ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola apologized Tuesday to the director of the Wisconsin marching band after verbally abusing some band members at the Lions’ game Sunday in Green Bay.
Raiola also plans to make a “significant” donation to the university’s band fund.
The Lions announced that Raiola will not receive any other form of discipline for his actions.
Raiola, who talked over the phone Tuesday afternoon with band director Michael Leckrone, wasn’t available for comment during the team’s open locker-room period for the media, but he did release a statement through the club.
“My interaction with the Wisconsin Marching Band was inappropriate,” said Raiola, 34, who is in his 13th NFL season. “I apologize to those I offended along with all of the members of Wisconsin’s marching band.
“I also apologize to the Lions’ organization and my teammates. I understand the standards to which we should conduct ourselves, and my actions Sunday fell dramatically short of those standards.”
Band members accused Raiola of making unprovoked vulgar and hateful comments to them. The band was at Lambeau Field to perform the national anthem.
Lions president Tom Lewand also released a statement Tuesday:
“After investigating the matter and discussing Sunday’s events with Dominic, we are pleased that he has taken ownership of his actions and admitted those actions were wrong and unacceptable.
“As we said yesterday, his actions were not reflective of the standard of behavior that we expect from any player or any member of our organization.
“We are also pleased that he is supporting his apology with a significant donation to the Wisconsin Marching Band Fund.
“Due to Dominic’s sincere and appropriate response, there will be no additional disciplinary action by the team.”
LIFE WITHOUT MEGATRON
Receiver Calvin Johnson was walking around the Lions’ locker room, but he wasn’t answering questions about the knee injury that kept him out against the Packers.
His status for Sunday’s game at Cleveland remains unclear.
The perception (reality?) is that the Lions are in big trouble whenever No. 81 isn’t on the field.
“I don’t think that’s entirely true,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Obviously, he’s a big part of what we do on offense. But at the same time, we’ve got to have other guys step up. I’ve got to play better. As a unit, we’ve got to play better.
“We made some plays in the game. We just had too many negative plays. Too many sacks that I took. Too many runs that were negative plays and put us in long yardage on second down. We avoid those, we do what we want to do. We’ve just got to tighten it up a little bit.
“You look at the three wins we’ve had this year, we’ve avoided those (negative plays) pretty well. The two losses, they’ve kind of reared its head.”
One problem that affected the offense the other day was that the Packers changed up their defensive scheme, according to receiver Ryan Broyles.
“They basically played a whole different concept than what we thought they were going to play,” Broyles said. “They had a good game plan for us. They showed on film a lot of man (coverage) so we expected man.
“We went out there and they played a lot of zone. You go into the game week, you prepare for a certain thing and they give you the okie-doke on game day, it’s a little bit different.”
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