Video: Meet the Detroit Lions... as dads

Too often we view athletes through one lens and one lens only: as athletes. With a full plate of armor and a helmet obscuring the faces, it’s hard to see the individual behind the facemask. Instead, they’re just pawns in the game we love so dearly.

And when we do recognize them as individuals, we tend to focus and exaggerate on the bad. Criminal histories, wonderlic tests, too-honest quotes all grab the headlines, while the charity work and goodwill often go unnoticed.

So today, on Father’s Day, let’s pull back the veil of the helmet and celebrate some of the Detroit Lions, not as players, but as dads. Thankfully, the Detroit Lions put together this great video package, celebrating some of our favorite players as child-raisers.

It’s awesome to see the veteran dads of the group, Darius Slay and Marvin Jones Jr. We can see the direct effect of their parenting right from their kids’ mouth. But it’s also nice to see the up-and-coming dads of Matthew Stafford and Golden Tate putting the work in early to become the best dad they can be.

Kelly Stafford even went a step further and shared this adorable clip of Matthew interacting with his twin girls. We rarely get a look into Matthew’s personal life, so it’s nice to see a little slice of it here:

To all of the Pride of Detroit family, Happy Father’s Day. If you have a father—or father figure—still in your life, tell him how appreciative you are of him. If you’re a father yourself, keep being a good dad.