Dear Lions fans

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the adrenaline after a long first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Maybe it's something else. It's 3:03 in the morning, and I can't sleep, and part of the reason for that is that something else. It's the stress and anxiety I've been carrying for the last two weeks. 

I don't really want to carry it anymore. So I'm sitting here at my computer, and I'm writing out this article to do something to maybe get rid of that stress and maybe come to some sort of truce with a lot of Lions fans. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story that inadvertently captured the attention of basically the entire Detroit sports world. It was all about the idea that the Lions could maybe trade Jameson Williams during the 2025 NFL draft. 

I had reasons for writing this opinion piece. I want to quickly explain them. The Lions brought in a new Packers receiver, Matthew Golden, for a top-30 visit. At first, I saw a few people correlating that with Jameson Williams. It didn't make sense to me. 

I reached out to another reporter and told him how this didn't make sense to me that people were looking at Golden as someone who could replace Jameson Williams. He reasoned with me by saying it didn't make much sense to bring him in to be a WR3 because he's not really an X receiver. Which is a need in this draft, by the way. 

So I began to think more about that, and I thought about what Holmes said in Florida about Williams and what he didn't say, too. He said the Lions were likely to go with that fifth-year option for Williams, but the days to do that were dwindling. The deadline is May 1st. 

With the expense that the Lions would have to take on if he were to get the top dollar after he balls out this year, it just seemed like it would make things a lot harder to sign him and then also try to sign everyone else to the major deals they're expected to get.

So I put out an opinion piece about how it makes a lot of sense that the Lions would move on it now, since the fifth-year deadline is a week after the draft, and it would give a team trading for him the opportunity to make that decision.

It was met with some vitriol, and I totally get it. I'm here suggesting that the team trade a beloved player whom I also really love. But I was simply trying to decipher how the Lions are going to do all this, a little earlier than that deciphering needed to be done. 

Look, it was an opinion, but if you took it as me spreading a rumor, I apologize for that. It certainly wasn't the intention, and I wasn't trying to fool anyone. 

I realize that might ring hollow, and you might think myriad of things about me, like I'm a clickbait artist or I made up a rumor to get clicks, or maybe I was told to do this apology, or wherever your mind goes. You're welcome to do all that. I can't change what you think of me in that regard, and it only makes things worse for me and you if I repeatedly try. 

The opinion, while still something I feel I thought out well enough and explained deeply, was wrong. Trading Jameson Williams is not the way to go for this team at this time, and now I just look at it and say, "What were you thinking?" Especially since this is a guy that I've gone to bat for on multiple occasions and is a player I have a lot of respect for. 

What I won't apologize for is the actual rumor that was addressed by Brad Holmes on Thursday night, and wasn't put out by me and didn't have anything to do with me. 

You might not believe me at this time, but I take that kind of thing very seriously. It is not fair to readers to put out unsubstantiated rumors. Not to suggest that the author of that story did so either. I've never done that and I never will. I pride myself on trying to give Lions fans the best and most accurate coverage I can, and I hope that you've seen that from me over the last 10 years. 

I'm also not going to apologize for my responses to people telling me to kill myself or threatening harm to myself or my family. There's no excuse for that at all. This is football we're talking about. It's not that serious. 

With all that said, I look forward to taking Lions with all of you all summer long and for years to come. This is the best fan base in sports, regardless of our disagreements. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else.