Lomas Brown was the No. 6 overall the pick the last time the Detroit Lions had that pick, and he has told his epic draft day story.
The Detroit Lions have the sixth overall pick in April’s draft, thanks to the Los Angeles Rams and the Matthew Stafford trade. They will be hoping it works out as well as it did the last time they picked sixth overall.
In the 1985 NFL Draft, the Lions took Florida offensive tackle Lomas Brown. He played 11 seasons in Detroit, with 163 starts, six of his seven career Pro Bowl selections and three First or Second-Team All Pro nods as one of the best left tackles of his era. As a sign he was allowed to leave Detroit a little too soon, he played seven more seasons.
Brown currently serves as the radio color analyst for Lions games. He recently told his draft day story to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press (subscription required).
The Lions nailed it the last time they had the No. 6 overall pick - much to the surprise of even the player they drafted, 7-time Pro Bowl LT Lomas Brown https://t.co/7JCcdyK5h9 via @freep
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) February 16, 2023
Former Lions star Lomas Brown has epic draft story
Via SI.com:
"So, we walk to the parking lot, and in the parking lot, he came to pick me up in his car. And, it was a straight hooptie. It was rusted out at the bottom. I forgot what make and model it was, but it was a hooptie,” Brown told Birkett.I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I’m saying to myself, ‘Man, I’m the sixth pick in the draft, and they send a one-armed equipment guy to come pick me up in this hooptie, man.’ And, I’m telling you, I froze from that. Cause again, it was rusted out at the bottom. I froze from the airport all the way out to the Pontiac Silverdome, and that was my first experience with the Lions.”"
Not sure if the one-armed equipment guy or the rusted-out car thing is the funnier part of Brown’s story. That he froze riding in the rusted-out car, even in late-April in Michigan (when it can certainly be cool outside), just feels like an added layer.
Today, top NFL draft picks travel from the draft in private planes, with top of the line vehicles taking them from the airport to the team facility. So Brown’s story from 1985, in which a low-level (and apparently disabled?) Lions’ employee picked him up in a car that left him praying for his safety, is literally and figuratively from another time.