Taylor Swift Reveals Mom Has Cancer, Tells Fans ‘I Pray That You Never Get News Like This’

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  • Taylor Swift
    (Photo: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok)
    Pop artist Taylor Swift arrives at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California January 26, 2014.

Taylor Swift shared via social media today that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer.

On Thursday, the iconic pop star took to her personal Tumblr page to share the sad news about her mother, Andrea Finlay, in an emotional and heartfelt message. Shortly after the news broke, fans of Swift coined the Twitter hashtag “prayformamaswift” which later began trending.

“For Christmas this year, I asked my mom that one of her gifts to me be her going to the doctor to get screened for any health issues, just to ease some worries of mine,” wrote Swift. “She agreed, and went in to get checked … The results came in, and I’m saddened to tell you that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer.”

The 25-year-old “Blank Space” singer wanted to keep news of her mother’s health private, however; her mother insisted that she tell her millions of fans in a bid to raise cancer awareness.

“I’d like to keep the details of her condition and treatment plans private, but she wanted you to know,” Swift continued. “She wanted you to know because your parents may be too busy juggling everything they’ve got going on to go to the doctor, and maybe you reminding them to go get checked for cancer could possibly lead to an early diagnosis and an easier battle.”

The country music singer went on to thank her fans and ended with “I hope and pray that you never get news like this.”

Stars and friends of Swift took to social networking site Twitter to offer the Grammy award-winning artist support.

“@taylorswift13 (heart symbol) stay strong. Love to your Mom.,” actress Mindy Kaling tweeted.

“Sending out prayers to @taylorswift13, Andrea & the whole Swift family,” country singer Rodney Atkins tweeted.

“Praying for @taylorswift13 and her family. Reminds me to tell my mom as often how much I love her! #PrayForMamaSwift,” singer Melody Thornton tweeted.

“RT @StandUp2C: Our thoughts are with supporter @taylorswift13 and her mum Andrea, who has been diagnosed with cancer,” Irish singer Nadine Coyle tweeted.

Source : Christian Post

‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’: Bravo Offers NeNe Leakes a Massive Raise to Return for Season 8

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‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’: Bravo Offers NeNe Leakes a Massive Raise to Return for Season 8

NeNe Leakes Reuters/File

Christian Post Report – Real Housewives of Atlanta reality star NeNe Leakes

After NeNe Leakes reportedly had a miserable season on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” the reality star allegedly wanted nothing to do with the Bravo show anymore, as Leakes has barely been seen interacting with the other ladies on season 7. Instead, her storyline focused on her Broadway career and her other endeavors.

Last week, it was revealed that Leakes will be starring with Kim Zolciak in a new reality show called “NeNe and Kim: The Road to Riches,” and it was speculated that Leakes won’t be returning to RHOA next season. However, Bravo was allegedly desperate to keep her in the show that they offered her a hefty raise to stay on.

“NeNe absolutely hated Housewives this season,” a source told RadarOnline. “She hated almost all the other women and wanted off the show entirely.”

“But she is the most valuable person in the entire franchise and Bravo was going to do whatever she wanted to keep her. So they offered her the spin-off, which she gladly took,” the insider said.

The source adds that Bravo executives made it impossible for Leakes to turn down the offer.

“They want NeNe and so they offered her a huge raise. She already makes the most and now they’re giving her even more money per episode and her bonuses will be bigger too,” the source claimed.

Leakes reportedly made $1.5 million for season 7 and is currently the highest paid housewife in the entire franchise. She is followed by Bethenny Frankel, who was reportedly paid $1 million to return to “The Real Housewives of New York.”

Teresa Giudice was paid $700,000 for season 6 of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” while Eileen Davidson is the highest earner in “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” as she reportedly received $750,000 to be in season 5. The figures were initially reported by In Touch magazine in December 2014.

Source : Christian Post

Warner Bros. to Make A ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Movie

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Warner Bros. to Make A ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Movie

Five Nights at Freddy's 3 Youtube Screenshot/ file

Christian Post Report – A screen grab from the Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 teaser trailer

Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the popular game series created by Scott Cawthon.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the feature adaptation will be produced by Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment as well as Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg of KatzSmith Productions.

The game takes place in Freddy’s Fazbear’s Pizza, where an animatronic animal band performs for kids by day and goes on murderous rampages by night. Players take on the role of a security guard, who is assigned the much-dreaded night shift. The goal of the game is to stay alive — the player has to stay in the guard’s room and monitor the robotic attackers on the security camera.

The sequels to “Five Nights at Freddy’s” go even further, as the second game is actually a prequel which takes place around the same time as “The Bite of 87”. The third game, which was released less than a month ago, takes place into the future, after Freddy’s is retooled into a horror attraction based on the horrifying events of the previous two games.

Movies based on video games tend to be a hit or miss, but if Warner Bros. does a great job on the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” film, there’s a possibility that this could turn into a trilogy.

“We’re looking forward to working with Scott to make an insane, terrifying, and weirdly adorable movie,” said Grahame-Smith to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The story really lends itself to being a movie, and it taps into a large unexplored niche of horror that a lot of people will be able to relate to,” said Cawthon.

Source : Christian Post

‘Law & Order: SVU’ Season 16: Episode 19 Recap ‘Granting Immunity’

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‘Law & Order: SVU’ Season 16: Episode 19 Recap ‘Granting Immunity’

Law & Order: SVU NBC/ Law & Order: SVU

Christian Post Report – Olivia takes Baby Noah to the pediatrician on Law & Order: SVU

Last Wednesday’s episode of “Law & Order: SVU” delved into the anti-vaccine debate as a group of teens get measles, and a mom named Trudy defends her decision to not get her child vaccinated.

Olivia and the rest of the team gets called to investigate a high school party that led to very inappropriate photos of underage kids going viral. The investigation hits a roadblock when the detectives can’t interview a single student due to an outbreak of measles.

They find out that the outbreak started because of a mother named Trudy Malko. She runs a lifestyle website that promotes herbal and alternative treatments. Trudy thinks that vaccination causes autism, so she got her doctor to falsify her son Gabriel’s immunization papers, which say that he was vaccinated. Trudy told the other moms about her views and had the doctor fake their children’s forms as well. Now, after 15 years, all of their children have measles.

Unfortunately, Olivia’s baby son Noah gets infected when he picks up the disease from Gabriel’s infant brother while in the pediatrician’s waiting room. Later, the detectives take Trudy to court for initiating a plan to hide the unvaccinated kids in school, so now it had to be shut down and contaminated.

In court, Trudy holds her own as a doctor takes the stand to warn against the dangers of measles. He said that it can lead to pneumonia, bronchitis, or death. The doctor said that Trudy’s son got measles while he was in Pacific Palisades, which in an under-vaccinated community. The CDC said that he was the first patient, and so far, there are 48 cases of measles in the area.

Trudy fires back and argues that some vaccines have potential side effects. She notes that after her nephew was vaccinated, he got diagnosed with autism and she never wanted the same thing to happen to her son. When asked if she’s aware that the CDC and other research groups have found no links between vaccines and autism, she said that she doesn’t trust those institutions.

Trudy was found guilty of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to three months in prison.

“Law & Order: SVU” airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Source : Christian Post

‘Criminal Minds’ Season 10: Episode 19 Recap ‘Beyond Borders’

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‘Criminal Minds’ Season 10: Episode 19 Recap ‘Beyond Borders’

Criminal Minds CBS/ Criminal Minds

Christian Post Report – Criminal Minds episode Beyond Borders, with Anna Gunn as the International Unit’s law expert Lily Lambert, Emmy Award winner Gary Sinise as International Unit Chief Jack Garrett; Joe Mantegna as David Rossi, Thomas Gibson as Aaron Hotchner

This week’s episode of “Criminal Minds” marks the debut of the characters for the show’s upcoming spinoff featuring the international team of Unit Chief Jack Garrett (Gary Sinise), Lily Lambert (Anna Gunn), and Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney) being called to assist the BAU when a family of four is abducted while on vacation in Barbados.

The Sullivans have just arrived in Barbados and though they’re all tired after the journey, they’re very happy to be there as it’s their first time to go on an international vacation. They miss the last scheduled shuttle to their resort, so they accept a ride from a van that has the word “shuttle” written on its side. The driver takes them to backroads and offers them water and tips about the area. When Colleen notices that her husband Greg and their kids, Allison and Nick, are all unconscious, she realizes that something is not right.

The BAU and the International team meet in Barbados, and they compare notes on the UnSub. They note that he has managed to escape the BAU as he killed a family in Florida a year before, and he also eluded the International Unit after he killed another family in Aruba. Kate and Reid, who stayed back, check out the Sullivan’s house and finding no evidence that the UnSub stalked them from there, the team deduce that he has a type and that he’s an annihilator. The annihilator is usually a father who has lost or killed his own family.

Meanwhile, the UnSub forces the Sullivans to board a boat and through flashbacks, glimpses of his own childhood abuse are seen. He separates Greg from his family and unleashes the brunt of his cruelty on him, just like his own father used to do on him. He hits Greg with a belt and puts his head in the sink.

Later, the team finds the UnSub on a security footage from a gas station. To know his identity, Jack suggests looking into solved cases which involve teens killing their families. They learn that his name is Jerry Tidwell, and that his father abused him and videotaped the abuse, but spared his stepmother and stepsiblings. At age 15, he massacred his family in a hotel room. He was declared insane and was placed in an institution until he was 21. When Jerry got out of the institution, he lived with his uncle in Aruba, and when the uncle died, Jerry inherited his fishing charter business.

With this lead, the teams make their way to the boat’s location. Jerry throws Nick overboard and holds Allison hostage. JJ tells Allison to drop and they take Jerry down. They find Nick safe and sound in a lifeboat.

“Criminal Minds” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Source : Christian Post

‘His Eyes Are Gouged Out; Where Did They Take His Eyes?’ Asks Aunt of Christian Garissa Student After Seeing Nephew’s Mutilated Body From Al-Shabaab’s Massacre

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‘His Eyes Are Gouged Out; Where Did They Take His Eyes?’ Asks Aunt of Christian Garissa Student After Seeing Nephew’s Mutilated Body From Al-Shabaab’s Massacre
Kenya (Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)

A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, arrive at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.

Christian Post Report – A number of students who were killed by al-Shabaab in last Thursday’s massacre in Kenya were reportedly either praying or asking their families for prayers before being mercilessly murdered because of their Christian faith, family members have said.

As families descend upon the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi to identify the remains of their cherished college students, who were heinously gunned down by militants at Garissa University College last week, many have recounted the last conversations they had with their deceased loved ones, and one woman even described the terrifying mutilation she saw upon verifying the body of her nephew.

The father of Elizabeth Namarome Musinai, a 20-year-old Christian student, told Yahoo News that his daughter had called the family right as al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked terror organization in Somalia, had raided the campus in the early morning hours.

“‘There are gunshots everywhere!,'” Elizabeth was quoted as telling her family on the phone. “‘Tell mum to pray for me. I don’t know if I will survive.'”

Elizabeth’s father, Fred Kaskon Musinai, further explained that his daughter was likely taken hostage, as the family received phone calls from a militant demanding that they contact Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta within 2 minutes and tell him to remove Kenyan troops from Somalia, where they are part of the AMISOM coalition fight against al-Shabaab.

After giving the family 2 minutes to contact the president, the militant called back again and was told that the family could not reach Kenyatta. The militant then told the father, “I am going to kill your daughter.” The statement was followed by three gunshots and the phone went dead.

The father called back and the militant told him: “She is now with her God.”

The brother of a 21-year-old student named Ayub Nujau Kimotho told the Daily Nation that his brother is a praying man and was in the middle of a morning prayer session with his friends when the massacre began.

“He is a prayerful man and had left his room with one of his roommates to go for morning prayers,” Kimotho’s brother, Daniel Chege, explained.

Chege then said that his brother and friends were driven out of their prayer room as they heard gunshots and went into hiding. It was then when Kimotho started texting his brother about the chaos that was going down on campus.

Chege recalls his brother’s last text message to him stating: “At this point, we leave everything to God.” Chege is still not certain if his brother is alive or dead.

“I asked him if he was safe and he affirmed that he was but did not tell me where he was hiding,” Chege explained. “I tried calling him when he failed to reply to my texts, but his phone just kept ringing. It was at that point when I knew things were no longer right.”

Milcah Ruto, who was waiting to identify the remains of her daughter, Judy Chepkemboi, told Capital News that Judy had called her when the attack occurred and asked her mother to pray for her safety as she hid underneath a bed.

“My daughter was able to call me on that fateful day and stated that they had been attacked by the al-Shabaab,” Ruto said.

“‘I am under the bed and I need your prayers since we are in danger,'” the mother recalls her daughter saying.

“That was the last conversation I had with her. After that, one of our boys who teaches at the Garissa high school took the initiative to look for his cousin but was unsuccessful.”

Mary Oloo, the aunt of 19-year-old student Peter Odhiambo, told the Guardian that upon identifying her nephew, who she refers to as her own son, she was horrified by the mutilated condition of his corpse.

“All my son’s teeth are missing. His eyes are gouged out,” she described.

“Where did they take his eyes?” she wondered.

She also explained that her whole family was counting on her nephew to get a college education that would help him get a good job and would help enable the family leave Kenya one day.

“This boy who we will soon bury, this boy was going to help us board a plane one day,” Oloo stated. “I really looked forward to his graduation. Is this the graduation we were to come to?”

Source : Christian Post

‘The Real Housewives of New York’ Season 7: Episode 1 Recap, Bethenny Returns

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‘The Real Housewives of New York’ Season 7: Episode 1 Recap, Bethenny Returns

Real Housewives of New York Bravotv/ The Real Housewives of New York

Christian Post Report – Bethenny Frankel has a meltdown during a drive with her realtor, on The Real Housewives of New York

The ladies of “The Real Housewives of New York” are back, and on Tuesday, fans tuned in to see LuAnn de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, Kristen Taekman, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, Sonja Morgan, newcomer Dorinda Medley, and Bethenny Frankel.

Bethenny is back, and she reveals that she’s been living in hotels since her split from Jason Hoppy. She has a new apartment, but it’s undergoing renovation right now. Bethenny and her dog Cookie check into a hotel on Central Park South, and she says that she’s “the richest homeless person in New York City” thanks to her ongoing divorce proceedings.

Kristen and Josh appear to be doing better this time around. After last season where fans got to see their issues which almost led to divorce, it seems that they have mended their relationship and are happier. Their child, Kingsley, is out of her leg braces and doing well too.

The ladies have a group dinner, and Carole, Kristen, and Heather are first to arrive. Carole tells them that she’s on a new diet which allows her to have only cucumbers, vodka, and butter. LuAnn arrives next, and she tells them that she moved into a new house in the Hamptons and is throwing a party. She tells them that she’s inviting Sonja, even though they never got along well.

“I really want to help Sonja because I feel like she has problems,” said LuAnn.

Later, Ramona meets with Sonja for lunch, and Ramona tells her all about what’s happening in her marriage. She said that after being with Mario for 25 years, now, it feels strange not to be with him. However, Sonja circles the conversation back to herself, and Ramona is outraged.

“I can’t believe it, she’s making it all about her!” said Ramona in the confessional.

Ramona changes the subject and asks Sonja if she’s going to LuAnn’s party, but Sonja says that she’s not so sure about that since the last time everyone got together, the ladies ganged up on her.

Meanwhile, Carole is meeting with the editor of her upcoming book. She’s been procrastinating and has been avoiding her calls. “I was supposed to turn in 80,000 words six months ago, and right now, I have a table of contents,” she confides.

Ramona goes for a drive with her realtor to find a new office space, and suddenly, she has a meltdown in the car.

She says that she wants to have another baby, but “I don’t even have an apartment, I don’t have anywhere to live for the daughter that I do have … I want a new life,” she sobs.

‘The Real Housewives of New York’ airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

Source : Christian Post

Erica Campbell Tops Charts with ‘Help 2.0,’ Single ‘I Luh God’ Top Digital Gospel Song

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Erica Campbell Tops Charts with ‘Help 2.0,’ Single ‘I Luh God’ Top Digital Gospel Song
Erica Campbell (Photo: Erica Campbell/Instagram)

Erica Campbell released her debut solo album, “Help” on My Block/eOne Music.

Erica Campbell’s Help 2.0 continues to soar on Billboard’s Top Current Gospel Chart, topping it at number-one this week, while her new single “I Luh God” also makes waves.

The “re-release” of the singer’s solo debut album Help has also solidified itself in the top 10 on the Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart and appears on several other charts including the Top 200, Top Current Albums, Top Independent Albums and Top Current Digital. Help 2.0, which was nominated for a Grammy, is officially the most popular gospel album in country this week.

“There is just so much more to sing and say,” Campbell said in a statement following the album’s success. “I’m just getting started! As long as God keeps opening the doors for me I’ll keep walking through it! So humbled and grateful.”

Help 2.0 hit stores last month featuring never-before-released music as well as remixes of her hit songs and several guest artists. The album is Campbell’s first solo project after over a decade with the gospel duo Mary Mary with her sister Tina Campbell. The album features the new solo track, “I Luh God,” which is creating a buzz online this week. As the number-one digital gospel song in the country, the song features LaShawn “Big Shiz” Daniels and embraces Campbell’s inner “urban” side with a unique bounce track.

Help 2.0 also features the song “More Love” which is still dominating gospel radio stations today. The song was motivated by feelings of frustration and anger in light of the recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. In Campbell’s lyrics, the message “love changes things” can be heard.

“‘More Love’ comes from taking the temperature of the times we live in,” Campbell explained in a statement alongside her husband, the song’s co-writer, Warryn Campbell. “The sense of frustration, anger that we feel, from the civil unrest and tragic deaths in Ferguson, New York and around the world… We thought it was important to emphasize the importance of love. Love truly does change things. We believe that.”

Meanwhile, Campbell kicks off the Help 2.0 Tour in New York City on May 2 at BB Kings. Listen to “I Luh God” here.

Source : Christian Post

300 Slaves Rescued From Indonesian Island Where They Were Caged, Beaten, Electrocuted

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300 Slaves Rescued From Indonesian Island Where They Were Caged, Beaten, Electrocuted
Benjina slave fisherman (Screengrab: AP)

As many as 300 slaves were rescued on Good Friday from an isolated island in Indonesia, where they were forced to work as fisherman and catch seafood that was eventually sold in supermarkets in the United States.

An investigation by the Associated Press revealed that many of the migrant workers, who eventually wound up on the Indonesian island of Benjina and were duped into working 20 to 22 hours a day in unpaid slave labor, were tricked into going to that particular island.

With many of the migrant workers coming from Burma, also known as Myanmar, in search of job opportunities, many of them were told that they would be offered good-paying jobs in Thailand. Instead, they were fooled into hopping on a boat, which took them thousands of miles from their homes and dumped them on the island with no way to return home. They were then forced to catch fish without pay for the Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company. The fish they catch are then sent back to Thailand and shipped to supply chains.

After the AP investigation shed light on the abusive labor practices of the company, officials from the Indonesian Fisheries Ministry went to the island to issue a crackdown on poaching and were originally only going to rescue about 20 people from the island. As word got out that some of the workers were going to be able to leave the island, slaves from all over the island rushed to the boat hoping that they too would be freed from the island.

Asep Burhanuddin, the general director of Indonesia’s Marine Resources and Fisheries Surveillance, assured that not a single person that wanted to leave would be left behind. The migrant workers then rushed to gather what little belongings they had and rushed back out of fear that they would be left behind.

“They can all come,” Burhanuddin told AP. “We don’t want to leave a single person behind.”

The workers were loaded onto seven trawlers and were shipped to Tual over a period of 24 hours. Once off the island, the migrant workers stayed at the Fisheries Ministry complex until their identities were verified and their countries of origin were contacted.

A 42-year-old from Burma named Win Win Ko, who left his home and family over four years ago in search of a job, described the kind of treatment that he and many of the other workers faced at the hands of their Thai boat captains.

Ko explained that he now has a toothless mouth after having his teeth kicked in by the boat captain after he decided that Ko was not processing the fish fast enough from the deck of the boat to the hold down below.

“I will go see my parents,” Ko told AP. “They haven’t heard from me, and I haven’t heard from them since I left.”

The AP investigation also found that some of the workers were kept in cages, electrocuted, beaten, whipped, and forced to suffer through other various types of brutal mistreatment. Additionally, the workers were not provided with medicine when they fell ill.

The investigation also tracked where the fish that were caught using the slave labor on Benjina island ended up. The investigation, which used satellites to track the seafood’s journey on cargo ships, found that the seafood was sold to a few of America’s largest seafood supply chains like Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway. Also, the seafood is likely to end up in a number of American petfood brands like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams.

The AP report prompted U.S. government officials and seafood industry elites to pressure Thailand to issue a ban on slave labor at sea and punish those responsible for using such practices.

Police are investigating the claims of slavery and a decision will be made whether or not to prosecute those responsible, Kedo Arya, head of Maluku province prosecutor’s office told AP.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 4,000 people are being victimized by abusive labor practices in the fishing industry surrounding the areas of Benjina.

Source : Christian Post

Detroit Lions NFL 2015 News, Rumors: Can Ryan Broyles Become an Impact Player for Lions?

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Detroit Lions NFL 2015 News, Rumors: Can Ryan Broyles Become an Impact Player for Lions?

Christian Post Report – Ryan Broyles for most NFL fans is a forgotten player. A second round draft pick (54th overall) in the 2012 NFL draft that has never made much of an impact. He has lost time due to injuries to both legs. However, in Detroit in a receiver corps that features Calvin Johnson and now Golden Tate, Broyles is one the players on the Lions roster who is most talked about. That may be because of General Manger Martin Mayhew’s Matt Millen like infinity for drafting wide receivers and tight ends that never live up to their draft status.

Ryan Broyles reuters.com

The Detroit Lions spent a second round pick on Ryan Broyles in 2012, but injuries have limited his effectiveness ever since

Now days Broyles is the fifth wide out on a team that dresses four. He has shown some flashes of greatness including a particularly good preseason campaign a year ago. He led the Lions in pre-season catches and then was basically unheard from during the regular season.

Mlive.comn reports that Head Coach Jim Caldwell has been watching tape this off season and they reported the coach saying, “I think he did show obviously some promises, particularly during the preseason,” Caldwell said. “He and Kellen (Moore) hooked up for quite a few. … He made quite a few plays over that time. Hopefully he’ll continue to improve, and find a way to work his way out on the field and do something for us.”

Mlive also reported statements made by Lions Offensive Coordinator Joe Lombardi.

“Listen, when the guy’s been in there, he’s been productive. And we’re excited to see where he is now after a full season of not coming back from an injury. He’s had a full year to be healthy, and we’re excited to see what he does here in the offseason and heading into camp,” he said.

If Broyles can return to the field and stay healthy he gives the Lions offense another weapon that can help stretch defense. If he cannot it is another story of a Mayhew high round draft pick that flamed well before his time.

Source : Christian Post

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