Roy Lopez grew up wrestling. Eventually he wants to be a football coach. But right now, "I still got a lot of years to play," said the new nose tackle for the Lions.
"The biggest thing is to join a room that, when you watch them on tape, you know they play with their hair on fire. They've got the juice. They've got the energy," said Lopez. "As a D-lineman, to join a room like that is a no-brainer. Especially someone that's trying to prove himself in the league and fighting for respect every day in the NFL."
Lopez brought his parents to his introductory press conference Thursday in Allen Park. His dad was his high school football coach. His mom will tell you that his sisters still coach him now. His uncles are high school football coaches. In fact, "Everybody I know, pretty much, is a high school football coach," Lopez said with a laugh, "or went on to be a college football coach."
Lopez played on both sides of the line in high school. When he was deciding whether to play offense or defense in college, his uncle Nick Gomez, who was a defensive end at Illinois State, laid down the law. While Roy's father and another uncle were both offensive linemen, Gomez "was the only one in the room screaming, 'He's a defensive lineman!'" Lopez went on to star at New Mexico State before finishing his career at Arizona. Gomez trains him in the offseason to this day.
According to Lopez, Gomez saw a "mindset" -- an "aggressiveness" -- in his nephew that was suited to the defensive line.
"He just believed in me," Lopez said. "He believed that my hands are a little too fast and my feet are a little too fast to be playing center or kick-stepping. He said that (when I was) a young age. We definitely always like to give him credit. He saw it before everybody else. But I started wrestling when I was 2 or 3 years old. From that moment forward, everybody believed in me."
On the wrestling mat, Lopez was a load. And a really sore loser. He hated it more than he loved winning. In the rare event that he did lose, Lopez was the kid who "cried and walked off all pissed," he laughed. He grew into a two-time state champion in high school who went 113-3. His dad chimed in Thursday to announce that Lopez avenged those defeats.
As for the wrestlers who beat him, "I can tell you exactly what school they went to, and what they look like today," Lopez said with a smile. "Seriously. I ended up beating everybody that beat me. Oh yeah, I can tell you names, height, weight, social security numbers."
Lopez himself is listed at 6'2 and 318 pounds, and looked every bit of it in his first tour around the Lions' facility. His arms bulged out of the sleeves of his black T-shirt. He wore a black cowboy hat. (He was still stunned when he shook hands with the 6'5 Dan Campbell: "I knew he played — I didn’t he could still play.") His favorite maneuver in wrestling was a snap-down. His favorite move as a defensive lineman is a "bull-shuck."
"It's the same movement as wrestling, so it's kind of full circle. My pad level is just purely off of leverage and (having) inside hands, just like wrestling. I owe a lot of credit to it. I didn't enjoy it all the time, cutting weight, running, eating ice chips, spitting. I didn't enjoy it, man. I always said I wasn't going to make my son wrestle, but now it's like, I owe everything to the sport of wrestling. Wrestling changed my life."
He smiles often, but Lopez has a mean streak in the trenches. It's one of the reasons the Lions signed him to a one-year, $4.65 million deal. Along with Alim McNeill and DJ Reader, he's another brooding presence on the interior of the defensive line. He will add to the physicality of a unit that ranked fifth in the NFL against the run and seventh in scoring last season, despite serious attrition. Lopez enjoys the dirty work, as he proved the past two years with the Cardinals and before that with the Texans. He'll be a natural fit with the Lions.
Lopez came to admire Campbell and the Lions from afar. He saw them up close early last season when they took care of business in Arizona, holding the Cardinals to three points in the second half. He could sense their belief in each other, and their commitment to the cause. He spoke frequently on Thursday of their "culture," and said that "as a competitor and as someone that loves ball, it’s a huge part of why I chose Detroit."
"The whole league, the whole country knows what the Detroit Lions stand for, and to be part of it is a humbling experience," he said. "They wear their heart on their sleeves, man. They play with energy on both sides of the ball for four quarters. And they always think they're going to win."
Lopez, 27, has yet to play for a winner in the NFL. Now he finds himself on a contender. That helped lure him away from the Cardinals, his hometown team. So did the chance "to learn the game from Coach Campbell," he said, as a player who wants to coach one day himself. Sparks might have flown when they met. Lopez has a self-described "obsession with football," from scheme to technique to the smallest details that can make or break a play. He loves that the game is honest: "All you got is your preparation and your work ethic," which Campbell might tell you is all you need.
Lopez's dad, his uncles and even some of his cousins played football in college, but never made it to the NFL. Together, they ensured he wouldn't be denied. They instilled in Lopez "everything they learned along the way," he said. They train him back home in Arizona. One of his cousins is his strength coach. Lopez has been on the same path "since I was 12 years old," which has led him to Detroit.
"My uncles always tell me, 'Leave no doubt to be the best,'" he said. "So every single day I show up, I think of them, think of my whole family, and the biggest thing I ever want to do is just make them proud."