The Detroit Lions took full advantage of the ‘Sunday Night Football’ spotlight in Week 18, but Amon-Ra St. Brown decided against joining the intro party.
The Detroit Lions announced themselves to the country with a Week 18 win over the Green Bay Packers, eliminating Aaron Rodgers from the playoffs as an added bonus. On the latest episode of his podcast, with his brother Equanimeous, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown talked about the Lions knowing before kickoff they couldn’t make the playoffs. He also talked about the Lambeau Field atmosphere for the prime time game.
"You put your pads on, then go back out for your whole team warmup. As we’re out there with the whole team, we’re doing our warmups. We get into like the seven-on-seven, and I asked Jared (Goff), who won the game? He goes Seahawks, Seahawks won in overtime. Well, looks like it’s time to spoil the Packers’ season. And, that’s when I kind of found out that the Seahawks won. I wish the Rams would have won, but at the end of the day, it was Sunday night at Lambeau Field. I mean, the atmosphere was lit.”"
As expected, some Lions players took the opportunity provided by “Sunday Night Football player intros to say something interesting, funny, incomprehensible or unique–or a mix of those things. Here’s a sampling.
Jamaal Williams: ‘Swag Kazekage leader of the Hidden Village of the Den” (what? lol)
Taylor Decker: “The” (went to Ohio State)
Penei Sewell: “Village of Malaeimi” (was born in Malaeimi, in American Samoa)
Aidan Hutchinson: “THE University of Michigan”
Malcolm Rodriguez: “Barry Sanders University” (they both went to Oklahoma State)
Alex Anzalone: “Gator Boy” (went to Florida)
Jerry Jacobs: “Harvard” (didn’t actually go to Harvard)
J-Kerb (Kerby Joseph): “Zoe life, no life”
Amon-Ra St. Brown didn’t join Lions “Sunday Night Football” intro party
For his intro, St. Brown simply stated his name and his college alma mater, USC. But that almost wasn’t the case.
"We went in after (practice) to do it and the whole three hours before, me and the receivers were messing around talking about, ‘I must say this, I’m goin to say that.’ I was going to be like, I was going to say, ‘Amon-Ra St. Brown, Standout Business University.’ Everyone had some crazy stuff, but we all didn’t end up doing it.”"
So it sounds like the Lions’ wide receivers were each plotting to have a crazy intro, then they backed off as a group. If the strong end to this season is any indicator, there may be an opportunity or two on Sunday night next season for those guys to join the team’s player introduction party.