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From playing days to new Lions coaching job, Deshea Townsend has long admired DC Glenn

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From playing days to new Lions coaching job, Deshea Townsend has long admired DC Glenn


Indianapolis — One of the most common questions prospects face from media at the NFL Scouting Combine is which players they model their games after. It provides a simplified scope in which to view a player’s skill set and potential scheme fit.

When Deshea Townsend was entering the league as a defensive back 25 years ago, he wasn’t studying Deion Sanders. That’s not who Townsend saw when he looked in the mirror, and there was no use pretending that’s who he could become. He needed someone who looked like him and played like him to better sense how he could perform at the next level.

The man he kept turning to was Aaron Glenn.

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Admiration was mostly from afar, but in one instance, it grew up-close and personal. In a game against the Houston Texans in 2002, Townsend’s Steelers limited the opposition to 47 yards of total offense. That would be good enough for an easy win 99% of the time, but the Texans won the game handily, thanks to a pair of interception returns for touchdowns by Glenn.

Townsend would go on to put together a meaningful career of his own, playing more than a decade with the Steelers, where he won a pair of Super Bowls. Today, his continued admiration for Glenn has led Townsend to Detroit, where he’ll serve on the coordinator’s defensive staff as the Detroit Lions’ secondary coach and pass-game coordinator.

“He’s gonna be able to deliver exactly what AG wants on the back end,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said this week.

Finding the right secondary coach has proven problematic for Detroit. They thought they had their guy in Aubrey Pleasant, but the relationship didn’t last two seasons. And Dre Bly, brought on board last year, was let go earlier this offseason. Up next is Townsend, who has eight years of experience coaching defensive backs in the NFL, including the last two with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He only joined the team last week, so he hasn’t fully processed the players he’s inheriting. But his room is due for something of an overhaul, particularly at cornerback. With that in mind, the Lions have wasted little time putting him to work evaluating prospects for the upcoming draft as well as soon-to-be free agents.

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Townsend’s philosophies are simple. He’s quick to point out there are only five core coverages, and he only has one non-negotiable.

“If you won’t tackle, you won’t play,” Townsend said. “That’s it. If it’s on the tape you won’t tackle, you can’t play. Ultimately, I’m just looking for guys that don’t shy away from contact, that’s willing to throw it there.”

Of course, he’s also looking for guys who can be sticky in coverage and mentally tough, but it all starts with physicality. From there, he’ll seek to foster a culture of camaraderie in the back end of Detroit’s defense. He wants accomplishments and failures to be shared experiences.

“I’m a big believer in we’re all in this together,” Townsend said. “So if you get a pass caught on your (watch), it’s just like I got a pass caught on me. I’ve been saying it for years, when one player makes a play, we all make a play. I think that’s how we have to be. …I think that’s what our unit is going to be. We’re going to play together. We’re going to play for one another. That’s what it should be about.”

The approach certainly worked in Pittsburgh, which long has been viewed as the league’s gold standard for culture. Townsend will try to bring some of what he learned under the tutelage of coaches Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin and Dick LeBeau to Detroit.

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“It’s just the mindset of being a champion,” Townsend said. “Can you be consistent? That’s the one thing that always helps. If you going to be any organization that’s trying to win it’s going to be similar. It’s similar paths to being a champion and being the best and being consistent. I think we see a lot of things the same way (in Detroit).” 

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

@Justin_Rogers



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Detroit, MI

Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans

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Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans



Treatment will delay the Royal Oak-born actor’s plans to tour his new film ‘Ernie & Emma’ this summer.

Royal Oak-born movie star and cult hero Bruce Campbell announced on social media on Monday that he has been diagnosed cancer — a type that is “treatable” but not “curable,” he said.

“I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the “Evil Dead” star, 67, wrote in a message posted to Instagram.

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He went on to say “I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” and he didn’t. He said the public announcement had to do with scaling back appearances on his schedule, including tour dates behind his latest film, “Ernie & Emma.”

Campbell planned to show the movie June 5 at the Redford Theatre; as of Monday night, that date is still on the Redford schedule, but Campbell wrote in his note he plans to get “as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie ‘Ernie & Emma’ this fall.”

The movie is written, directed by and stars Campbell as a man who goes on a journey following the death of his wife. Campbell produced the movie alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, and filmed it in Oregon, where he now lives.

Campbell told The News in January he dedicated “Ernie & Emma” to his childhood moviemaking pals, including Scott Spiegel, who died of a heart attack in September 2025.

“It’s a callback to the carefree days of Super 8, where we could do whatever the f–k we wanted to do,” Campbell said of “Ernie & Emma.” “So I thought, ‘All the boys are responsible for this,’ so they’re all in there.”

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Campbell got his start making movies around Metro Detroit with his childhood pal, Sam Raimi. Campbell starred in Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy and has since appeared in most of Raimi’s films; Campbell makes a brief appearance in a photograph in the background of an early scene in Raimi’s latest, “Send Help.”

He’s also an author; Campbell’s autobiography “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” was published in 2001.

In his post on social media, Campbell thanked fans and said he was not out to elicit sympathy.

“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around for a while,” he wrote.

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agraham@detroitnews.com





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Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:

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Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:


“Slow down and move over” is the message that Michigan State Police is sending to drivers after one of its troopers in a parked patrol car was struck while investigating a crash this weekend. The driver of that vehicle fled the scene.

Michigan State Police tells CBS News Detroit that we’re two months into the year, and it has had six incidents across the state where patrol cars were struck by oncoming vehicles. One of those incidents occurred on Sunday evening.

“Could have been much more tragic,” said MSP Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez, First District public information officer.

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Michigan State Police


Gonzalez says on Sunday, an MSP trooper was near M-10 and Schaefer Highway in Detroit, simply doing his job, when his patrol car was hit from behind.

“Trooper was out there, and he was investigating a crash when, at the time, a Jeep SUV drove into the rear of the parked vehicle,” Gonzalez said.

The impact slid the trooper’s car into a concrete wall. The 29-year-old Detroit woman driving the Jeep SUV struck the center median, got out of the vehicle, and ran away.

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“Not sure why they did it. Maybe not paying attention if they were distracted. They’re attempting to locate her at this time,” said Lt. Gonzalez.

The trooper walked away with minor injuries. Gonzalez says this incident is an example of why Michigan’s Move Over Law was put in place many years ago. The law, which went into effect in 2019, requires drivers to move over into the next lane and reduce their speed by at least 10 mph when emergency or service vehicles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance and road service — have their lights activated. 

Drivers who are not able to move over are still required to reduce their speed.

“Trying to do our jobs, however, people are not paying attention. The law is easy. It’s simple. You see us, you see our lights activated, you have to slow down ten miles below the posted speed limit, and then if able, move over to the next occupied available lane,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says crashes like this can be deadly and often avoided.

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“One life lost over something that was a totally preventable crash, it’s way too much. We’re asking that you slow down and move over when you see our lights. It’s a simple message that we’ve been pushing out for years,” he said.

Sunday’s crash remains under investigation. Michigan State Police detectives are still working to track down the 29-year-old suspect.

In the meantime, police are out enforcing the Move Over Law.



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Rex Satterfield’s 1956 Bel Air takes 2026 Ridler Award in Detroit

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Rex Satterfield’s 1956 Bel Air takes 2026 Ridler Award in Detroit


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Rex Satterfield hoped to see his 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible snag one of the BASF Great 8 finalist spots at this year’s Detroit Autorama. But winning the Ridler Award — one of the highest honors in the custom car business — was something he didn’t foresee.

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“It’s just overwhelming right now,” said the man from Russellville, Tennessee, as he left a ballroom at downtown’s Huntington Place and made his way back to the show floor on Sunday, March 1. “We weren’t expecting this.”

Getting a car recognized as one of the BASF Great 8 vehicles is a win in and of itself as they are considered the “absolute pinnacle of custom automotive craftsmanship worldwide,” according to the show. The cars undergo an intensive judging process.

And this effort had an unexpected and emotional complication with the passing in December 2024 of the original builder, Jeff Wolfenbarger, who was battling cancer even as he continued working on the car named “Elegant Lady.”

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Kevin Riffey of Kevin Riffey’s Hot Rods and Restorations in Knoxville stepped in to finish the work Wolfenbarger started. He’d had two other cars in the past make the Great 8. He said the goal with this vehicle was straightforward, calling it a “purpose-built show car.”

From its prominent spot at the front of the show floor, “Elegant Lady” sported a creamy exterior, dubbed Light Coffee. The car carries a 1,000 horsepower Don Hardy race engine. The gauges, wheels and gas tank are custom, and the dash is from a 1956 Pontiac.

Satterfield plans to show the car around some and enjoy the moment with it. He said he’s been a car guy since he was a little kid.

The Ridler Award, named in honor of Detroit Autorama’s first publicist, Don Ridler, comes with a $10,000 prize. It was awarded on the final day of this year’s Detroit Autorama, which ran Friday, Feb. 27-Sunday, March 1. This was the event’s 73rd year.

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Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Send your tips and suggestions about cool automotive stuff to elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.



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