Detroit Red Wings

2021: It’s About to Go Down! Not Literally Speaking! by Klassy K

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2021: It’s About to Go Down! Not Literally Speaking! by Klassy K

Home Skillets! Happy New Year to all of you. Yeah, I know it has been a minute, but I know you can probably understand why. With 45’s followers trying to attempt to shut down the government not to certify President Biden’s win, they decided to start a ‘revolution,’ but some ended up getting arrested and killed. It’s a disgrace to our democracy, to say the least, but I guess I was trying to figure out what were they trying to accomplish?

Maybe you can feel me in Home Skillets because I often wonder whether it was an “inside” job to try to stall the certification of the electoral votes. Well, guess what, their antics did not work. On Wednesday, we all witnessed greatness and history, and I am so happy that my children and I could see it. I wish my father were here, but I know he was looking down from above and smiling, saying, “This is how you make America GREAT again.” I agree, Dad.

Now that the inauguration has come and gone, some of us showed respect to the First Madame Vice President, Mrs. Kamala Harris, by wearing “pearls” and “Converses.” I thought that was really creative! Women, girls, and young ladies from all over the world witnessed a bi-racial African American and Asian woman sworn in, and if that alone does not give you chills of excitement, then you’re a hater! Just kidding! I cried a little because I never thought that this day would ever come, but I am a living witness that “her” story will go down in history. Now I must throw in there that she is an HBCU graduate (Howard University) and a member of the first African American sorority of Alpha Kappa Alpha, founded at Howard University. I think First looks good on Kamala, wouldn’t you agree?

2020 was an awful year, and I hope that 2021 will be WAP (Worthy and Prosperous)! Gotcha! People died, 45 lied, racial injustice, people unemployed, businesses shut down due to the coronavirus, Lions fired head coach Matt Patricia, Pistons record continues to suck, which is now 3-11, and the Red Wings are still trying to find their leader in Captain Dylan Larkin.

The good news is the Detroit Lions have hired new head coach Dan Campbell who is already being scrutinized for saying some “anti-gay” remarks back in college. Really? Why does the media always try to dig up some controversy from back when cassette players were the only thing we could listen to music back in the day? I hope Dan doesn’t coach the way he played when he was on the Detroit Lions. The Lions also hired a new general manager Brad Holmes. Home Skillets he fine, only 41 years old, African American male and a tall glass of hot cocoa. Sorry, ya’ll he married and with children. I know got ya’ll all hot and bothered, and then I rain on ya’ll parade.

I will be optimistic about 2021 Home Skillets, hoping that President Joseph Biden Jr. keeps his campaign promises. Trust me, I have them archived, and I am prepared to remind him that Sallie Mae is waiting by the phone, and all they need in writing is permission to delete all Americans’ student loans. Well, except those who still believe that 45 would get four more years and will never claim President Biden as their president, let them suffer! I’m not going to lie.

I hope President Biden would hurry up and send that $1,400 expeditiously! To all the 46 haters that don’t want anything from our 46th President Biden and 1st Madame V.P Harris, please return that money to sender, the Department of Treasury. Better yet, you can give it to someone that would greatly appreciate it. Stay safe!

-Klassy K’s Sports Korner: a contributing writer for http://www.aheartfullofconversations.com

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“Gone But Not Forgotten” by Butch Ford

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Joe Louis Areana

“Gone But Not Forgotten” by Butch Ford

As the world continues to change and as we further adjust to our new way of life, two staples in Detroit sports history have recently been demolished, right up under our noses; Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Both monuments were the homes to several  NHL Stanley Cup and NBA Finals Championships by the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons respectively…as well as countless concerts, Monster Truck Shows, The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus, and NCAA Collegiate Athletic Events.

Some of my fondest memories took place in these venues.  The Controversy and Purple Rain Tours by Prince; New Edition’s Heart Break and Home Again Tours, The Soldier of Love Tour by Sade, and The Triple Threat Tour featuring Bell Biv Devoe, Johnny Gill & Keith Sweat.

Palace

But it was the championship tradition established by our two winning franchises that make these such colossal losses.  We all remember The Bad Boys in the late ’80s.  Who could forget Steve Yzerman and The Russian Five?  And the “Going To Work” Pistons of the ’90s with Big Ben, Rip, Chauncey & Rasheed made us beam with pride.

We’re all gonna miss “The Joe” and “The House That Isiah Built” as they were affectionately known, but the memories will last for generations.  Detroit is a sports town with a rich sports history.  We’re just patiently awaiting the next wave to ride.  Don’t worry.  It’s coming soon.  But this time it will take place in the beautiful Little Caesars Arena.

 

Butch Ford

A Change Gonna Come by Klassy K

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Faith

A Change Gonna Come by Klassy K

Home Skilllets! I hope all of you are well and staying home, staying safe. Prayers go out to all who have lost a loved one to the coronavirus, natural causes, or illness; rather, it was a friend, family member, or stranger. Just know that we will get through this together at some point. For those that have the virus or know someone that has the virus, stay prayed up, take supplements (vitamins) and seek hospital care. The pandemic has affected everyone’s lifestyle, including work, clubbing, going to the park or movies, vacation plans, concerts, sporting events, going out with friends/family, and or just going over a family member’s house to have Sunday dinner. Basically, the simple things in life we once looked forward to, and now it’s all put on hold until further notice.

We are trying to do all we can to stay active, sane, and healthy. Some of us have resulted in streaming, going to the store to buy essential items, zooming, or face timing with our friends/family members. Maybe even some of us are doing social media challenges or trying to do some exercise in our home, helping kids with assignments and coming up with other things to try to normalize our lives as we once knew it. This virus just “creeped” upon us like TLC and straight jacking up our lives like Ice Cube. It’s been boring. Hey, dull sounds good right about now, especially with everything that’s been going on with people dying, sick, or out of work. Please remember Home Skillets, this to shall pass.  We all must do our part in stopping the spread of the virus. I’m with Governor Whitmer.

It’s only so much social media, challenges, streaming, and going to the refrigerator that we can take. I need some stimulating entertainment! Not “the over” 18 activity, but I actually miss seeing the Detroit Pistons lose.  I missed the Detroit Tigers game day opener and even watching the Detroit Red Wings run up and down on a cold ice skating rink wishing someone could bring them a cold pop like Sweet Brown. All jokes aside, though, I miss watching sports, and I am a female, so you know I’m bored. If it’s not the Superbowl, the draft, All-star games, championship games, and maybe a competitive game that I might want to see, not interested. The men are more so sport fanatics then females, in my opinion. I guess that’s why men athletics get more attention than women athletics. It’s all about money, and which one generates the most money.  Like C&C Factory, things that make you go hmmmmm.

Well, I don’t know if you heard the NBA and MLB are thinking of having empty seat games. Basically, it’s going to be a bunch of rich men playing like its practice, but it’ll be against an opponent. Due to social distancing, the games will be televised. Ironically, some countries are already doing this.  It won’t be any time soon here though; many speculate in June. The WNBA draft was last week, which you probably did not know about, but I bet you know about the NFL draft? You know why? Right! Well, read the last two sentences in the third paragraph. The NFL draft starts tomorrow, April 23rd through the 25th. It’ll be a virtual draft. The Commissioner, Roger Goodell, will be announcing the draft picks from his house. This year the Detroit Lions have nine picks which one of them is the 3rd overall draft pick. Sport media outlets are thinking that the Detroit Lions will either pick an offensive tackle, defensive end, or quarterback. Yes, you read correctly, a quarterback!

Yes, we already have a quarterback, Matthew Stafford, but I’m speculating that he is going to want to be traded or retire. He had two back surgeries, been in the league for over 10 years, his wife had brain surgery, has two small children and he is over 30. Time for some new blood. I am hoping that the Detroit Lions franchise makes the right choice and pick Tua Tagovailoa, a junior quarterback from the University of Alabama. He is young, talented, and fine! Oh yeah, he can play too! Google for footage/stats. If they pick him, I will gladly spend $200 for nosebleed seats, ha! Who am I kidding? I’m frugal, and I’m social distancing. LOL.

On the last note, I would like to dedicate this blog to my friend and co-worker Latonja Degraffenreid-Smith and her husband Ricardo Smith. She recently lost her father in law and his father Rev. Richard Smith due to the coronavirus.  I would also like to dedicate this to the front line workers that risk their lives every day to save others. All we can do is pray Home Skillets, for continuous strength, because the pain never ends. God bless.

Klassy K’s Sportz Korner, an “opinionated” sports blog

-A contributing writer for aheartfullofconversations.com

Photo by Diana Simumpande on Unsplash

Drop that 0 and Find a HERO! by Klassy K

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Drop that Zero

Drop that 0 and Find a HERO! by Klassy K

Home Skillets! In my Martin Lawrence voice, “What’s up, What’s up, Whaaaaat’s Up!” Well, I’ll tell you, absolutely nothing! University of Michigan got STOMPED by Alabama State University 16-35.  Yeah, I know it was like weeks ago, but I’m still trying to pick up my face. I went to church that Sunday, cause my soul could not believe that U of M lost that game. I even asked the choir to play that gospel song that would go well with the U of M game. Well, you guessed it, they played Kirk Franklin’s “Stomp.”  I’m still singing Kirk Franklin’s song, “Annie say, Stomp, granny say, Stomp, everybody say, Stomp.” Well, you guys get the picture.

University of Michigan ranks 14 currently 9-4.  Maybe they will get their redemption at a bowl or something because the Crimson was just Tide of them and beat them. If University of Michigan, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Titans, Michigan State University and lastly the Detroit Pistons records were combined all together, we would be the greatest teams of all times. Well, a girl could dream.

Do you know what I think? It is time for a fresh start, the Detroit Pistons are 17-28 ranking 9th in the Eastern Conference.  So, let me break that down on how bad they are. If the Playoffs were this month, they wouldn’t even place. Only the top 8 team(s) from both Western and Eastern would qualify and they are slightly below. I watched this past game when the Pistons played the Sacramento Kings. They beat them. In my opinion, kind of looked like a practice game because the “Little” Caesars Arena had just that many fans in the stands. The owner should just randomly throw tickets around the state of Michigan.  He could have a special buy 5 tickets, get 10 tickets free, instead of just giving free tickets to charities, or giveaways and or calling previous people that have bought tickets and see if they would like to purchase tickets at a discounted price. Yes, true story, “someone” from the organization contacted me to offer me a package where I can get floor 100 section seats for the price of 200 section seats. They called me so much, I had to block their number. Now home skillet, I haven’t purchased tickets since they moved to the Little Caesars Arena.

Like I stated the Pistons played Sacramento Kings yesterday and beat them 106-127.  Now, the point leaders were Markieff Morris, Derrick Rose (you KNOW) and Christian Wood. Did you notice Reggie, Blake and Andre were not mentioned? You know why, because they didn’t play. Blake is injured and out for the WHOLE season. Yeah, the MILLION-dollar man! You know how much Billionaire Tom paid Blake and look at him nursing his knee in Punta Cana with his baby momma, sike! Naw, he is at his second home in Los Angeles watching Power and trying to find out “who shot GHOST”. Well, I’m only kidding. What do I know?

Well I’ll tell you what I do know is that next summer Andre Drummond will be a free agent. In case you may not know who he is, he is the dangly looking guy, tall, kind of janky that proudly wears the number “0” on his jersey. I am praying to God that the owners, managers, cheerleaders, concession stand, etc. do not re-sign him. Let him go, like the movie “Frozen.”  “Drop” him, like in the song by DJ Magic Mike! Well, you get the point. We need a HERO!  If you remembered a long time ago when I wrote my opinionated article about Blake Griffin, I thought he was going to be the Savior, but God said, “no not today or any other day.”  There can only be One David Ruff–, no Savior. I was having a flashback about the movie “The Temptations.”  Well, I hope Tom does not get tempted to re-sign number “0”, because we could sure use a HERO.

I don’t know what player(s) are going to be available for owners to sign for next year, but who wants to come here anyway? They should listen to T Baby’s, “It’s so cold in the D.” Maybe they need to watch the video because I’m sorry walking in the cemetery and seeing a homeless man on the floor is not going to be a deal-breaker.

Well, if you are still a believer in your Piston team, like you were with the Detroit Lions…..  Say what are they doing anyway? To be honest, they don’t even deserve to be mentioned in this article with their 3-12-1 ass! They couldn’t even win the last and final game. At least give the fans some hope for next year. Check out the Pistons on my hubby birthday, Friday, January 24, against the Grizzlies, or you can watch it on FSSE or Fox Sports Detroit. You can also check out your other favorite sports team:

Detroit Red Wings: https://www.nhl.com/redwings/schedule/2020-01-01/ET, Detroit Titans: https://detroittitans.com/index.aspx?path=mbball, Michigan State University: https://msu.edu, University of Michigan: https://mgoblue.com, or hell just Google!

Klassy K’s Sports Korner: A contributor writer for http://www.aheartfullofconversations.com

 

Better Days by Butch Ford

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Comerica Park

Better Days by Butch Ford

As a life-long Detroit sports fan, it’s been extremely tough to root for our hometown teams lately.  But what seems to be the problem?  Why are they all so bad at the same time, you ask?  Let’s get into this.

The Red Wings are the easiest to explain.  After 25 consecutive years of consistent winning and four Stanley Cup Championships between 1986-2011, they’re entitled to a down period.  They’re in a rebuilding process and deserve a pass.  You can’t stay on top forever.

The Pistons; after two very successful title runs, resulting in three NBA Championships (2 in back-to-back years by The Bad Boys in ’89 and ’90 plus another one by The Going to Work Squad in ’04) are in a bit of turmoil.  They suffered the loss of longtime owner William Davidson, the subsequent sale of the franchise, growing pains by new ownership and management and relocation to a new downtown arena.  This will take time.

The Tigers also suffered the loss of their long-time owner Mike Ilitch, who tried feverishly to put together a World Series title team before his untimely demise in 2017.  The aftermath is the Ilitch off springs searching for a vision and direction.  It isn’t working very well.  This could be a while.

And then there’s the lowly, cellar dwelling, career doormats known as The Lions.  There have been several dozen coaching changes, countless shuffling of management personnel, and a revolving door for players over the past 6 decades.  The one constant is the ownership…The Ford family (no relation).  And still NO Superbowl appearance to speak of.  What’s it going to take?

One thing’s for sure, Detroit is a passionate sports town that loves its teams and deserves much better.  Hopefully we’ll see better days in the near future!

 

Butch Ford