.@nflcommish and @barrysanders welcome @ziggyansah to NFL. #Lions twitter.com/freepsports/st…

— Freep Sports (@freepsports) April 26, 2013

After offensive linemen Eric Fisher and Luke Joeckel went 1-2 and the Eagles took Lane Johnson at No. 4, the Lions were a lock to either go with a defensive lineman and address arguably their biggest need or trade down.

Not able to trade down, or not wanting to, the Lions opted to go with BYU's Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah with the fifth overall pick. If you're asking, who? you probably don't mind me pointing you to Wikipedia: 

Ansah was not found on any of the 2012 preseason mock drafts for the 2013 NFL draft. By mid-season, he had moved up from unlisted to the late-first round or early second round with many analysts calling him the sleeper pick of the draft. Ansah further improved his draft stock with his "outstanding defensive player" outing in the 2013 Senior bowl, where he recorded seven tackles (six solo), 1.5 sacks (for 13 yards), 3.5 tackles for loss (for 24 yards), a pass breakup, and a forced fumble. In the NFL scouting combine Ansah recorded a 4.63 40 meter time, 21 reps on the bench press, a 34.5 inch vertical jump, a 118 inch broad jump, 7.11 seconds in the three cone drill, and 4.26 seconds in the 20 yard shuffle.  

The biggest knocks on Ansah - and they're big ones - are that he's 24 years old and didn't start until his senior year of college (read: he's very inexperienced). In fact, as recent as four years ago, he was getting cut from BYU's basketball team. 

But Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz insist that Ansah will make an immediate impact and they didn't draft him to be a project. They don't have that luxury anyway. 

I was torn on how I felt about the pick at first, but I'm drinking up all the koolaid that's being provided in the ESPN feature below: 

There's also a lot of fun off-the-field reasons to love him: His name (Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah) is amazing; he wore 3D glasses to the draft; immediately after being picked, he confidently said "I think we'll be back here next year for the Super Bowl"; and he's one hellll of a model American, er, I mean Ghanaian. 

Ziggy will wear No. 94 and you can already purchase his jersey: 

PHOTO: First look at Ziggy Ansah's No. 94 Detroit #Lions jersey. twitter.com/BradGalli/stat…

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) April 26, 2013

GO LIONS.

Justin Verlander had to leave Thursday afternoon's game after only 96 pitches. Tigers media relations guy has the reason:

Verlander left today's game after seven innings with cracked skin on his right thumb. He is day to day. #tigers

— Rick Thompson (@Thompson_Tigers) April 25, 2013

Oh my dear Laird! A horrible injury to have in the blistering cold. Let's hope he is okay.

Of course, a lot of people seem to be obsessed about JV's velocity being down so far this year, like he hasn't been throwing in mid 30s temperatures and doesn't have a 1.95 ERA after five starts. WHO CARES. Contact me if he's still throwing 89-92 in the midst of a pennant chase or in October and, oh yeah, not getting outs. Kthxbai. 

With their 21-year playoffs streak starting to look more and more like Jason Hanson's career, the Red Wings needed a win at home on Wednesday night against the reigning Stanley Cup champs to keep the dream alive. And what did they do there? WIN, and retake the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference playoff picture.

Game highlights below:

The Red Wings are now a point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets 52-51. Both teams have two games left against the same opponents. The Wings play Nashville on Thursday while the Blue Jackets play Dallas, and then they trade opponents on Sunday. Detroit, a point behind the Minnesota Wild (53), control their own destiny. 

(Good news for the Wings if they have to play the Blackhawks in Round 1: both of their goalies are banged up.)

It was pretty clear that Jose Valverde was on the fast track to the Tigers' bullpen once he was signed to a minor league deal earlier this month. When Octavio Dotel got officially shelved on the DL yesterday with a bum elbow, Valverde's ticket back to the bigs came even sooner. 

Back as the team's closer, Valverde got a chance to redeem himself from a horrid playoffs on Day 1. Enter Papa Grande [GIF and pic via @WorldofIsaac]: 

Valverde threw all fastballs, 18 of them, to earn a 1-2-3 save. Alex Gordon and Billy Butler flew out to or around the warning track, but that's not important. Valverde's splitter was reportedly looking good in Single-A, so once he starts mixing that in, he'll hopefully rack up some strikeouts in those two-strike counts. His fastball was consistently 93-94 and Valverde, with his two-colored goatee, appeared to be having fun out there again, and that's encouraging. 

Gene Lamont probably got a bad rep over the years and I tried to defend him a few times over the last couple seasons. Well, Tom Brookens has been third base coach for the Tigers all of 18.5 games and he has already screwed up royally at least twice.

Unfortunately, both times has involved ill-advisedly sending Victor Martinez. V-Mart is 34 and is coming off missing a season due to knee surgery. He's no spring chicken, so let's try not to push the envelope with him, okay?

On Wednesday night, Mr. Brookens did that and to boot, it was against Jeff Francoeur's arm, which would require a license in some states. It resulted in the easiest 9-2 assist I've seen in a long time: 

Brookens isn't the only person to screw up here, though. As the video shows, Fielder should've grabbed the bat that was resting dangerously on the baseline and then should've given more than a half-ass signal for V-Mart to get down. V-Mart wasn't getting down and definitely wasn't going to slide straight into the catcher. V-Mart ultimately took the best route, which was veering right and straight to the dugout, safe and sound. 

Barry Sanders won the Madden 25 (1989-2014) cover vote on ESPN and will grace the game's cover. 

Here is the cover! Congratulations, @barrysanders! twitter.com/DetroitLionsNF…

— Detroit Lions (@DetroitLionsNFL) April 25, 2013

The Lions are back-to-back Madden cover champs! In addition to Justin Verlander being on MLB2k13 and Denard Robinson and Barry Sanders on NCAA2k, it's a pretty good time to be a Michigan sports fan.

The Madden 2014 cover vote for the 25th anniversary edition has ended, the votes are being counted, but the best running back to ever play the game of football received a ringing endorsement from arguably golf's best golfer before it was all said and done: 

I’m voting for @barrysanders for the Madden 25 cover #Madden25Barry es.pn/13jszbX

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 24, 2013

The winner is being revealed right now on ESPN2. We'll update as soon as it's announced.

UPDATE: Barry won. Was there ever a doubt? 

Jason Hanson, former Lions kicker and future Hall of Famer, has quite an arm. After spending 21 years in the NFL, maybe Hanson has a future closing for the Tigers throwing respectable batting practice:

Watch former #Lions kicker Jason Hanson throw out today's ceremonial first pitch.yfrog.com/31bf3hbeozurga…

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 24, 2013

Let's not relive old bad memories, but Prince Fielder hit a home run this past weekend and someone slowed it down for us to touch ourselves to. Seriously, this is like softcore porn:  

Arousing.

In what has become a tradition every two or three years, the Pistons are looking for a head coach. The organization realizes this carousel is not a fun ride and it needs to bring in someone who is going to bring a change in culture (read: winning) and some stability.

Or, at the very least, somebody with a name that most of the fans will not be able to pronounce before he's fired in 2-3 years. 

That man is Zeljko Obradovic, who as far as we know has no relation to former Piston Zeljko Rebraca. But he is related to Gregg Popovich, kind of. The two are apparently buddies and Popovich learned from Obradovic -- and not the other way around. Obradovic is known as the European Phil Jackson, which means he could win a lot of rings and say some offensive things along the way, and the Pistons are reportedly interested. 

Just tell me where to sign, bud.

H/T Detroit Bad Boys