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▪▪ One of the many fans from the Pacific Northwest coming to Detroit for the Super Bowl will be former Lions offensive lineman Mike Utley. Has it really been 14 years since he was paralyzed in a game at the Silverdome? 14 years since he was carted off the field and gave a "Thumbs Up" gesture to the crowd? Here's a profile on Utley by the Washington Post's Dave Sheinin. He'll be holding a news conference in Detroit on Thursday.

▪▪ Beyond Boxscores, The Wayne Fontes Experience, and Kevin Antcliff have each written about the rumors of Mike Martz taking the Lions' offensive coordinator job, so I'll link to them since they were first on the story. The general consensus? It sounds like a great idea, especially in the short term. But it could also be a disaster. So it probably won't happen, but it's fun to fantasize about.

On paper, this just doesn't make sense. Martz's philosophy doesn't seem to mesh with what Sgt. Hulka said he was looking for from an offense. Unless you consider that Marinelli said he was more interested in coaches who were strong teachers and leaders, rather than assistants who followed the same strategies. As long as Martz isn't in charge of clock management and timeouts, I think it could work.

▪▪ Here's a funny Super Bowl headline from Cracked's parody of ESPN.com (which I found at Deadspin):

Detroit Native Jerome "From Detroit" Bettis to Play Super Bowl in Detroit (His Hometown)

▪▪ I haven't found any negative sports columns about Detroit yet. Maybe they read this piece from Saturday's Detroit Free Press by Michael Rosenberg, with a "Guide to Ripping on Detroit," and realized how unoriginal such columns would be. Nah, they're probably still coming. Anyway, here's a sample:

"Here is a little bit of local historical trivia that you probably have never heard: When the Tigers won the World Series in 1984, somebody set a police car on fire. Really, it's true! Is that hilarious or what? Man, just imagine all the cutting-edge burning-police-car humor you can muster out of that one."

▪▪ Rosenberg's colleague, Mitch Albom, sticks up for Detroit in his front-page column today. Or at least he tries. I'm not sure lines like "Your expectations are so low, we are bound to exceed them" are the sell job Detroit was hoping for. But hey, it's nice of Mitch to come back to Detroit for a week and write about sports. (Oh, I know - he has been. Last week, he told us it was time to "show the Pistons some love." Just in case we haven't been watching since November.)

▪▪ If you've ever wondered what happens to the t-shirts that were made for the losing team in a championship game, this article from Slate answers the question. Quick answer: They're shredded or donated to third world countries. So if you swear you saw a "Philadelphia Eagles 2005 Super Bowl Champions" shirt on a kid during a trip to Haiti, you probably weren't hallucinating.