Lions’ Penei Sewell reflects on ‘surreal’ journey to NFL’s highest-paid OL
If he wasn’t playing football, the highestpaid offensive lineman in the NFL would probably be a farmer back home in his native American Samoa.
“Just planting roots, just eating what I plant, go about my day,” Detroit Lions right tackle Penei Sewell said Monday. “It’s a simple life out there. It’s beautiful, but I always knew I wanted more and the mainland offered that.”
The mainland — and football — have given Sewell more than he could have imagined as a kid growing up on a remote island in the South Pacific, where he played games of football with his brothers and cousins using water bottles filled with sand.
Last week, Sewell signed a four-year, $112 million extension that makes him the highestpaid offensive lineman in NFL history and ties him to Detroit through 2029.
Reflecting on his journey in a news conference Monday, Sewell said playing in the NFL had “always been the dream of mine, but to be where I’m at right now, it’s still surreal to me.”
“Thinking about all those times on the beach playing with my brothers and cousins and how far I’ve truly come,” he said. “I don’t like to think about it too much cause I’m still going, I’m still trying to go places. But it’s crazy, man, like to not have a real football to now playing in the league — I still don’t touch the football, but that’s fine. But it just — I’m very thankful for those moments cause it truly built to who I am today.”
A first-round pick out of Oregon in 2021, Sewell is coming off an All-Pro season and is widely regarded as the best right tackle in football.
He’s still 23 years old, but when he arrived at the Lions’ practice facility to sign his new contract with his wife, Isabelle, and two kids last week, he realized just how much his life had changed.
“Time’s been flying and I don’t like it, without a doubt,” Sewell said. “It makes me feel like I’m getting older, but I’m not. I’m still young and I’m going to ride that wave.
“But yeah it was crazy kind of walking into the building I think last week to come sign and it was a little different. I had my parents when I got drafted out here and we kind of walked through the building just star-struck, looking at my locker, looking at the facility, looking at the indoor field. But now I got two kids and it’s a blessing, man. That’s really what it is and
just to be able to share that with Malakai and my baby girl, and just kind of showing them a dream. Like, it doesn’t have to be this one right here, just showing them that a dream is possible and that you are literally capable of doing anything you set your mind to and I hope I’m an example of that and I try to do that every day.”
Though in the works for months, Sewell said his deal with the Lions came together more quickly than he imagined.
He met with his agent early this offseason in California to discuss the possibility of a new contract, and the two sides hammered out the details in a matter of weeks, agreeing to terms on the same day the Lions and Amon-Ra St. Brown finalized a deal that temporarily made
St. Brown the highest-paid wide receiver in football.
“Literally it went from, ‘Hey, this could happen in a couple months,’ to, ‘Hey, a couple weeks,’ and then I get a call — I actually got a text at like 3 a.m., and he goes, ‘We might get this done tomorrow,’” Sewell said. “And I was like, ‘Wait, I got to call my parents, I got to let them know.’ No, it happened so fast and I’m thankful for them believing in me and just can’t wait to give it back.”
Sewell said he is forever grateful for how passionately Lions fans and the organization were welcoming him to town. He said he can see Detroit as his “forever home.” And he said he has so much more he wants to accomplish as a Lion.
He called last year’s NFC championship game loss to the San Francisco 49ers, which he’s re-watched 10 times, a “sensitive topic,” and said he embraces being a foundational player for an organization that expects to contend for the Super Bowl in 2024.
“We need it all,” Sewell said. “I had a conversation with Saint after we found out that we were getting the contracts and going to sign, that’s our goal is to host that trophy at the end of the day and to just do that. Just to win, bro. There’s nothing else to it. All those individual accolades don’t mean nothing. I want the big boy and I want it now.”