Those familiar with Detroit sports radio know 97.1 the Ticket’s Mike Valenti, co-host of popular afternoon show “Valenti & Foster,” to be one of the Lions’ biggest critics. Valenti, a sharp, witty, sometimes overly-emotional M.S.U. fan, teams up with the more laid-back, optimistic Terry Foster, providing sports commentary that can range from intense debate, to relevant conversation, with the occasional “Drew and Mike” style of sarcastic drop mixed in.
Valenti, unlike much of Detroit’s sports media, is not from here, which tends to make his opinions fall more on the objective side when compared to others (leaving out MSU sports of course). Many have accused him of taking an overly negative stance on the Lions just to anger fans and get ratings. There certainly have been moments that you could accuse him of such tactics, but if you do, you need to give him credit for moments like yesterday.
Valenti had a slight controversy with the Lions P.R. department, but that didn’t stop him from heaping praise onto Lions G.M. Bob Quinn for his aggressive signings of Lang and Wagner. Quinn replaced average linemen, with two of the best in the NFL. So, it’s not as if the world stopped spinning because a local sports personality gave credit where credit was due.
The point is that if someone like Valenti — who has a reason to have somewhat of an ongoing grudge with the Lions — can so clearly see what a home run Bob Quinn’s moves have been thus far, then times must really be changing for the Lions.
In the studio Monday, Valenti and Foster hosted newly-acquired Lions free agent,T,J. Lang. Lang spoke about a variety of topics, answering fan questions and showing off his big personality which previously endeared him to the Green Bay community.
The biggest question on the minds of Lions fans was why he would choose Detroit over the Seahawks and the Packers. The answer, besides money and Detroit being home, obviously, was the fact that Lang sees Detroit as an up-and-coming team.
‘“So I think that everybody in that building over in Green Bay understands that, especially now, Detroit is the main challenger in the division,” Lang said. Fans would also be happy to hear about the mentality Lang intends to bring over to the Lions.
“The one thing I learned being in Green Bay is nobody’s satisfied with just winning the division or winning a playoff game. The expectation is to win the championship, and that’s something that hopefully we can develop here,” Lang said. Check out the full transcript from the Ticket’s site interview here.
As we head towards the 2017 season, people are noticing something different — the Detroit Lions are making competent, aggressive moves. Even Valenti can acknowledge that Quinn appears to have a plan. That is something that feels quite new around here.
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