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New York Times
18 hours ago
- Health
- New York Times
Frank Ragnow gave his all to Detroit Lions in career marked by toughness through ups and downs
DETROIT — The final battle of Frank Ragnow's career was one between body and mind. It was an all-too-familiar back-and-forth, unfolding over the past few months of his final NFL offseason. Ragnow's mind had won these sparring matches up until now. But clarity, as it so often does, declared a winner. Advertisement Ragnow, 29, is retiring from the NFL. 'These past couple of months have been very trying as I've come to the realization that my football journey is ending and I'm officially retiring from the NFL,' Ragnow announced on Instagram Monday morning. 'I've tried to convince myself that I'm feeling good but I'm not and it's time to prioritize my health and my family's future. I have given this team everything I have and I thought I had more to give, but the reality is I simply don't. I have to listen to my body, and this has been one of the hardest decisions of my life. 'It was an absolute honor going to battle for you all.' As an offensive lineman, you're taught that the nagging pain you're subjected to comes secondary to the satisfaction of being there for your teammates. Ragnow has a master's degree in this subject and could teach a class on it twice a week in his newfound free time. He epitomized it more than anyone in the league, and his ability to will his body when it so often betrayed him was a hallmark of a Hall of Fame-caliber career. It defied logic. It's how a native Minnesotan endeared himself to the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. It's what made him one of the best of his generation. And it's what makes the end of his time here in Detroit — on top of his game after just seven NFL seasons — so bittersweet. In April 2018, the Detroit Lions' war room picked up the phone and dialed a number with a Minnesota area code to deliver some good news. A young, wide-eyed center out of Arkansas was on the receiving end, surrounded by loved ones, waiting for it. Teary-eyed and at a loss for words, Ragnow answered the call from the Lions — and has continued to do so ever since. There wasn't a more respected player in this locker room than Ragnow during his time in Detroit. His status as one of the sport's best centers, accompanied by his humble demeanor and his willingness to surrender himself in ways most rational people wouldn't, helped craft a legacy that will last beyond his years. Advertisement This town holds a special place for those who give everything they have. Ragnow did that and more. 'To be an offensive lineman, you don't get much of the glory,' Ragnow said at his introductory press conference. 'You don't get much of anything else. You gotta love football.' Ragnow loved football. He wouldn't be here, starring for this version of the Detroit Lions, if he didn't. Football, unfortunately, didn't always love him back. This violent, unforgiving sport plays favorites. He was not among them. Drafted by a franchise known for its losing history, Ragnow was subjected to the culture that preceded him. It's all he knew early in his career, going 14-33-1 in his first three NFL seasons. The Lions were once a franchise where careers like Ragnow's were wasted. And yet, Ragnow went to war for an organization that had failed many of its best and brightest before him. Ragnow emerged as one of the game's elite centers. He earned four Pro Bowl nods and three second-team All-Pro honors in his seven-year career. He was one of the sport's most cerebral players, acting as a coach on the field and helping his quarterbacks and fellow linemen anticipate blitzes. He was a stout run-blocker who only allowed six sacks in seven seasons — a complete center with no holes in his game. And when he wasn't anchoring one of the league's best offensive lines, Ragnow could often be found on a boat with his brother, Jack, fishing wherever the wind took them, or putting his heart and soul into his foundation — Rags Remembered. Ragnow's father, John, died of a heart attack in 2016. He never got to see his son play in the NFL. John Ragnow was Frank's best friend, and fishing is how they bonded. Ragnow's foundation strives to help grieving children manage the loss of a parent through outdoor activities. His work earned him a Walter Payton Man of the Year nomination in 2023. Advertisement Ask about Ragnow, and you'll quickly learn how the league felt about him. 'He's one of the best centers I've ever had the privilege of playing against,' Vikings safety Harrison Smith said of Ragnow on Monday. 'He does it the right way. I think the first time I actually had quality time with him was when I was nominated for Walter Payton Man of the Year. And so was he. I got to learn about all of the things he does off the field and the type of husband and family man that he is. 'I know that every time I had to play against him, I had to buckle my chinstrap extra tight and watch a lot of extra film. There are centers I've talked to and our offensive linemen, after playing him, would come up and ask me questions about how he would block things. …His technique and fundamentals and the way he played were acknowledged by all players on both lines of scrimmage.' For the Lions, the extent of Ragnow's value often presented itself in ways initially unbeknownst to them. In the first quarter of a December contest against the Green Bay Packers in 2020, Ragnow informed former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford that Stafford would need to make the line calls for the rest of the day. Ragnow would if he could. But he fractured his throat and could barely speak. He finished the game without missing a single snap or allowing a single pressure. 'I didn't really notice it and didn't even know it until Monday,' former Lions running backs coach Kyle Caskey said. 'He did a good job of hiding it from us.' 'Pretty crazy that he was able to finish the game with that,' Stafford said. Ragnow was notorious for downplaying the status of his injuries — sometimes admirable, other times concerning. You wouldn't know how bad things were until someone close to Ragnow offered insight on his behalf, much to his chagrin. Advertisement Late in the 2023 season, Ragnow injured his knee in a game against the New Orleans Saints. It was significant enough to require meniscus surgery that December. The Lions were on the cusp of their first division title in 30 years, and the first playoff appearance of Ragnow's career, six years in. The timing was far from ideal. So Ragnow conquered time. Ragnow missed a grand total of one game — a 28-13 loss to the Chicago Bears — before returning the following week. 'That's how Frank is,' Campbell said. 'Frank is going to will himself to play. His mind controls his body, which we talk about all the time. The good ones can do that. He's what we already know. He's a tough dude and he's mind over matter. …He is terrified of letting his teammates down. That means more to him than anything. It's just the way he is. That's why guys respect the hell out of him.' A week and a half after freaking meniscus surgery and he's playing. Dudes a certified psycho @KNARFWONGAR #ProBowlVote Ragnow#WPMOYChallenge Ragnow — Jack Ragnow (@Ragnow79) December 17, 2023 In Ragnow's final season, he felt discomfort in a game vs. the Arizona Cardinals. It was revealed shortly after the game that he had partially torn his pec. A painful injury — one that typically comes with a lengthy recovery time. Unless you're Ragnow. He again missed one game. Then let his head coach know he was ready to return in true Ragnow fashion. 'I'm walking down there to talk to our trainer and somebody punches me against the wall and I'm not even paying attention because I'm looking at our trainer,' Campbell recalled last fall. 'And I keep walking and I get punched again, and I realize it's Frank and he's trying to show me that his pec is great. So that's his way of telling me, 'Look how strong I am. It's good. It's healed.'' Advertisement 'I was just trying to demonstrate that I was OK,' Ragnow said bashfully when asked by reporters about the exchange. These kinds of stories are endless. They're what make Ragnow, Ragnow. They're why the Lions fell in love with everything he represented, and why this regime signed him to an extension before he ever played a game for them, in one of their first big moves guiding the franchise out of mediocrity. The Lions under Campbell and Brad Holmes tore the roster they inherited down to the studs. Campbell likes to refer to the holdovers from the previous regime as the 'old guard.' They hold a special place in his heart for how they helped him in the early years. He references them in postgame speeches often, and calls on those who oversaw the transformation from 3-13-1 to 15-2 to carry out his message to all newcomers. Ragnow was entrusted with the torch from Day 1, tasked with helping Campbell build one of the league's best cultures from the ground up. His final three seasons coincided with one of the most successful stretches in franchise history. The Lions aren't here without him. And they won't be the same without him. Earned it. — Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 25, 2023 'You gotta be out there for your guys,' Ragnow said months ago, when asked why he puts his body on the line week in and week out. 'I'm gonna do whatever I can to be out there. It ain't gonna be comfortable sometimes, I ain't gonna be pretty but I just care about these guys too much to not give it my all for them.' Words like that from Ragnow take on a different meaning given the context of Monday's news. He wanted nothing more than to bring a championship to this city, and how poetic would it have been for him to accomplish it, after all he's been through. The Lions have had conversations with Ragnow each of the past few offseasons about how long he wanted to keep going, how much he wanted to suffer and subject his body to new, gruesome injuries. But the decision, in the end, ultimately wasn't up to him. Advertisement This offseason, Ragnow tried to once again will his mind. To conquer time. He told reporters during locker room clean-out day that he was healthier than he's ever been — a silver lining after an abrupt playoff loss at the hands of the Washington Commanders, ironically, in part, due to injuries other than Ragnow's for once. Even so, Ragnow felt the weight of this one more than others. He tried his best, more soft-spoken than normal that day, to explain his thoughts fresh after a loss like that. Perhaps deep down, Ragnow knew his body was finally beating his mind. 'It was feeling special,' Ragnow said of the Lions' season in the locker room that day, 'And it's frustrating now because it's over.' Ragnow's remarkable NFL career is now over. He can rest. He can fish. He can enjoy life with his wife Lucy, their young son and the daughter they're expecting this fall. He can run his foundation and continue to make his father proud. The day after he was drafted, Ragnow said offensive linemen don't get much of the glory. But the truth is, he deserves every bit of it for what he gave to this franchise. He deserves to be discussed among the greats who've worn Honolulu Blue. He deserves to walk away with his head high and his body intact. And as the NFL moves forward without him, Ragnow deserves to be remembered as one of the toughest to ever go to battle.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrats begin the long 2028 campaign in South Carolina, 'for whatever reason'
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Over the weekend, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore quoted Martin Luther King Jr., ate fried fish with hot sauce, and thanked the Democratic voters – most of them black – whose primacy in Democratic politics is part of Joe Biden's ambiguous legacy to his party. But while Biden's Democratic National Committee put South Carolina first in part to shut down any possible challenge to the aging president, the state may not fight to keep the privilege. 'We had nothing to do with being number one,' Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Semafor at his 'world-famous fish fry,' flanked by Moore and Walz in matching CLYBURN t-shirts. 'That's something that Joe Biden decided to do, for whatever reason.' Democrats won't set their next calendar for more than a year, but the move to put South Carolina first had been pitched as a tribute to black voters. Moore and Walz were embraced by party activists, most getting their first in-person look at one of the country's first black governors, and at the Minnesotan who shared a ticket with their first black female nominee. 'Even if you have no moral courage in your body at all, if you want to see us survive economically, you're damn sure we've got to start investing in black communities,' Walz told delegates at the party's convention on Saturday. But Democrats weren't sure that the state needed to stay first on their calendar, a source of internal friction during Biden's presidency. Moore said he 'hadn't put enough thought into it,' while Walz said it was 'important' to keep South Carolina at the front. 'I don't know why we would move it,' state party chair Christale Spain told Semafor. 'If we're serious about keeping our base, why wouldn't we keep the primary that we moved up because of our base?' South Carolina, which has not voted for a Democratic president since Jimmy Carter, has played a powerful role in picking its nominees. Clyburn was part of that, lobbying to ensure that the state got one of the 'first four' primaries in 2008 along with Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. For Republicans, the 'first in the south' primary empowered conservatives and evangelical Christians, canceling out the New Hampshire independents who liked to boost more liberal candidates. For Democrats, it empowered black voters who tended to be less ideologically progressive than Iowa caucus-goers, and more loyal to the party than white New Englanders. 'We haven't heard from the most committed constituents in the Democratic Party, the African-American community,' Biden said at a rally here the night of the 2020 New Hampshire primary, betting correctly that a South Carolina win would vault him to the nomination. 'Ninety-nine-point-nine percent – that's the percentage of African-American voters who haven't had the chance to vote in America.' Jaime Harrison, a former state party chair here who presided over the schedule change as DNC chair, recalled how Biden fought for it. At an early meeting over the primary calendar in 2021, when DNC leaders briefly brought up South Carolina, Biden chimed in and said it deserved a bigger role. 'I go all over the country, and I meet black folks in this state or that state, but they all have family in South Carolina,' said Biden, according to Harrison. During his last days in office, when Biden flew Air Force One to Charleston to thank black voters and Clyburn for their loyalty, he told Harrison that the new schedule should stay in place. 'He said to me: Listen, I'm proud that we chose to put South Carolina first,' said Harrison. 'He said, that's gonna be a part of my legacy, and I'm gonna fight like hell to make sure it works.' Harrison, like many Democrats here, believed that some of the party's post-2024 problems could be fixed in South Carolina. Harris lagged recent Democratic nominees with black men, and Trump made gains with working class voters of all races. Campaigning in South Carolina would put candidates right in front of them. 'Who is really the influential bloc here?' he said. 'It is older, middle-aged, African-American folks who've been through something in life, who've not always had everything that they wanted, but have worked hard to provide for themselves and their family. They take that pragmatism, that seasoning that they've gotten from life, and they apply that to looking at who can actually win. Not who delivers the fanciest speeches.' In South Carolina, those voters are also used to losing. Democrats have not elected a governor here since 1998 – Jim Hodges, who Walz shouted out from the stage at Friday night's fundraising dinner. Republican-drawn maps have locked Democrats into one safe House seat, Clyburn's, and Donald Trump's coattails reinforced the GOP supermajority in Columbia. The state's largest cities, which had Democratic mayors when Biden took office, are now led by Republicans. Walz and Moore framed all this as a temporary setback, and a reason for Democrats to fight harder and act faster. They put special emphasis on the needs and histories of black voters and poor people. 'Right now, the Trump administration is actively divesting in black communities, actively dismantling our minority business programs, and actively banning books about our history,' said Moore. 'If Trump can do so much bad in such a small amount of time, why can't we do so much good? Now is the time for us to be impatient, too.' Moore's speech was boycotted by a black state legislator, John King, angered by Moore's veto of a bill to study reparations for the descendants of slaves. In an interview, Moore ticked off programs that he'd already expanded to help black Marylanders. 'This would be the fifth study in 25 years. What are we studying?' said Moore. 'We have got to stop being the party of bureaucracy and multi-year studies on things that we know the answers to, and be the party of action.' It would be a while before Democrats decided that the voters who heard this message would get the first vote on their 2028 nominee, or a later vote. Clyburn was less concerned about that than Biden had been. 'The most important hitter on a baseball team is a clean-up hitter,' Clyburn said on Friday, 'and he comes in fourth place.' To riff on Harrison's remark, the modern role of South Carolina's primary has been a Democratic gut check. White liberals get their say in Iowa, secular white moderates vet the candidates in New Hampshire, and multi-racial progressive unions set their terms in Nevada. When Biden won the primary, black voters made up 56% of the electorate, and 83% of all voters said they attended church at least once a week, compared to 48% in New Hampshire. Half of the electorate called itself 'moderate,' or 'conservative,' groups that were in the deep minority in Iowa and New Hampshire. Biden thrived once he got away from protesters asking about Medicare-for-All and deportation moratoriums. That wasn't Biden's stated reason for rewarding that state. He cited its debt to black voters, and other Democrats cite its rich, painful civil rights history, as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.) did after he saw chatter about South Carolina moving down the calendar. But the remarks Moore and Walz gave, and the receptions they got, demonstrated why Democrats like campaigning here. They talked almost entirely about economic results and messaging and how their party would build out the safety net — the sweet spot that Republicans and protesters knock them off of. They did not talk about Biden, whose legacy here is complicated. 'The one thing about black voters that you should understand: They're pragmatic and they're loyal,' Harrison told me. No Democrat would benefit from criticizing Biden here, and the ongoing media/GOP study of the former president's choice to run again was seen as pure distraction. Still: Biden described his choice to put South Carolina first as a legacy project. His defeat strengthens the negotiating power of New Hampshire Democrats, who expect to vote first again, and other state parties that want to bid for an early calendar spot. In Politico, Brakkton Booker to Democrats who worry that the Biden hangover might give another southern state the plum primary spot: 'Some people just need to get over themselves and whatever issues they have with Joe Biden.' For CNN, Arit John and Jeff Simon South Carolina Democrats what they really want from the next candidate: 'I think South Carolina is looking for a person of the people, that can speak to the people without lowering and debasing themselves, like the current administration seems to be doing.'
New York Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Gov. Tim Walz calls on Democrats to be ‘meaner' and ‘bully the s–t' out of President Trump.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz encouraged Democrats to be 'meaner' and to 'bully the s–t' our of President Donald Trump during a speech in South Carolina. The failed 2024 vice presidential candidate was the keynote speaker at the Democratic organized event in the Palmetto State on Saturday where he delivered a profanity-laced speech that called on his party members to toughen up in their resistance measures against President Trump. 'Maybe it's time for us to be a little meaner, a little bit more fierce,' Walz said to raucous applause from the crowd. 3 Governor Tim Walz delivered bombastic remarks at the South Carolina Democratic event on Saturday. AP 'The thing that bothers a teacher more than anything is to watch a bully,' the governor said. 'And when its a child you talk to them and you tell them why bullying is wrong.' 'But when its an adult like Donald Trump, you bully the s–t out of him back,' Walz intoned. He further characterized the president a 'wannabe dictator' 'Donald is the existential threat we knew was coming,' Walz said at another point during the Saturday morning remarks, adding that, for Democrats, 'it is going to be a challenging few years here.' 'We've got the guts and we need to have it to push back on the bullies and the greed,' Walz said during his remarks. Despite the tough talk and foul language directed at the commander and chief, Walz also encouraged South Carolina Democrats to keep things light. 3 The failed 2024 vice presidential candidate called two-time President Donald Trump a 'wannabe dictator.' Getty Images 'Damnit, we should be able to have some fun and be joyful,' the former public school teacher said. During the remarks which repeatedly took aim across the political aisle, Walz made fun of the President Trump branded 'big, beautiful bill.' 'I used to teach Fourth Grade and I was gonna say it sounded like something like a Fourth Grader came up with it but that would be insulting to my Fourth Graders,' Walz said to chuckles from the crowd. The Minnesotan also took the opportunity to heap praise on his ex-running mate former Vice President Kamala Harris. 'Damnit, I would love to turn on the TV and see her instead of what we see every day,' Walz said to applause, further characterizing Harris as 'well-accomplished.' 3 Walz previously found his foot in his mouth when he celebrated the loss of carmaker Tesla's shareholder value while his state pension fund was invested in the index. AP Walz's glib and blue-collar manner during public speeches has previously ended up with him in hot water when he took aim at carmaker Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. The governor celebrated a drop in the stock price for the electric car company saying it gave him 'a little boost during the day.' Walz later called himself a 'knucklehead' when it was revealed that the state of Minnesota's pension fund owns shares of Tesla.
Sky News AU
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Sky News AU
WNBA team ridiculed for George Floyd tribute before game
Sky News host Rita Panahi says the WNBA team Minnesota Lynx decided to hold a moment of silence for George Floyd. Lynx star Napheesa Collier took to the centre court before the team's game against the Connecticut Sun to honour the life of the late Minnesotan. 'Yes, the WNBA thought this was a good idea,' Ms Panahi said.
Sky News AU
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
WNBA ‘burning itself into the ground' with George Floyd tribute
American Culture Project Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis says the WNBA is 'burning itself into the ground' after the Minnesota Lynx decided to hold a tribute for George Floyd. Lynx star Napheesa Collier took to the centre court before the team's game against the Connecticut Sun to honour the life of the late Minnesotan. 'They should focus on sports, but they're not so good at that, so I guess they are focusing on all of this political ideology,' Mr DeAngelis told Sky News host Rita Panahi. 'You can't make this stuff up; they have operated at a loss each year since its inception, about 30 years ago.'
