Penei Sewell grew up in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean on "a beach on an island surrounded by nothing but water." Ice was a foreign concept. Skating on it was probably for people from another planet.
Naturally, Sewell's football career led him to Hockeytown. The star right tackle for the Lions has become a fan favorite in Detroit, a mean-mugging behemoth who welcomes all comers. Sewell is such a pillar of the Lions' newfound success that Red Wings star and Farmington Hills native Alex DeBrincat got a little giddy when he wound up at a table next to the 6'5, 335-pound 23-year-old at a hibachi spot last week.
"I don’t think he knew who I was," said the 26-year-old DeBrincat, 5'8 and 180 pounds. "I just kept quiet. … He probably thought I was still in high school.”
Sewell, indeed, did not know who DeBrincat was. He was eating dinner with Jerry Jacobs and Lions physical therapist Austin Daus and had no idea the Red Wings leading scorer was sitting right next to them: "And I kind of feel bad," Sewell said Thursday. "But he has a beautiful family, I saw he has a kid and his wife was there. But if I see him again, I'ma show love, for sure."
DeBrincat, who wore a throwback Pistons hat during his introductory press conference in Detroit last summer, is one of several Michiganders and lifelong Lions fans on the Wings' roster, including captain Dylan Larkin. Andrew Copp and Jeff Petry have Michigan roots as well. The Red Wings have become so invested in the Lions' playoff run that after they beat the Leafs in Toronto last Sunday night, the players were glued to the TV watching the end of the Lions-Rams game and didn't leave the locker room until the Lions had finished the job.
Derek Lalonde, a huge football fan himself, was watching the game with his staff in the coaches' room -- "our two video guys are animals, they live and die with the Lions" -- and said that "you could hear the roar from the locker room down the hallway when the (Lions) won."
Lalonde is a diehard Bills fan from Western New York, but he's adopted the Lions as his NFC team in his two seasons as Red Wings head coach. He also has a self-admitted "man-crush" on Dan Campbell. He said Thursday on 97.1 The Ticket that guys like Larkin, DeBrincat and Copp, none of whom were alive for the Lions' last playoff win prior to their 24-23 victory over Matthew Stafford and the Rams, are thrilled with what they're watching.
"These guys are huge Lions fans, fans since they were five years old, and this is big for them," he said. "They’re no different than the average fan, they’re ecstatic."
The Red Wings are so deeply infected with football fever, in fact, that Lalonde was getting Lions-Rams updates on the bench during the team's win over the Leafs, fed to him by assistant coach Alex Tanguay by way of assistant video coordinator Jeff Weintraub (one of said "animals").
"When the Lions are playing, it’s literally like, '3rd and 6, we're on the 22-yard line.' I’m like, 'Tangs, we’re trying to win an NHL hockey game here, I don’t need to know every play,'" Lalonde laughed. "Just the odd, 'Hey, there's six minutes left in the third quarter, they’re up six. I don’t need to know a missed interference call. Tell 'em I get it. We’re trying to win a National Hockey League game.'"
There's a chance that Lalonde's two favorite teams could meet in the Super Bowl, which he admits would be an emotional struggle. Loyal as he is to the Bills, "I have jumped on this Lions bandwagon. How could you not?" he said.
"It's been so fun to watch. You guys know how I feel about Coach Campbell and just watching this team grow and the swagger of it and the attitude of it and the excitement of the town, I’d love it because both teams would get there, but that would be hard on me," he said.
If the Lions dare to go that far, they'll have the full support of the hockey team on the other side of Woodward Avenue. Sewell said it's flattering to know that he has a big (little) supporter on one of the city's other professional teams.
"That’s love and respect and I wish I knew him in the moment," Sewell said. "If I see him again, definitely showing love."
That may well be at Little Caesars Arena later this season. While Sewell has yet to hit a Red Wings game in his three years in Detroit, and while he's a littttle busy at the moment, he said he's trying to get to one this winter if his schedule allows it. Maybe he can go with Campbell, who still owes Lalonde a pregame speech.
"Hopefully I’ll get out to one soon," said Sewell.
Just don't expect him to be hitting the ice. Sewell skated one time, convinced by some friends to give it a whirl his senior year of high school in Utah, and it was "not a good experience, not at all." For one, his size-14 feet were jammed into size-13 skates because that was the rink's biggest pair to rent, "which only made the whole-day experience worse," he said.
"And then two," he said with a laugh, "I don’t even know what I’m doing out there."
Hard to blame the man from American Samoa.