Former Detroit Lions offensive lineman Lomas Brown admitted a secret on Friday that he probably should have taken to the grave. While visiting on ESPN Radio, Brown admitted he missed a block on purpose in order to get his quarterback, Scott Mitchell, knocked out of a game.
The conversation came up in the context of teammates calling out their quarterback. Brown, who was a seven-time Pro Bowler, said he would get back at his quarterback by letting defensive players hit them. He says he did that to Mitchell once.
“We were playing Green Bay in Milwaukee. We were getting beat, 24-3, at that time and [Mitchell] just stunk up the place,” Brown said on “SVP and Russillo.” “He’s throwing interceptions, just everything. So I looked at Kevin Glover, our All-Pro center and I said, ‘Glove, that is it.’ I said, ‘I’m getting him out the game.’ … So I got the gator arms on the guy at the last minute, he got around me, he hit Scott Mitchell, he did something to his finger … and he came out the game. Dave Krieg came in the game. We ended up losing that game, 27-24.”
Brown admitted that Mitchell was “not on [his] Christmas list,” which is pretty obvious.
The game Brown described occurred on Nov. 6, 1994, per the Detroit Free Press’ research. Detroit was down 24-0 and Mitchell was 5-for-15 for 63 yards and two interceptions before leaving with a broken bone in his right hand (non-throwing). Dave Krieg came in and threw three touchdown passes to make it close, but the Lions lost 38-30. They went 5-2 the rest of the season with Krieg at quarterback.
Brown justified his decision with the following logic: “If your quarterback sucks, you don’t want him in there!”
I’m sure plenty of fans and players agree with Brown on that point, but that’s just such an unethical move to pull. I would say complain to the coaches and front office about your quarterback so that he gets traded, or tell them you’ll refuse to play until the team gets a new one. There has to be better ways of going about getting the change you seek than that.
Helmet smack to Pro Football Talk
Photo: Lomas Brown/Twitter
