Raiders' Defense Hurts Tatum Bell's Feelings

This is rich. Here's the headline from today's Detroit Free Press:

Lions RB Bell 'Ticked Off' About Raiders' Trash Talk
Their fumble drill named after Lion

The Oakland Raiders took a swipe at Lions' running back [Tatum Bell] this week by naming a fumble-recovery drill after him. Last year, while playing with Oakland's AFC West rival, Denver, Bell had a career-worst five fumbles -- all of which he lost.

First, how the hell do you lose five fumbles without trying? That's something you don't see everyday. Second -- and this is shocking -- Tatum Bell didn't find the humor in all of this.

"I'm a little ticked off," he said. "Maybe it's motivating (for) them. I don't know why. I ain't never had a fumble against them, so I don't know why they feel it's a problem. Oh, well. I'm going to look forward to playing them."

Good news, though: Bell notes that when he was in Denver, the Broncos were 5-1 against Oakland. Of course, that means absolutely nothing now that he plays for the NFC North equivalent of Oakland, but he thought it was important to point out nonetheless.

(By the way, the fact that the Broncos dropped one game is reason enough not to mention this stat. That certainly overshadows the five wins. It's kinda like the Harlem Globetrotters bragging that they beat the Washington Generals in five of six meetings. Big whoop.)

Bell also wants you to know he's not even thinking about putting the ball on the ground ... but he'll be yapping about it all day long: "From the beginning of the game to the end of the game you might catch me out there jawing with a lot of those guys, maybe the coaches, too," he said. "I'm going to find one of the defensive coordinators and tell him how I feel about it."

But for the record, Bell won't be thinking about it. Um, okay.