Scanning the Savanna

Matthew Stafford and Detroit Lions offensive co-ordinator Scott Linehan talked about the quarterback’s golf game Tuesday.

They couldn’t shoot the breeze about much else at the Detroit Lions Invitational, which benefits the team’s charities, because NFL employees aren’t allowed to communicate with players about football-related matters during the lockout.

Due to the ongoing lockout, all Detroit Lions employees have had their salaries reduced in some fashion, from being forced to take an unpaid two-week furlough to taking a 25 percent salary reduction.

United States coach Bob Bradley and two of his senior players have criticised the temporary ‘grass’ playing surfaces they have played their last two games on — including Tuesday’s Gold Cup win over Canada.

The pitch at the NFL venue, Ford Field, in Detroit, is normally artificial but for CONCACAF’s Gold Cup, the top part of fibre was removed and replaced with a grass carpet.

Nick Fairley hasn’t attended any of the Detroit Lions’ player-run workouts this spring, and the first-round pick said today he won’t make it to practices the rest of the week, either.

“When you win the championship on any level, you go to the White House, and we go to the White House tomorrow,” Fairley said of his Auburn team.