give the world the normal close-call ending that most of their dramatic defeats have had.
This week, let it rip.
No one will expect anything other than a total annihilation, but the Lion passing game really is dangerous. It’s mostly in comeback mode, but Goff should produce against a Ram secondary that’s been rocked from time to time.
For what it’s worth, teams don’t throw all that offense on Detroit, but that’s because …
Darrell Henderson was great against the Giants, the running game has averaged over 120 yards in the last three three games, and Matthew Stafford and the passing attack have bombed away for a league-high 8.6 yards per throw.
Detroit doesn’t have the D. It’s not helped by an O that can’t keep the chains moving on third down, but it’s also not doing its part to hold firm in the red zone or come up with other key stops.
What’s Going To Happen
Both quarterbacks will put up big numbers, but Stafford will be helped out by his running game. Goff won’t.
It’ll be an entertaining and close game for a half, and then it’ll all blow up in the third quarter. The Lions will takeaway Cooper Kupp, but that will open everything up for big days from Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee.
