Article content continued

But his sympathy only goes so far.

“It’s part of being a professional football player,” Buono continued. “You’ve got to stay on top of it every day. You’ve got to come to work every day. You can have a day or two where you look good, but if you fade, that says a lot.”

Which he knows isn’t always fair but who said the game is fair?

On Wednesday, Buono and his other coaches met to map out the first round of Lions cuts. Fifteen or so players will be released this weekend. In the old days, those who were about to meet their fate were told, “Coach wants to see you. Bring your playbook.” Now it’s, “Coach wants to see you. Bring your iPad and charger.”

Whatever the case, cut-down day is part of the dreary ritual of training camp and those who are about to be gonged never really had a chance.

The more interesting decisions, meanwhile, are yet to come but even those players are fighting massive odds. A couple have impressed. A couple have fought their way to the bubble. Some of them are even in a fight for one of the three or four available starting jobs. Now they have one more week to impress, one week to make it impossible for the coaches to cut them.

“It is a stressful time,” said safety Tevin McDonald. “Every day is an interview. You think about every little thing but that’s part of the grind of the game, being able to put that stuff aside and focus on the job.”

McDonald is one of the bubble players. The son of former NFL All-Pro safety Tim McDonald, the 24-year-old was a blue-chip recruit to UCLA in 2010. He made freshman all-American in 2011 and started again as a sophomore in 2012. He was then booted off the Bruins for violating team policy, transferred to Eastern Washington for two years and spent 2015 with the Oakland Raiders before landing with the Lions.