For Penei Sewell, football is "a way of life." It anchors his past and his future. It's all he sees in his earliest memories, because these were the moments he was falling in love. Sewell wasn't even playing yet. But his dad was the head coach of the high school team on the tiny island they called home in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean and Sewell liked to tag along at practice. He liked to help carry the bags and set up the cones.
"It’s not just a game," Sewell said. "It’s something I’ve always remembered."
They lived in the American Samoa village of Malaeimi, population barely 1,000 the year Sewell was born. Closer to Australia than Hawaii, and thousands of miles away from both. Sewell was one of four brothers. The family's home was a hut.
"We all stayed at the shack there," Sewell said. "Just a beach, an island surrounded by nothing but water. You can hit the whole island in probably a 40-minute drive. It was real small and life was simple. To come from that to where I am today, it’s nothing but a blessing."
Now the Lions thinking are about a better tomorrow. The club drafted Sewell seventh overall Thursday night, the potential star offensive tackle of a potentially dominant offensive line. Sewell couldn't stop smiling as he spoke with reporters, but he scowls on the field. He's mean. He attacks defensive linemen with every ounce of his 6'6, 330-pound frame.
"I’m ready to run through anybody," he said. "I’m ready to put the pads on every day and get under somebody’s chin and make them feel uncomfortable."
Sewell is 20 years old, and his wake is wide. He arrived at Oregon at 17 and became the program's first true freshman to start a season opener in two decades. The next year he became the first sophomore in college football history to win the Outland Trophy as the country's top offensive lineman. On Thursday he became the youngest player drafted in the first round. For as far as he's come, Sewell says he has so much further to go.
"I haven’t even started yet," he said. "That’s how I feel. There’s a lot to do, a lot to be done. The sky’s the limit. I’m ready to tap into that potential and go to work to fulfill that dream."
It's a dream he owes to his dad. Not just for introducing Sewell to football when he was young. But for moving the family from Malaeimi to Utah when he realized his four boys had the potential to play in the NFL. Sewell, who was 11 at the time, would attend Desert Hills High School and become one of the biggest recruits in the country.
Then: the top offensive lineman in the NFL Draft, the seventh overall pick, the rock of a rebuild in his new home. From a shack in the sea to the city of Detroit, it's an journey that's only just begun.
"Every time I reflect on that it just makes me happy," Sewell said, "and it puts a smile on my face to know that there’s more to do and more to come."