How a Detroit kid’s love of sports launched a dream NFL career

Have you ever been that kid who felt overlooked in sports?

Anthony Pittman, a Detroit Lions linebacker whose team kicks off the 2025 season on Sunday, Sept. 7 against the Green Bay Packers in one of the opening weekend’s marquee matchups, was once far out of view.

His first love was baseball, and he was cut from his high school team. Only then did he shift strictly to football. He didn’t even have a highlight video when he completed his senior season at Birmingham (Michigan) Groves High.

But he loved the feeling sports gave him – that instinct he always seemed to have to move – at least after he cried to his mom about going into his first basketball game.

“I just did it because my friends did it and my best friend did it,” he says. “I always was doing a sport. I went from basketball to soccer. I went from soccer to baseball and then eventually (to) football. It’s just always been a part of my life, being a part of a team, being able to have something to look forward to after school was over, and just hanging out, having a close-knit group of friends. I still talk to guys today that I’ve played on teams with from pre-K basketball.”