Detroit Free Press

LOS ANGELES — As the Super Bowl approached this week, Kelly Stafford, wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, recalled a sobering moment. It started with a phone call from Matthew midway through the season. Said Kelly: “I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ He was like, ‘Honestly, no.’ ” Over the past 12 years,

Dom Capers spent this season helping one of his former players, Aaron Glenn, get his defense off the ground as a senior defensive assistant. With his work for the Detroit Lions done, Capers is headed west to help another one of his ex-charges do the same. Capers is leaving the Lions to take a senior

Matthew Stafford has made most of the headlines, but he’s far from the only ex-Detroit Lion at Super Bowl LVI this week. Riley Reiff would be starting at right tackle Sunday for the Cincinnati Bengals if not for an ankle injury that has sidelined him for the entire postseason. Brandon Powell handles most kick and

Had things gone a little bit differently, new Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson might be in Los Angeles right now preparing for a Super Bowl. Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor said Wednesday he tried to hire Johnson “many, many, many times” for his Bengals staff but Johnson kept getting promoted to a job he

Aidan Hutchinson is the potential No. 1 pick in April’s NFL draft, and the Michigan pass rusher leads a group of 15 players from Michigan state universities invited to the NFL combine Feb. 28-March 7. The NFL on Wednesday announced its list of 324 invitees for the 2022 scouting combine in Indianapolis, and eight members

Calvin Johnson said what so many Detroit Lions fans are feeling this week as the Super Bowl approaches: “We’re all on (Matthew Stafford’s) coattail vicariously for sure.” It’s as close as Johnson will ever get. The retired wide receiver and Hall of Famer has made the media rounds lately to talk about the Super Bowl

Before he was Joe Burrow’s offensive coordinator, he was Matthew Stafford’s quarterbacks coach. And now that Cincinnati Bengals assistant Brian Callahan is on the verge of coaching in another Super Bowl, the former Detroit Lions position coach said he might not be where is if not for his time in Detroit. “That was really a

Matthew Stafford’s daughters showed up at school one day last week with big news to tell their teacher. “My dad’s going to the Super Bowl,” Stafford, speaking Monday at Super Bowl 56 media day, recounted his daughters saying. “And their teacher was like, ‘I know. We’ll all be cheering for him.’ That kind of threw them

Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp was complimentary of both his young kickers at the end of the regular season, but stopped short of saying the Lions were set at the position for 2022. “This league, kind of like I said I think a year ago when I got here, it’s a competitive business,”

Matthew Stafford’s daughters showed up at school one day last week with big news to tell their teacher. “My dad’s going to the Super Bowl,” Stafford recounted his daughters saying at Super Bowl 56 virtual media day Monday. “And their teacher was like, ‘I know. We’ll all be cheering for him.’ That kind of threw

The Detroit Lions had just finished going over their Friday install for their Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers, putting in short-yardage and red-zone plays, when Amon-Ra St. Brown turned to one of his teammates and asked of the assistant who just made the presentation: Who’s Ben Johnson? “His attention to detail when

Just one game stands between the end of the NFL season and the beginning of the 2022 draft. With that in mind, ESPN draft expert Jordan Reid projected the first two rounds of the NFL draft.  Reid, a former Football Championship Subdivision quarterback, mocked out the first round in November, back when the 0-8-1 Detroit Lions looked

MOBILE, Ala. — One week from today, the Cincinnati Bengals will play their first Super Bowl in 33 years, capping a miraculous rise for a franchise that has long been one of the NFL’s dregs and giving hope to other woeful organizations, such as the Detroit Lions, that they can one day do the same.

MOBILE, Ala. — The Detroit Lions are not giving up on Trinity Benson yet. Benson, acquired in a September trade with the Denver Broncos, played sparingly and caught 10 passes for 103 yards in his first season with the Lions, but receivers coach Antwaan Randle El insisted Thursday the organization remains “encouraged” about Benson’s future.

Sean Forbes had expected to experience this year’s Super Bowl like usual — in front of a television. Then the deaf Detroit rapper got the electrifying phone call that promised a career milestone: The NFL wanted him for its upcoming Super Bowl LVI halftime show, performing alongside Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J.

MOBILE, Ala. — Malik Willis is far from the most NFL-ready quarterback to come out of college in recent years, but after three days of practice at the Senior Bowl, the Liberty product appears closer to being an NFL starter than people think. Willis showed off his mighty arm and mobility in practice Tuesday, then had

There are 32 teams in the NFL. One of them employs a Black head coach. By my math, that is 3.125%. Which is nowhere close to representing the 14% of Black people in the U.S. population. And even further away from the nearly 60% of Black players that comprise the NFL. What if the reverse were

MOBILE, Ala. — Two clear favorites have emerged to be the Detroit Lions‘ pick at No. 2 in April’s NFL draft, but outside linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard insisted Thursday he has not looked at film of either Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux yet. “Why would I have done that?” Sheppard said before Day

MOBILE, Ala. — Dan Campbell has had multiple lengthy conversations with Ben Johnson about the Detroit Lions‘ vacant offensive coordinator job, and Johnson said most of those discussions have revolved around how he can help make Campbell’s vision for the offense come to life. “It’s really his vision for it and having his back with

MOBILE, Ala. — If Antwaan Randle El gets his wish, the Detroit Lions will go big-game hunting for a wide receiver this offseason. Randle El, the Lions wide receivers coach, said he told his room after the season that he hopes to add two receivers in this year’s draft and a third in free agency,