Lions Settle Millen’s Claim

Lions owner William Clay Ford spoke to a small group of reporters on Wednesday in conjunction with the team’s mandatory minicamp, which opened Tuesday. Though Ford’s comments likely will generate several blurbs in the space over the course of the evening (it’s slow right now, so we need to milk the cow until the stuff is coming out powdered), here’s the first one that caught our eye. The Lions have settled former CEO Matt Millen’s claim for unpaid wages. “We’re all square with the board,’' Ford said. “I talked to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago and everything’s fine. We’re still friends. And I’m glad he’s got the job that he’s getting.’' (Actually, it’s “jobs"; Millen somehow has finagled work both with ESPN and with NFL Network, where he’ll essentially be working for the Lions, again.) After he was fired during the 2008 season, the Lions didn’t pay Millen another penny. So Millen made a claim for $12 million in unpaid wages. He previously had said that, if he were fired, he would not seek another penny. Apparently, he had his fingers crossed at the time.