It wasn\u2019t long ago that football in Detroit looked a lot different from the outside looking in.<\/p>\n
The Lions brought back Ahmed Hassanein earlier this week, signing their former sixth-round pick of the 2025 NFL Draft to the team\u2019s practice squad. For a franchise once regarded as desolate and empty on expectations as any team in sports, one thing led Hassanein back to this Lions team: belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy agent was kinda handling all that,\u201d Hassanein explained in regards to the process of his return to Detroit just months after his departure. \u201cHe (Hassanein\u2019s agent) was telling me, \u2018Oh, 31 (teams) was wanting you on their practice squad,\u2019 because I don\u2019t count (on the roster) as a (international) player. So I went, \u2018Man, I\u2019m not going anywhere. I want to stay here, because these people believe in me, and I\u2019m going to give it all I\u2019ve got.\u2019 Because loyalty is a big thing for me. I\u2019m honored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being completely off the team and not allowed to keep in contact, it was impossible for Hassanein to stay informed of how the team was practicing, preparing, and developing defensive strategies, but it seemed to be more emotionally charged for the 23-year-old rookie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m completely off,\u201d Hassanein told reporters after Wednesday\u2019s practice. \u201cThe iPad was taken and everything. I\u2019m completely off the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey couldn\u2019t really contact me either. That part was tough a little bit because I wanted to keep connection just to feel like that again. But now that I have that connection again, I\u2019m never going to leave the opportunity or take it for granted. So now I want to say \u2018What\u2019s up\u2019 to coach every time I see him or \u2018Hey Coach, what\u2019s up? How\u2019s it going today?\u2019 Having that feeling of being coached again, it means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassanein\u2019s decision to rebuff the rest of the league and stay in Detroit is another reminder of how much this franchise has turned things around under Dan Campbell in such little time. A newcomer who spent all of a summer as a team member feels so confident in this being what a Super Bowl-winning team looks like organizationally. But it\u2019s also an exciting reminder of how eager and coachable Hassanein is at a position where the Lions could use all the depth they can get.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing, man. Just to be able to sit in on the team meeting again, and just to have that experience, it means everything to me, and I want to give it all I got. I want to help this team do whatever it takes to win: be on scout team, being whatever, honestly, being whatever\u2014just help my teammates and be the best version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t long ago that football in Detroit looked a lot different from the outside looking in. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":376049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[27705,27706,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-376048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-news","9":"tag-detroit-lions-quotes","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115542715561084163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}