Lions tales: Pearson’s assault charges dropped, Ernie Sims is back, “Reinforced!”

The domestic violence charges against safety Kalvin Pearson have been dropped:

Back in April, one of Rod Marinelli’s free agent pickups, the football character approved Kalvin Pearson, was charged with two felonies involving the abuse of Pearson’s pregnant girlfriend. The official charges were “aggravated battery on a pregnant woman” and “domestic battery by strangulation.”

Today, the state of Florida dropped the felony charges, but Pearson still faces a misdemeanor charge of “obstructing or opposing an officer without force.” He’s due to appear in court on September 8th.

Obviously there is a huge difference between felony assault and misdemeanor obstruction, the main being assault will put you in PMITA prison, but I’m still not happy this lowlife character is on the team. Despite the charges being lowered to a misdemeanor level, the fact remains something quite physical happened between Pearson and his girlfriend, and it was serious enough for him to end up behind bars, if only for a few hours.

I’m sorry, but any man who would even lift their hand towards a woman with the intent to strike is a douchebag in my book.

Ernie Sims returned to practice:

In the best news of the day, Ernie Sims was on the practice field for the first time since suffering a bone bruise to his knee last week. He’s still out for Thursday’s preseason exhibition opener against the New York Giants. Missing a meaningless exhibition is an easy tradeoff to make in order to keep one of Detroit’s few defensive playmakers healthy.

Jim Colletto talks tough about the running game:

According to the Freep, Colletto is talking the talk.

"“Running the football is hard, hard work,” Colletto said. “And it’s painful. And it hurts. Both blocking and running and the whole bit. And that mindset has got to be there.”"

The thing is, you can talk all you want about toughness in the running game. You can use the same words over and over and over…

"“It’s going to get reinforced, reinforced, reinforced, reinforced, reinforced, particularly on days when they’re a little tired, they had that thing on Saturday,” Colletto said. “Hey, we’d better go, boys, and that’s what it’s about.”"

(Huh? What’s with using “Reinforced?” Has Colletto been watching the Steve Ballmer “Developers!” video on You Tube for inspiration?)

…But when it comes down to it, in the NFL you need talent to execute on both sides of the ball. Period.

You can drill all you want, pound it into the heads of your players, but if you don’t have the talent, you aren’t gfoing to move the ball on a consistent basis. And the Lions haven’t had that sort of talent in this decade.

To be honest, I’m not confident adding Gosder Churilus to what was a below average o-line at best, and Colletto’s zone blocking schemes, will be enough to give the Lions a respectable running game. Kevin Smith may help to change my mind, but we’ll have to wait till Thursday to find out.

Pooch kicks:

Practice squad linebacker Buster Davis is may be on the move from the middle to the strong side, depending up how the roster shakes out. With Teddy Lehman being placed on the IR today, it’s quite likely Davis becomes the backup on the strong side.

Guard Edwin Mulitalo came off the PUP list today. That can only help the Lions o-line.