I have lurked on this site for quite awhile. Very nice, with a bunch of really knowledgeable fans.

Anyway, on to the story.

I have been a Lions fan ever since I can remember(I think because my first games watching were Barry Sanders doing what he does). I am born and raised from Nebraska so obviously I am a huge Raiola, Suh, and KVB fan. I recently moved to Savannah, GA for work, but I made a trip back home to visit family and friends last year for Thanksgiving. I have a bunch of friends in Omaha, NE so I planned on spending a night at the bars hanging out with them. Of course I was wearing my lions hat(foreshadowing!) that I ALWAYS wear.

It was Saturday night. The Huskers had played Colorado in Lincoln the night before. Suh, Raiola, and a bunch of other former Huskers were given awards or something. Anyway, on Saturday I got a text from my sister that said she was at a bar/sushi restaurant called Blue, and that Suh was there with an entourage. You have to realize that in Nebraska, former players are like celebrities because well, football is all we have. I immediately talk my buddy into making a stop there. I wasn't going to bother him or anything, but it was going to be cool to just see the awesome-ness that is Suh.

We get there and it was fairly crowded but a group of 5 or 6 of us found a table in the corner. In the other corner is Suh and his boys. An hour or so goes by and I see Suh walk by, leaving. I figured, oh well, already planning our next bar to visit.

A few minutes later this bigger dude and hot chick come over. The chick is wasted. She sees my lions hat, and asks if she can have it. I tell her hell no. She says, pointing to the dude, "but he is a Lions PLAYER." Now I am a huge fan and I think I would recognize 90% of the 53 man roster, but for some reason I just didn't recognize him. He says he is Dom Raiola. I still didn't see it. He even passed over an ID or something. I read it, then it clicked.

I know there is a lot of hatred for Dom for Lions fans, but I hope everyone can respect someone that works as hard as he does. Also just sticking around Detroit when we sucked...bad. I got to have a conversation with him for 10 minutes or so. He was super cool. My personal highlight of the conversation was when the hot chick came back from the bathroom saying that everyone is waiting for him to leave so they can get on their party bus and go to their next destination. He says, "Shut up, I am talking to a fan!"

Well, he asked if he could take my hat since he had no lions gear on. He gave me his phone number, saying to text him my address and he'd ship me a hat he had in his locker with number 51 on it, signed. He also said if I text him on a wednesday, he would hook me up with tickets to the games they had left(Miami, Tampa Bay, etc).

Of course we text back and forth a few times a few days later. I gave him my address and that was it. The only problem was NO HAT EVER ARRIVED. I thought about texting him again, but I didn't feel like bothering him. The cost of a new hat is worth the experience imo.

I am sure a lot of you guys live in the Detroit area and get to see players fairly often, but it was special for me.

Go Lions!

Raiola - the man who flips off the fans! I'm not impressed with any aspect of the guy. Figures he would steal a hat

I don't think it was on purpose. I am sure he gets a ton of requests for stuff. He took time out of his night to talk to a random fan. He should get some credit for that. Hell, I would have paid the price of a hat just for the pictures and conversation.

+1

From all the videos you see where he's yelling at the fans and flipping the fans off, he's well known as not a people person and a humbleplayer like CJ or Staff - in fact, he's well known as the exact opposite for those reasons above. If he really isn't a douche, that's cool, but its strange that he couldn't find 30 mins to throw a hat in a box and have it shipped..or better yet, tell his agent or someone else to do it

Like the drunk chick.....

I agree with C02... I saw him, KVB, Suh (I've seen Suh out a number of times, he's absolutely awesome to fans), Best, and a few others at a Pistons game last year. Dom was sporting a landscaper mullet, which takes a special kind of person to begin with, and he was being a jerk. He looked small, and his legs looked like twigs, but he was in tighter jeans. I wasn't impressed, at all.

I accept that nobody is a jerk all the time. I remember when I was a kid I was a big NY Mets fan (didn't have a hometown team in Virginia so my sports allegiances are a bit random). Anyway, my dad took me to see them play a weekend series in Philadelphia and we ended up staying in the team hotel. I don't care what anybody says about Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry--those were two of the nicest guys I ever met.

Glad you had a good experience with Raiola. But he should send you a hat!

Yeah, part of the reason I didn't think he was a Lions player was because he didn't seem that big to me. I am like 6' 220 lbs, and I just didn't think he was that much bigger. In the pictures we took you can see the difference though.

LioneeR, welcome to lionbacker. I have been to about a dozen Lion games, one I was lucky enough to go to with some of my fellow forumers including Pablo and M2k. Lionsfan57 and Alphamale (who I don't see much anymore). But I have never actually met a Lions player. So gratz. Great story!

BTW, I dont remember the year, but the game was against the Bears. We had a chance to make one final drive. Jeff Garcia was QB'ing and threw one of his classic moonball's to Mike Williams. It ended up in a Chicago players hands for a pick six. game over.

2005. Garcia was by far and wide one of my least favorite FA pickups of all time.

October 30, 2005 and your Lionbacker Staff was all at that game (battle for first place in the division) - good times. Let's remember that was Garcia's 2nd game as a Lions after breaking his fibula in the final preseason game (and he did lead the team on two TD scoring drives in the 2nd half of that game). That throw, however, was pitiful...

Nice story LioneeR! I would TXT him one last time with your address. He may have intended to send the hat, but you address had rolled off his phone before he got to it.

Counter point: Raiola stood up for Stafford from the very beginning of his rookie season. Fans and the media wanted to throw Stafford into the Joey Harrington worthless category and Raiola just wouldnt have it.