Sam LaPorta faced reporters in Allen Park on Friday for the first time since his comments about his contract on the Pardon My Take podcast earlier in the week. The Detroit Lions tight end tried to calm things down without taking anything back.
“I feel bad if there was any sort of distraction to the team or my teammates or the coaches,” LaPorta said. “But I think there was maybe a bit of a misconception with, I guess, like my intentions are I want to play for this team. I give everything I have. My teammates do as well. They all love me, respect me, and support me, and they want to see me be happy and compensated, I guess.”
What he said on the podcast
LaPorta is in the last year of his rookie contract and can become a free agent in 2027. On the podcast he said the Lions are “not showing the love,” brought up the back injury that ended his 2025 season — “I break my [expletive] back for the team” — and said that if he no longer plays for Detroit “in three months,” he would “go get paid somewhere else.” Earlier in October he had described the extension talks as being at a stalemate.
“It’s really a business”
On Friday, asked where his frustration comes from, LaPorta talked about his family. “I guess I wouldn’t expect anybody else to really even care, but emotionally for me and my family, like it’s an important thing for us,” he said. “We want to have stability. We’re excited in the coming months, like we’re going to have our first kid, me and my wife. We’re going to welcome our baby girl into the world in metro Detroit. You know, we want to be here with the Lions.”
He got emotional as he went on. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s really a business,” he said. “And you have to respect what the front office is doing because they’re the ones calling the shots. They’re the ones that brought me in. It’s my first team. They’ve been nothing but supportive of me in my career.”
“I don’t know if I regret it”
Asked whether he regrets the comments, LaPorta said: “I don’t know if I regret it. I just don’t expect other people to understand, and we’re very blessed. Like, I’m getting paid millions of dollars this year. So you have to take it with a grain of salt.” He added: “It’s coming from a stance of like, I want security for me and my family, but also when I reflect on other people in the league, I feel like I’m doing just as good of a job, if not better, and I want to be paid like those guys.”
Asked whether the talks had picked up since he last spoke, he said: “No, I don’t think so.” When a reporter asked whether the problem was the lack of an offer, the money or the guarantees, he said: “I don’t know if I care to expand on that, because we could be here all day, but take that up with my agent.” His agent is Jack Bechta.
He said he did not expect the story to grow as it did. “I think the media will always take small stories and run with it and turn them into big ones,” he said. “And when they splice together comments, anything can seem more harsh or bigger than the reality really is. I am one person in a ginormous cog, a ginormous machine in this building, and I want to continue to do my part and hopefully something happens soon.”
Packers next
LaPorta said he has not changed how he prepares. “I’m going to give it my all every week,” he said, “and starting with this weekend, like, huge game coming up, you know, trying to take a lead in the division here, go 1-0 and see what we can do there.” On separating football from business, he said: “You learn it early in your career that you’re being employed and you’re being compensated to do good work for this team. And if you’re not doing good work, you’re not going to be here.”
The Lions (3-2) host the Green Bay Packers (4-2) at Ford Field on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET, which is 11:25 p.m. in Cairo. It is Detroit’s first division game of the season. The Minnesota Vikings lead the NFC North at 5-0. LaPorta, a second-round pick in 2023 who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie, has 27 catches for 316 yards and three touchdowns in five games.
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