LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOHN MORTON QUOTE SHEET
October 2, 2025
Opening Statement: “Looking forward to this opportunity going on the road. And good defense, they do a good job, they get after it, veteran players, they know their defense inside and out. They do a good job with the rush on the backend – they don’t do a lot, except for third down. Third down, seven-to-10, when you get in around that area, they do a lot of stuff. But they do a really good job, veteran defense with (Bengals DE) Trey (Hendrickson) and (Bengals LB Logan) Wilson – those two guys, they make this defense go. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us a little bit.”
On how different Cincinnati is schematically switching from former Bengals Defensive Coordinator Lou Anarumo’s defense to new Bengals Defensive Coordinator Al Golden’s: “Same scheme. So, I don’t see a lot of difference there. Al, I mean he was there a few years ago so same type of defense, almost the same players, so. Like I said, they do a really good job because they know what they’re doing, they’ve been in the same defense. So, yeah.”
On how he has seen Lions QB Jared Goff grow and improve from his first time here to now: “Everything. Just everything. I mean the communication – RCE that we always talk about – he’s just been phenomenal. Game planning me and him, just talking, the accuracy that he’s had, handling checks at the line. All that, just everything, he’s just so much better at. And he’s played a while, so he’s comfortable in this offense and where we’re at. And that’s good for a quarterback because you want him to go out there and not think about a lot of stuff. But he’s got in some great checks and we’ve capitalized on it. So, to answer your question just really everything.”
On what a quarterback can do to improve their pocket presence: “Well, you drill it. Two hands on the ball, you’ve got to have little subtle movements. Sometimes quarterbacks they move too much or too much in the pocket – move up, out, in – and then they get in trouble because the D-line’s on you now. So, you’ve got to work those drills and we do that daily. Thought he did a really good job last week.”
On how much appreciation he has for receivers who embrace blocking: “Yeah. I mean I played wideout. (Lions Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers) Scottie (Montgomery) does an unbelievable job with those guys. I think it’s awesome and to have those guys – because it helps the run game out so much and then play-action. And then when defenders see that, when the defense sees the wideouts blocking like the way our wideouts block, they know every single down they’ve got to bring it. If they don’t, we’ll probably have some success. So, it just sets up everything. We’re such an unselfish team, I think that’s the best thing about this team.”
On if he blocked or just ran as a receiver: “I blocked. I wanted to catch the ball, man. No, listen, I blocked and I caught the ball.”
On how well he thinks Lions WR Jameson Williams will bounce back after struggling against Cleveland: “I think he bounced back right away because look at what he did after in the game. He continued to block his butt off during the game. We hit him on that one third-down play. So, he bounced back the next play, that’s what I think. And then the way he practices, listen there’s no problem with Jamo. And there’s going to be times where we’re going to ask him to step up and he’ll do it. We’ve got the utmost confidence in him. But I would say right to the next play and that’s what he did. I think that’s where he’s grown. Didn’t faze him, so.”
On what he makes of how Lions T Taylor Decker is playing given the pain that he is playing through: “Again, it’s about the team and he prepares to get ready. It’s a good thing that he’s a veteran. He’s seen a lot of stuff, so he’s got to do a lot of film study to be ready for the game. So I think it gives everybody confidence when you know he’s going to be ready on game day.”
On how much time he spends making sure he finds ways to get all of the offensive weapons involved in the gameplan: “Yeah. Well, I don’t go home until Friday, so. That’s what I do, I sit there and try to find ways to get these guys open. No, but I love it. I love this part of the week. The preparation, that’s what I live for. It’s a good problem to have and then when the game starts, you’ve got to see what happens. Sometimes it’s this guy that has the hot hand, sometimes it’s that. It’s just whatever they’re doing, we try to adapt and try to change if we need to and you’ve got to do that right away in the League. ‘OK, what are they doing? What are they not doing, anything?’ You’ve got to – that’s what good coaches do and that’s what we’ve done.”
On if lining up Lions WR Jahmyr Gibbs out wide during training camp was something he felt needed to be scaled back: “No. It’s been in. Again, so every game is different, I have certain packages. It just so happened in the game that things change, so you’ve just got to wait and see every week.”
On how happy he was when he realized that Lions Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Hank Fraley would be staying on staff and how he is an asset: “He’s awesome. Like I said, you think I’m a mad scientist, him and the head coach, they’re mad scientists in the run game. And I think it’s helped because you want to keep the defense off their toes, show them different formations but maybe run the same play. That’s kind of the same things you do in the passing game. You give them illusion that they’re seeing what they saw last week, but it’s not. But I think they do an unbelievable job. Hank does a great job with those guys. It helps that he played. He played center, he knows the whole thing – protections, the run game, everything. I think that’s big. And the players respond to him, so his communication’s awesome.”
On if the offense this year reminds him of any that he has seen or been around in his career: “Yeah, when I was at the Raiders. We had (former NFL WR) Tim Brown, (former NFL WR) Jerry Rice, (former NFL RB) Charlie Garner, (former NFL RB) Tyrone Wheatley, (former NFL TE) Doug Jolley. We went to the Super Bowl there. We had the best offense in the League so. All those guys are Hall of Famers – just about half of them. Great offensive line. That’s really the only thing that comes to mind really. But with these weapons, it’s – we can do whatever we want, like I said before in the past. I hope I answered your question, but those guys.”
On if sitting in the booth on a game day is valuable for having an eagle-eye view and quicker ability to adapt play-calling in-game: “Yeah, well that’s the whole thing. I also think it’s the coaches communicating – we talk in between series. So, what are you seeing, what are they seeing, I want to know what the players they’re seeing, what the quarterback’s seeing. But I can see a lot of stuff up there, there’s no doubt. I think it’s way easier to call plays up there because I’ve got guys down below I can trust – they’ve done it. So, that’s the biggest thing. If I didn’t have those guys, I would probably go downstairs for the quarterback. But we’ve got veteran coaches, they’ve done it. But it’s a lot easier, takes all the chaos out from being on the field when you can call plays and it’s nice and quiet.”
On if Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown and Lions T Penei Sewell are on track and have the potential to be named to the Hall of Fame: “I mean, it isn’t even close. I told St. Brown the other day, ‘You’re the best I’ve ever been around. Run and pass. The way you prepare, the professionalism,’ what he does in the offseason. And I’ve said this before, he reminds me of (former NFL WR) Anquan Boldin – they just come to work. All they want to do is dominate every single play. But I told him, I said, ‘I don’t really care what the coverage is, you’re going to get open.’ I know – and (Lions QB) Jared (Goff) has that comfort level with him. When you’ve got that, it’s kind of easy to call plays. But I just think he – just his attitude and how he approaches his preparation, I haven’t seen it from a wideout like that. That’s pretty impressive. And Penei, I mean just every game it’s just really impressive. And he approaches the game the same way too. And they’re always working their craft, trying to master their trade and I think that’s contagious. Other players see that, young players see that, ‘I’ve got to do that.’ But yeah, he’s very special.”
On being around former WR Jerry Rice: “Yeah, that was towards the end of his career. I’m talking about run and pass, everything. I mean Jerry would block every once in a while, but. I don’t think (former NFL head coach) Bill Walsh wanted him to block too much. He had other guys for that.”
On if he finds Lions Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers Scottie Montgomery’s philosophy of educating the receivers through the eyes of the whole offense unique: “Well, I do because – when I coached wideouts, I taught them through the quarterback’s eyes. What is the quarterback seeing? I think when you do that and you’ve got players that can do it – we’ve got really smart, tough football players, so they all buy into it. Every once in a while, there’s somebody where you don’t need to tell them so much. I mean just let them go play, don’t worry about that. But, when you teach the receivers – and that’s every position – what the quarterback’s looking at, the game slows down for you. ‘Oh, he should go. He should already do this. He should already do that.’ Based on if we have a shift and a motion and this, based on coverage and things like that or a certain front. I think when you teach players that way, it helps big time.”
On what has been the most rewarding part of him coaching this group through four weeks: “Just winning. I mean every coach works hard. Like I told you before, it’s not about me, it’s about these players. We have great players. All I care about is a W, I don’t care how it is. That’s all I care about. Whether we’re running the ball or we’ve got to throw it, whatever it takes – I’ve said that before. So, I don’t really care, as long as we’re winning.”
On if he has the luxury of sitting in the booth partly because of Lions QB Jared Goff being a veteran: “No, I think it has to do with the coaches down there. If I was around a new staff or maybe somebody I haven’t been around, I would probably want to be down there. But you’ve got veteran coaches, it’s easy. That’s the main reason really because you want to make sure – we’ve got like three quarterback coaches really and they’ve all played. So, it’s really easy for me. I can really concentrate, I can say what I need to say downstairs and then boom, I’m onto the next series getting ready for that. But I have to do it that way.”
On if he has always sat up in the coaches booth: “I’ve been in there my whole career. Yeah, (former NFL Head Coach Jon) Gruden threw me up there. It’s like home, it’s my second home. So I feel comfortable, so I want my comfort zone too. So, you can’t get into all the, ‘Well, you should be upstairs. You should be downstairs.’ Still getting the same communication, so.”
On his sleeping situation at the facility: “I’ve got a good trifold bed, eight inch, memory foam.”
LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR KELVIN SHEPPARD QUOTE SHEET
October 2, 2025
Opening Statement: “We’ll dive right into it like each week, recapping last week against Cleveland. First and foremost, want to give a major shoutout to not only the players, but the coaching staff, the defensive coaching staff. And the reason I want to bring that up is because I ask these guys each week essentially to adapt to the week. Like, you have to be able to adjust and adapt in this League, now, and not just be in your stubborn ways. It’s different contrast versus (Ravens QB) Lamar Jackson and (Browns QB) Joe Flacco. The different variations in offense and the way these guys are going to try and attack us. And the volume that these guys are able to teach weekly is really amazing. This is the most defense we’ve played week to week since I’ve been here, so I want to credit them. They’re the ones who spend the most time with their rooms, and they have these guys ready to play. And they have them ready to play at a high level. Getting into last week, obviously we played at a high level on defense. Credit to the players. I’ve been telling you all all along that that’s the standard here. The way these guys played, the output, the numbers, everything is the standard around here. And I knew they were capable of that. The biggest kind of pain in our you-know-what has been the explosive plays and explosive gains. We were able to limit the Cleveland Browns to only two of those. And when you’re able to do that, you see the outcome. Third down, trying to get that percentage down. We held them to three-of-14. But that’s what we had been doing, it was just the penalties a lot of times. In a lot of those games, a lot of those – half of the third down conversions were by way of penalty. So, the players cleaning that stuff up, playing with clean hands at the top of the route was an emphasis. Those guys did that. Red zone, we made them earn it. When we got down there, took all four at the one-yard line and they barely got that. And then the other three points were off sudden change plus 42-yard line drive start. And those guys went out and held them to a field goal. Red zone, so that’s 50 percent. Run game, 2.9. So, when you’re able to go out and do those types of things, no matter – we know the type of offense we have here. But I always tell the defensive unit, no matter if they score 50 or 17, I expect us to win by the way that we operate on defense. And those guys are rising to the challenge every week, and it’s really a joy to see and a joy to coach.”
On Lions DL Alim McNeill and what he saw out of him from his first day back at practice: “I saw all I needed to see. I see him helping in a major way. Now the biggest task for me is being patient. And you know the collaborative effort with our training staff, strength staff, and obviously the head man giving me the green light for him and what that’s going to entail and look like. But I told (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) yesterday, it’s amazing when you watch those practice clips. It’s like he’s been at training camp, I mean, he does not look like a player that hasn’t practiced. And that’s credit to him. I know all those bone density and all these guru terms they throw out, but all I know is I see a very, very high caliber defensive tackle when I turned on the tape yesterday. So, I’m very excited to have him back out there.”
On what the key has been to the short yardage run defense: “It’s a big reason why (Lions DL) DJ Reader got a game ball. He’s not popping off the stat sheet and he doesn’t have 13 tackles, three sacks. But it’s all of the dirty work that people don’t see. Those guys, statistics wise, they show up when (Lions LB) Jack Campbell gets 10 tackles every week because they can’t come off of double teams. They show up when (Lions DL) Tyleik (Williams) goes out on two huge critical plays two weeks ago and gets two PBUs. Man, them guys, I can’t rave about them enough. And it’s not just those two. (Lions DL) Roy Lopez, we’re about to get (Lions DL) Alim (McNeill) back. I mean, we’ve got guys for days. I just tell (Lions Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line Kacy Rodgers) Kace, you just roll them in. I don’t care who’s in the game. We’ve got four defensive tackles that are all starting caliber players, and that’s something new around here. You guys know. And it’s a joy, I’m glad my first year doing this, I’m able to just have the comfortability that we can roll those guys as we see fit as the game goes.”
On how much Lions DL DJ Reader has helped patch the absence of Lions DL Alim McNeill: “He helps us patch everything on the front. DJ is the ultimate professional. I know his name doesn’t get mentioned a lot, and he doesn’t wear a C on his chest, but he is viewed as a leader on our defense. He doesn’t talk much, so when he does, guys listen, even me. He’s given me a couple ideas, a couple things, what guys like, what they don’t. He’s a mature guy. So, we can have some conversations that you can’t have with like a (Lions CB) Terrion Arnold and things like that. You just, ‘TA, get over there. Here’s the call, go play.’ With DJ, kind of, DJ’s like, ‘Shep, the guy’s kind of aren’t feeling that, man.’ And I’m like, ‘Really? Why?’ But he always has a why behind it. So man, I’ve got a lot of respect for Reader. I mean, a 10-year vet that’s still out there right now taking 40 snaps a game at 330 pounds. It’s amazing to see, coming off of injury two years ago. So, that’s my guy, man. DJ Reader is a leader on this defense, and he holds things together up front.”
On Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase and Bengals WR Tee Higgins and how good the defense has to be to win 50-50 balls: “Absolutely, and it’s no secret that we have (Lions CB) D.J. Reed out who’s been our top guy thus far. But, when you see things like that, I see opportunity for somebody. I see a tremendous opportunity. If you told me I’m a corner in the League and I get to go out on a big-time stage and match up with those two guys, that’s what you want. That’s what you want, and you can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it. But also, as a coaching staff, we have to be smart and understand that that is a two-headed monster over there. But you can’t just lose sight of the running back either, (Bengals RB) Chase Brown. These are explosive players, and he is as well. And they do a good job, and they understand that teams have to account for those two. And that’s where Chase makes his hay. But I can’t speak about him enough. I was with Ja’Marr my first year coaching back in 2020 at LSU, so I have a personal relationship with him. I’ve seen the way that player works, so it’s no surprise to me the success that he’s having. And credit to him, but also, we have guys over here too. And our guys hear it loud and clear. Our guys hear all the things that you guys hear about these two players, and I know the competitive nature of our guys in our room. So, I’m looking forward to the task and challenge at hand. Although (Bengals QB) Joe Burrow isn’t playing, that offense still runs like a fine oiled machine. A lot of respect for (Bengals Head Coach) Zac Taylor. I was around him as a player down in Miami. A brilliant offensive mind, and he’s going to find ways to get those guys versus scheme and un-scheme targets in this game. And we understand and know that.”
On Lions CB Rock Ya-Sin and Lions DB Avonte Maddox spending time with the first team during training camp and how that experience will help them in the season: “To me, if you’re on a 69-man roster, shame on you if you’re not acclimated already. If you’re here, practice squad, you see we call guys up and you’re in the fire. It’s not a wait around, you’re here getting free meals every day. No. If you’re on the 69-man roster, like I said, you should be scratching, clawing, and itching at an opportunity like you have right now. Like, I see those guys plug and play players. You’re on an NFL roster, you’re an NFL player. There are no bad players in the NFL. So, to me, it’s next man up. And they hear that too, and they know this could be your one shot. This could be your one opportunity. And don’t view it as pressure, view it as a tremendous and beautiful opportunity and go seize the moment.”
On how his time as a coach at LSU helped him formulate the ability to build relationships with players: “That’s very interesting that you brought that up, because I tell everybody that made me the coach that I am. Because you have to understand the person before you understand the player. Because you’re never going to get through to the player if you don’t know the person, and it’s as simple as that. And I respect these guys as people first. And it helps that I sat in that seat, and I know what it feels like to be a number versus a person. And when you see them as people, they see you as a person. And that’s relatable. Like in this game, that’s relatable. You can coach them a certain way when they know you have their best interest. So, that role that I had at LSU was a beautiful thing. A lot of it was chasing kids around, making sure they were in class, not in class, ‘Where are you? Why are you doing this? You can’t talk to the coach like that.’ But I learned throughout that it’s all different types of people, man. It’s ones who get it the first time, it’s ones who learn from others, and then it’s ones who take more that take multiple times. And that’s also schematically. You can’t give up on people. Like, everybody deserves a second chance, but also within that, the person you’re giving a second chance has to understand there may not ever be a third. So, it’s a lot of lessons in life that I learned from that that’s helped me become the coach that I’m becoming.”
On why it is important for a defense to be versatile week to week: “Because it’s what I believe in, number one. And when I say what I believe in, I believe in putting players in position to make plays and not just being stuck in your ways. These are my three, four defenses, we’re going to do this, and never adjusting. Because that’s when you start to get attacked and schemed up and the players feel hopeless out there. And that’s the worst thing, I know for me as a coach, for my players to ever feel hopeless. I want my players to know we always have answers for you. That’s what our job is as a coach, to have direct answers for you and solutions to problems, not only going into a game, but as the game flows. And showing them how I think a team’s going to attack us, and if they attack this coverage this way this is how we’re going to adjust. And then those players start to believe in it, man. They’re like, ‘We’re good. I mean, it’s nothing they can do now. It ain’t nothing they can do. It’s almost nothing they could do to make me feel helpless.’ And that’s when you start to build confidence, player to coach. And these guys have been all in from the start. So, I’m not saying it had to build up to this, but it does strengthen when they see the results. When they see you preaching something and now, ‘Oh, this works.’ So now they want more, and they want more. And you have to have a strong staff to do that, and I’m very fortunate to have that.”
On Lions DL Tyler Lacy and how he complements the edge rushers on the defensive line: “Oh, he’s been tremendous. He’s growing on me every week. And he’s getting more and more every week. It’s just the big body at first when he walked in here. You see this huge man, you think oh, he’s a defensive tackle. And then you kind of start to see him in individual move around, and I started to ask him, ‘Have you ever played D-end?’ And at first he looked at me and was like, ‘What? No. What do you mean D-end?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, just a thought.’ And then the next week I went up to him again, ‘How would you feel if I told you I needed you to play the five?’ ‘Good, coach.’ And at that point, I don’t think he cared what I asked. I could’ve said safety and he would’ve said, ‘I’m good, coach.’ Because he’s a guy who’s been around this League that hasn’t been afforded many opportunities, and he knows this is his second shot at the apple after coming into the League from Oklahoma State. And he allows us versatility is what he allows us. To be a certain – what looks like big packages, and kind of morph those into sub-groupings. The same way that I speak of (Lions LB Derrick Barnes) D-Barnes, you could speak of Lacy to a certain degree as far as the versatility that he provides for our base defense.”
On Lions EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad and if his versatility helps move the defensive line around: “I was going to say, I think we all know that we have a guy opposite of (Lions EDGE Aidan Hutchinson) Hutch now. I think we’re pretty safe to say that Muhammad is a guy opposite Hutch, not just another guy we’re throwing out there. But he’s been tremendous. I mean, you’ve literally seen Muhammad line up at the nose, the three, the edge, and hasn’t batted an eye. He’s gotten run game in there, it hasn’t just been pass rush. I’ve seen him drop a knee and anchor. I mean, just anything you’ve asked that guy to do. And like I said, where he is in his career, to see him kind of ascending in a way is a credit to (Lions Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line) Kacy Rodgers, but more importantly, it’s a credit to Muhammad, man. Head down, he’s been a grinder since day one ever since I’ve met him.”
LIONS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR DAVE FIPP QUOTE SHEET
October 2, 2025
On how much he has enjoyed the impact that special teams units have had this season across the League: “Yeah, it is a good question. I actually just said to somebody the other day, I mean I love the fact that special teams is having a bigger impact. It obviously makes our jobs more important, it makes our role more important, it makes really all the players playing those plays’ jobs more important. I think it helps everybody. I think I said in the offseason or training camp, the returner position’s going to be more important, both kick and punt. Kickoff return, you have to have two guys back there, you can’t just have one. So that makes that more important on the roster – how many guys you have, who they are. So I would say overall it’s outstanding. I love it. Puts more pressure on me too, but that’s why you do it, so it’s fun.”
On how he feels about what the team has done on kickoff return: “Yeah. I think kickoff return, probably the best way you could say it is we’ve been fairly consistent. Fairly consistent with our blocking, we haven’t had a ton of negative plays – we had one in Green Bay the opening week, we had another one with Chicago where we kind of ran straight into a guy. But I would say I think it’s been fairly consistent. The punt return game obviously had been non-existent until really last week. We put a big emphasis on it going into that game. Sometimes that’s the way the season goes. Different teams, you have different strategies and going into that game, big strategy was to return the ball on punt return, be aggressive with it – obviously (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf did a good job. But I think as the season flows, there’s going to be ebbs and flows. That’s the way the game works. Just like I kind of alluded to last week, for us the goal is going to be to continue to improve, just get a little bit better each week and I think the guys have done that the first four weeks. We’ve got a big challenge with these guys this week, for sure.”
On how Lions K Jake Bates has improved in his development of learning more varieties of kicks for kickoff: “Yeah. I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens across the League. Obviously a couple of weeks ago, the Rams played Philly and they got the ball on the ground all the time. Carolina’s done a good job with that, I think that’s gotten some attention out there. And the one thing I would say about that, if you’ve watched the Carolina game against New England, obviously those guys had a bunch of time to prepare for it. Or it was really us against Baltimore – going into that game, Baltimore had done a lot of it. And I think what you’re seeing is teams are starting to play some of these short kicks a little bit better. And I think now you’re starting to see, well maybe getting the ball on the ground. If you can get it on the ground and get it to roll around forever, obviously that’s the best play you can get. The second best play you can get is a returner muffing the ball. If he muffs the ball, then you’re doing good on kick coverage. But I think what we’re starting to find out is like New England started to play that ball short and so they were up there, they force them to kick it deep a little bit, if they hit it short, it was in their hands short right away and now it ended up being a positive play for New England. So, I think over time, some of that stuff will kind of come back out of the game a little bit. I think what will stay in the game, I think ultimately – I talked to Bates about this the other day – is the kicker is a huge factor in the play. His ability to move the ball around the field is going to be crucial. If they’re playing you up, you want to put it deep. They’re playing you deep, you wouldn’t mind being able to put it up. They’re playing with one returner, you’d like to knock it down somewhere on the ground where that guy can’t get to it – so low and short, not a lot of hang time. And then I think some of the stuff also depends on how the front’s playing. The front has to set up before the kicker can kick the ball. So sometimes they put five guys over to one side and three to the other, sometimes they go whatever – balanced look, three, three and three down the middle. But you really kind of want the ball placed in a different spot based off what the front is too. So, it’s putting a lot in the kicker’s hands. I think the more that coaches learn about the play, the more the kickers are going to learn about the play and the more the ball’s going to – you’re going to want the ball to move around based off of not only the returner but also the look that you have.”
On playing with one returner up: “Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time on it. But it looked to me like – it was kind of similar to Baltimore for us. Like we played our left returner up because they kick the ball down short on that left side. So, the ball bounced on the ground but it’s a short hop and it just got in that guy’s hands right away and now he’s sitting at the 10-yard line as opposed to sitting at the one-yard line. And so, whatever, that’s a lot of time.”
On how difficult it is to execute a kick that gets the ball into that intended landing zone: “Yeah, I think the short kick is difficult. Some guys have mastered it and a lot of guys are trying to and haven’t, I would say it that way. But either way, I think if you can play – if you know what’s coming, then you’ve got a chance to make it work for you, I think, a little bit more.”
On his thoughts on the new rule that allows teams to wear in kicking balls before games: “Yeah, so I think at the end of the day – I’ve been asked a few times about this, which obviously, at least they asked somebody who might have an idea. I’m not sure how much (Eagles Defensive Coordinator) Vic Fangio knows, but. I do respect the heck out of him, he’s a great coach, I was around him for like a week in San Fran when he came in. Anyway, I would say that I don’t think that it makes a big difference. I think it’s very minimal. I think it’s one of those things that is perfect for the NFL, like it draws headlines and people talk about it and it’s a great storyline. But do I think it affects it? Sure, a little bit but I do think very minimally. Now, I would say this, in the past we have put a huge emphasis on preparing the ball for game day. And the procedure used to be, you would have an hour to prepare the ball on game day at the stadium. And we have one of our equipment guys (Lions Equipment Assistant) Khamari (Prude), who does a great job with that and he was exceptional at it the last handful of years. So we were going into the game with a great ball a year ago. If your guys didn’t prepare the ball well going into the game, maybe it makes a bigger difference for some of those people. I would say for us, minimally. The only other thing I would say is just to go through the history of the game – not that I know it all, I wish I did like (former NFL Head Coach Bill) Belichick. But, I’ll give you another story about history too. So anyway, the history of the game, when I first got in the League people would tell me that how they prepared the balls for game day was like they would take a football, they would soak a towel, they would wrap the football in the towel, they would put the football in the towel in the drying machine and they would tumble it. And so now it would come out of there round and all the seams are off and nice and soft and round. And anyway, I know this, we’ve never kicked a ball like that but they’ve certainly done it before in this League. So, the whole asterisk thing, all that. These guys are better players than they’ve ever been at all positions – offense, defense, special teams. These kickers have way bigger legs than they’ve ever had, coaches are going for it or kicking longer field goals much more than has ever been done before and it’ll just open up the opportunity to get more of these players like that. As far as history, it wasn’t my best subject, I would say that – not that I had one. P.E. was pretty good. And so, I couldn’t play eighth grade sports because I was failing my history class. And I had this coach – his name was Rick Woods – he was the head coach of the football team at the time. And I was kicked off the sports teams and I wasn’t allowed to play, so I was devastated. It was the only subject I was any good at. And then, we were playing in P.E. – I got to still participate in P.E. – and we were doing dodgeball. I mean that was like the best day in the world, you get to actually do dodgeball. So, we were doing dodgeball and then this guy Rick Woods, he came and grabbed me and he’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to talk to you.’ And he was like, ‘I’ve got to talk to you about this history thing.’ Now I’m crying, I’m pissed, I’m upset, I’m crying and he says, ‘Hey, I was a history major.’ Well, I idolized this guy. He was a head coach of the varsity football team, he was a P.E. teacher for us, he was a great person. And he told me how history was not his – he majored in history, ‘You could end up turning it around.’ I ended up meeting with the principal every morning at six a.m., going over history so that I could pass the test so that I could get eligible so I could play sports. And here I am today, so that’s my history lesson.”
On the procedure for preparing kicking balls last year: “So, in general the way they prepare the ball – I mean it all kind of depends on the officiating crew and all that. You used to have to do it in front of those guys, some of those guys looked at it more strictly than others. The bottom line is you’re trying to break down the seams and you’re trying to round the ball out and then you’re also trying to make it a little bit more tactile cause it comes out kind of slippery right out of the box. So, at the end of the day, you’re supposed to only be able to use this brush that Wilson makes. It’s a hard brush and you can use the brush. Now they say you could use any part of the brush, so you could use the backside of the wooden brush. So those guys would take the backside of the brush on the seams, they would take the bristle side of the brush and smooth the ball out and then obviously you see those kickers push the tip of the ball into the tee before they kickoff throughout the course of the game. Yeah, they’re also trying to flatten it out or round the thing out. And the rounder and smoother you can get it and the more grippy you can get it, the better for really all three of those guys – snapper, punter, kicker.”
On what the procedure is for preparing kicking balls now: “So, the procedure is now basically we have the balls ahead of time so we no longer have to get that job done in an hour on game day and see those balls for the first time on game day. Now we have those balls here in the facility, we can prepare them throughout the week, we can actually kick with them and then bring them to game day. The official inspects them, makes sure it’s good and then we’re good to go.”
On how long a prepared kicking ball can be used for: “There’s a week limit on that. I don’t know that off the top of my head. I want to say it’s like four weeks in a row or five weeks in a row and then those balls have to shuffle out. And during that time you can start to introduce a new one or whatever, so.”
On if it is only a kicking ball being prepared ahead of game day and the situations where special teams would use a quarterback ball: “Yeah, it’s only kicking balls. I mean and that’s the one thing just on the K-ball deal. Another weird thing would be like a hurricane situation or a hurry-up field goal at the end of the game where the offense is out there, they would not get the kicking ball into us. If we’re running on the field and the clock’s going down – eight, seven, six, five – they don’t have time to switch the ball out. But every other traditional play on special teams – like we’re going to punt the ball, when we take our punt team out there, they bring the kicking ball out there. Or when we go field goal, they switch the quarterback ball out and they put the kicking ball out there and we kick the field goal with that.”
On if special teams units will throw a fake punt with the kicking ball: “So we throw with the kicking ball, yeah. Which is totally different than the quarterback ball. All you’ve got to do is look at the color. The quarterback ball, they put – I don’t know what they do to them.”
