The Lions under Dan Campbell have become one of the more likable teams in the NFL. But according to Valenti, they are "just continuing their path to being wholly unlikeable -- the talk and the hubris and, in my mind, the delusion. One of your players may as well be Jim Costa talking. Enough. Go to work."
Valenti was responding Wednesday to comments made by Amon-Ra St. Brown, who said this week on his podcast that if the Lions play the Super Bowl-champion Eagles in the NFL opener next season, "you would see with our healthy defense how that sh*t operates."
Valenti said that while he still respects St. Brown and the Lions, "when I start to see a behavioral pattern, I think it's OK to talk about it. So, if the tiny brains in the back can't handle it, go to Kidz Bop. But the Detroit Lions and their players and some of you in the fanbase are becoming very unlikeable."
The behavior, says Valenti, "has become a little bit whiny, a little bit delusional. It ties into, 'I can't watch the Super Bowl, it's too painful.' Or, 'We would've rolled the Chiefs.' Or, 'Well if we were healthy, dot-dot-dot.' No, that's the NFL. This is what you sign up for. And when you don't win a playoff game and you get hit with a Brinks truck by a rookie quarterback, at home, nobody wants to hear it. Especially when -- another reason you've become unlikeable -- you chastised and vilified anyone who merely gave the Commanders a chance."
The Lions and their fans need to "humble up," says Valenti: "Amon-Ra, you got beat by the Commanders. And whether your defense is healthy or not, you don't have a right to talk like that because the Eagles just won the Super Bowl. They dismantled the Commanders, the team that beat you, and they dismantled the Chiefs, OK?
"You can think it, you can say it in your own house, hell, you can talk in the locker room. You know what we don't need? We don't need it broadcast. You know what we don't need? Alex Anzalone saying, I'm not watching the Super Bowl, we're watching Beauty and the Beast.
"When you go into the playoffs and you don't win a game, I don't want to hear anything, much less, 'If this, and if that, and we want the team that just won the Super Bowl and we'll show you what's up' — you know what? Do me a favor: No more social media, no more podcasts, no more talk. Just the work. Go back into the lab."
Detroit's defense was decimated by injuries this season, which played a big part in its quick exit in the playoffs. But "you didn't hear Philly cry when they lost Nakobe Dean in the playoffs," says Valenti, "or when they lost Cam Jurgens and Landson Dickerson in the NFC title game and they basically had Rico starting at center. You weren't the best team in the league, because the best team in the league doesn't get orbital rammed by a rookie quarterback at home."
While it's "one thing for fans to be delusional," it's different "when players start to act this way," says Valenti. "I would like to see Dan Campbell rein this thing in."
"He's a damn good coach and they're a damn good team, but the Lions are getting -- let me borrow a phrase from the mid-day show -- a little bit chesty for my liking. Just a little bit over their skis. If you want to start talking the way they talk, you better be the Chiefs. You want to talk the way they talk, act the way they act, you better be the Patriots back in the day. Rings, plural. You have so many rings, you start saying you have 'rangz.'"
