Bly breaks silence on day he's named a captain

ALLEN PARK — Dre Bly has opened up again. He has ended the self-imposed vow of silence he began before the Lions started training camp. Bly kept his word that he would not do any interviews until the Monday before the start of the regular season. And Monday, as promised, Bly was talking again. The session was special, as Bly was one of five Lions voted captains by teammates and coaches.

Center Dominic Raiola and quarterback Jon Kitna were voted captains on offense, Bly and defensive end James Hall on defense, and linebacker Donte Curry on special teams. That they were voted on — not appointed — made it a special honor.

"We have five guys who are respected by our teammates," Bly said.

The five captains have qualities that might not be readily apparent to outsiders:

Raiola is a tenacious competitor and a student of the game.

Kitna changed the attitude in the locker room almost immediately after signing as a free agent in March. Gone was the defense-against-offense, hate-the-quarterback atmosphere.

When Robert Porcher retired in midseason in 2004, Hall was the first player he said would be looked up to by his teammates.

Special-teams coordinator Chuck Priefer calls Curry one of the "hard-core" players on his units.

Bly has been an outstanding cover man in his first three seasons with the Lions with 16 interceptions. His only shortcoming has been injuries. Bly missed nine games, four of them last year with a broken hand. He made the Pro Bowl in 2003 and '04 and was the first alternate last year.

Before training camp opened this year, Bly made his media availability known."Basically, I was just tired of talking," Bly said.

"Coming up this offseason, with everything that went down, having new coaches and all the personnel changes that we had, I was just tired of talking. I just wanted to focus on training, get ready for the season.

"It had nothing to do with what happened last year. I just wanted to just relax my mind and prepare myself for the season."

Bly's reference to "what happened last year" was the controversy he was involved in when coach Steve Mariucci was fired after the 11th game.

In a television interview, Bly blamed it on quarterback Joey Harrington's performance.

Bly took heat from fans and some media. But, it obviously didn't make a lasting impact on his teammates who voted him one of the captains.

"Guys haven't lost respect for me, just because of what happened last year," Bly said.

"People sometimes say things are given to certain guys. Nobody can ever say this was given to me. I think I earned it."

From detnews.com