Amon-Ra St. Brown started his Friday news conference in Munich in German. He told the room how happy he was to be in Germany, “mein zweites Heim,” his second home, and said he could hardly wait to play on Sunday with his team in front of the fans there. “Ist ein Traum für mich,” he said. It is a dream for me.
Then he said it again in English. “I just want to say thank you to everyone that’s here, all the fans. I can’t wait for the game,” St. Brown said. “Playing football in Germany with my teammates, it’s really, honestly, a dream come true.” He added that it already “feels amazing, the love, the support, the energy. I can’t wait to see the fans. So yeah, I’m ready.”
His mother, Miriam, is German, and St. Brown and his two older brothers spent summers in Germany growing up. The Lions face the New England Patriots at Bayern Munich’s stadium on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET (16:30 Cairo), with Detroit as the home team. It is the first time St. Brown has played an NFL game in the country.
“I feel like it’s my duty”
St. Brown said the trip is about more than one game. He remembered visiting Germany as a kid, 15 or 20 years ago, while playing football at home in California. “When I got here, it was like, I’m not playing no football. I’m just playing soccer,” he said, “because they don’t really have the infrastructure. Football wasn’t as big. No one really knew the rules.”
He now runs youth camps in Germany every year, and he said the difference is plain. “Twenty years later, we’re in 2026, and I got my youth camps every year in Germany. Kids are excited to go. They understand the rules, they know the team, they know the players,” he said. “Playing for the Detroit Lions, being in the NFL, playing our first game here in Germany, I feel like it’s my duty to help the game grow, and I feel like we’re headed in a good direction.”
“A personal Google Translate”
His teammates have kept him busy all week. “They’re asking me how to say whatever comes to their minds,” St. Brown said. “So I’m just like a personal Google Translate to them at this point.” They also want to know what to eat, and he said he has been teaching them how the culture is a little different. “But for the most part, I think humans have an easy way of adapting,” he said, “so I think they’ll be just fine.”
Dan Campbell: “He just wins”
Dan Campbell was asked about St. Brown at his own news conference and talked about the person first. “If you gave him a task, anything in life, in sports, acting, he will find a way to dominate it,” Campbell said. “He thrives off overcoming adversity.”
“He’s the guy that he’s not too big. He doesn’t have the speed. He doesn’t have all this length,” Campbell said, “but yet he just wins, right? He just wins. So he’s got the heart of a lion, no pun intended.” Campbell called him “one of the most consistent players, if not the most consistent player I’ve ever been around, as a player and as a coach,” and added: “This is special for him, it’s special for us.”
Jared Goff said much the same. “He’s amazing. Obviously, the numbers speak for themselves, but his work ethic and who he is as a teammate and as a person is so fun to play with,” Goff said. “He makes everyone around him better. Ultimate competitor every day in practice. As a quarterback, you can’t ask for much more.”
Questionable with a rib injury
St. Brown still has to get on the field. He was limited in practice all week with a rib injury and is listed as questionable for Sunday. Running back Sione Vaki (ankle) is also questionable, while Kerby Joseph, Cade Mays and D.J. Reed stayed in Detroit instead of making the trip.
St. Brown has 61 catches for 657 yards and five touchdowns in eight games this season, and 38 catches for 429 yards over his last five, though he has not scored in that stretch. He has 608 catches for 6,909 yards and 49 touchdowns in his career. Detroit is 6-2 and has won four straight. New England is 5-4.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.