Must-see interview: New Lions OT Penei Sewell wants to be hated on the field

You all are going to fall in love with Penei Sewell. After just spending 10 minutes with the Detroit Lions’ first-round draft pick via a post-draft Zoom call, it’s clear Sewell is a passionate, emotional person with an infectious personality. It’ll help, too, that he’s a hell of a football player, but when it comes to intangibles and football character, Sewell is going to win you over immediately.

But don’t just take my word for it. Get to know Sewell yourself.

Thankfully, former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz—who coincidentally spent some time with the Lions—sat down with Sewell before the NFL Draft in an intimate one-on-one interview. Topics ranged from his upbringing on a small island in American Samoa to tossing kids all around the field in high school. Take nine minutes out of your day to watch it. I promise you won’t regret it.

But if you want the tl;dr version, here are some highlights from the interview:

On who he is on the field: “I become this person where I’m just trying to really run through somebody. I guess all that aggression holding in just comes out. I want to run through everybody and anybody that’s going against my goals and what I want to accomplish.”

What kind of player are the Lions getting: “They’re getting a special, unique player. They’re getting someone who truly understands and loves the game. It’s, again, a way of life. Not just a game to him. They’re getting a player that can do anything and everything on the field, anything that they ask him. And they’re getting a leader. This is exactly what he’s on this Earth to do, to block somebody, to hit them in the mouth. When we’re on that field, I’m a whole different person. I want to come, I want to ruin your day, I want you to hate me at the end of the day on the field.”

On what he’s looking forward to at the NFL level: “Playing. I just want to go against the best of the best. I really want to go against Aaron Donald. I know what he is. He’s the greatest of all time, but that’s what makes it fun about the game. You get to go against the greats, and you get to play against the greats. I love it. So I want to go against the people I looked up to.”