Sports

Want to Play Like the Lions -- Or Better? Fulfill That Fantasy in June

March 01, 2015, 11:57 AM by  Alan Stamm

If you're a football fan who still has game in his legs and arms, the Lions dangle a chance to turn fantasy into reality at "the ultimate football experience" this summer.

Featured_lions_slide_15955
The $1,999 tab is called an "investment."

Detroit joins the spreading number of NFL teams hosting adult training camps, Bill Shea reports at Crain's.

The team is offering a three-day weekend in June that will replicate a mini-camp and culminate in a two-hand touch football game at Ford Field.

The price: $1,999. Anywhere from 50 to 70 participants are expected. . . .

Participants in the Lions camp will stay two nights at a local hotel and be shuttled to the team headquarters and training camp facility in Allen Park, and to the stadium.

During the weekend, they'll get tours and go through coaching meetings, film study and practice drills. They'll also get meals and interact with Lions alumni working the camp. . . .

For the game, participants will follow a routine similar to the team: They'll arrive early at Ford Field, have a pregame meal, do drills and stretching, and come out of the same entrance tunnel as the real Lions. Campers also will do tests of measurables such as their 40-yard dash times, and broad and vertical jumps.

The two-hand touch game will include officials. Campers will wear a Lions jersey customized with their name and number.

Chris Fritzsching, youth football camps director for the Lions, tells Crain's that adding an over-21 version "is a natural progression."

Shea knows more than a bit about the lure of gridiron dreams. He suited up in 2006 as "the gimp-kneed, Plimptonian third-string quarterback of a minor-league arena football team in Port Huron," the journalist wrote in a Crain's blog post earlier.

Ten Lions vets scheduled to be at June's inaugural camp include Eric Hipple, Brett Perriman, Lomas Brown and Herman Moore.

Learn more and apply here, where the team says "all levels are welcome" and where it doesn't speak of "price," "cost" or "fee." Fantasy camp, you see, is an "investment."


Read more:  Crain's Detroit Business


Leave a Comment:

Photo Of The Day