Football on the wire

LESHOURE TAKES HIT

Detroit Lions running back Mikel Leshoure tore his left Achilles tendon Monday, ending his season before it began.

"There's no more tests ... He'll have surgery very soon," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "He'll be back, but he won't be back this year."

The rookie was injured on a clean hit by defensive end Cliff Avril during an 11-on-11 drill in practice. "I thudded him up and walked off," Avril said.

STAFFORD LEARNS

Detroit's Matthew Stafford learned a lot from watching his fellow quarterbacks Shaun Hill and Drew Stanton last season.

Stafford missed 13 games with a shoulder injury.

"All the quarterbacks on our team have different styles," Stafford told mlive.com. "You pick up and use some of the styles from those guys, incorporate them into my game and try to be that much better."

RAY ROUGHED UP

After Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray was sacked four times in Friday's loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, head coach Kavis Reed said that he was concerned by how often his QB was on the run.

"The last three games, Ricky has taken a lot of shots and our mandate coming in was to protect Ricky Ray," Reed said.

The Esks will face the Montreal Alouettes Thursday (7: 30 p.m., TSN).

ATTENDANCE LOW

Last week's Toronto Argonauts home game produced the franchise's smallest crowd since 2003, but the team president is not worried.

"We were down 500 or 600 people from the same game a year ago," Bob Nicholson said. "Overall, we're up just over one per cent from the first two games in 2010. We haven't seen a dramatic shift in support for the club."

PIPKINS JOINS MICHIGAN

The Michigan Wolverines added defensive tackle Ondre Pipkins to their lineup Monday.

The six-foot-three, 325-pound, who plays at a Kansas City high school, is ranked the country's No. 12 defensive tackle by Scout and No. 19 by Rivals.