It wasn’t long ago that football in Detroit looked a lot different from the outside looking in.
The Lions brought back Ahmed Hassanein earlier this week, signing their former sixth-round pick of the 2025 NFL Draft to the team’s practice squad. For a franchise once regarded as desolate and empty on expectations as any team in sports, one thing led Hassanein back to this Lions team: belief.
“My agent was kinda handling all that,” Hassanein explained in regards to the process of his return to Detroit just months after his departure. “He (Hassanein’s agent) was telling me, ‘Oh, 31 (teams) was wanting you on their practice squad,’ because I don’t count (on the roster) as a (international) player. So I went, ‘Man, I’m not going anywhere. I want to stay here, because these people believe in me, and I’m going to give it all I’ve got.’ Because loyalty is a big thing for me. I’m honored.”
Being completely off the team and not allowed to keep in contact, it was impossible for Hassanein to stay informed of how the team was practicing, preparing, and developing defensive strategies, but it seemed to be more emotionally charged for the 23-year-old rookie.
“I’m completely off,” Hassanein told reporters after Wednesday’s practice. “The iPad was taken and everything. I’m completely off the team.”
“They couldn’t really contact me either. That part was tough a little bit because I wanted to keep connection just to feel like that again. But now that I have that connection again, I’m never going to leave the opportunity or take it for granted. So now I want to say ‘What’s up’ to coach every time I see him or ‘Hey Coach, what’s up? How’s it going today?’ Having that feeling of being coached again, it means the world to me.”
Hassanein’s decision to rebuff the rest of the league and stay in Detroit is another reminder of how much this franchise has turned things around under Dan Campbell in such little time. A newcomer who spent all of a summer as a team member feels so confident in this being what a Super Bowl-winning team looks like organizationally. But it’s also an exciting reminder of how eager and coachable Hassanein is at a position where the Lions could use all the depth they can get.
“It’s a blessing, man. Just to be able to sit in on the team meeting again, and just to have that experience, it means everything to me, and I want to give it all I got. I want to help this team do whatever it takes to win: be on scout team, being whatever, honestly, being whatever—just help my teammates and be the best version of myself.”
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