From a band kid growing up in Florida to a fearsome offensive tackle who played 18 seasons in the NFL, including 11 years with the Detroit Lions, Lomas Brown has a story to tell.
He was named to the Pro Bowl for seven straight seasons. And he got a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brown first came to Michigan when he was drafted by the Lions in 1985. Despite the snow and cold winters, he’s still here in the Detroit area.
His memoir, co-authored with Mike Isenberg, is titled, If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Detroit Lions Sideline, Locker Room and Press Box.
Brown told us he might never have gotten into football if it weren’t for his school principal.
On the first day of school, Brown said he’d just finished signing up for classes when he heard a voice calling him from across the auditorium. He didn’t know it at the time, but that voice belonged to the school’s principal.
“He called me over to him, and he asked me, ‘Did you sign up for varsity sports?’ And I was like, ‘No, what is varsity sports?’ So he just grabbed me by the arm and took me back in there and he signed me up for it,” Brown said.
He told us he didn’t know until the end of the day that the principal had signed him up for the school’s football team.
In our conversation above, Brown shares his stories of coming to Detroit, his teammates, and what he’s been up to since stepping away from pro football.
This segment originally aired on Nov. 29, 2016.
(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)
