Question of the Week is a weekly feature here where we take a cross-section of opinions from Detroit Lions players and coaches (and sometimes opponents) about a singular topic. Most of the time, they have nothing to do with football. Have a suggestion for a question? Email michael.rothstein@espn.com.
Previous Questions of the Week. This week: Rookie nerves.
ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Detroit Lions players, when they could, tried to get away this offseason. They tried to escape their own workaday worlds of being professional athletes either to have some family time, see the world or perhaps create a little family of their own.
With this, the first week of the Lions’ NFL camp, we caught up with some players to find out the most exciting things they did during the offseason.
Wide receiver Jeremy Ross: “I got engaged (to former Cal runner Tracey Stewart). I took her to the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco and went up to the top on the 40th floor, looking over the whole bay. Had a table for two with strawberries with chocolate, chocolate-covered strawberries with rose petals leading to the table with a violinist playing and a photographer present as well. June 13. We’ve been together for a while. We’ve been really good friends for like seven years.
Linebacker DeAndre Levy: “This offseason I went to Nicaragua and Venezuela. I did that in March, April. In Nicaragua, actually, there was a volcano that I wanted to [see], you can hike and sled down. You hike and sled down it. Mount Roraima in Venezuela is an unbelievable experience. It has endemic species of frogs and plants that are just untouched, unchanged and I camped out there for two days and hiked it for four days.”
Defensive tackle C.J. Mosley: “I’m pretty boring in the offseason, man. I don’t do much, man. Nah, man. I try to make sure, I look at it like this, man. I got drafted in the sixth round. Each and every year, I just feel like I make it by the skin of my teeth. So I just try to limit distractions and make sure that I don’t get caught in nothing.”
Tight end Brandon Pettigrew: “Anniversary in Puerto Rico. It’s one year. It’s nice. It’s pretty low-key down there, chill. Everybody’s like happy down there. It’s not really too lively like a Miami or something like that. It’s pretty chill.”
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy (other than getting married): “Go on vacation. I’ve never been on vacation in my life. (Went to) St. Lucia and then went to Vegas. Of course, I’ve been to Vegas, but it’s my little vacation.”
Reporter: No vacation ever?
Van Noy: “I’ve never been outside of the West Coast for vacation, never been outside of the U.S. or have taken longer than three days, a weekend.”