Amon-Ra St. Brown Can 'Say What I Want' to Trash Talk Brother
The matchup between Detroit and Chicago Sunday will carry a little more weight for a pair of players on both sides.
For the first time this season, the St. Brown and Sewell brothers will square off. In the case of the Sewell's, it will mark the first time Penei and Noah have played against each other in the NFL.
Meanwhile, Amon-Ra and Equanimious St. Brown have played each other in each of the last two seasons. Amon-Ra, who co-hosts a podcast with his brother for The 33rd Team, shared his excitement for the upcoming showdown Thursday.
"I love to give him s**t on my podcast because I can, he's my brother. Every team in this league is good, you're in the NFL for a reason," St. Brown said. "These teams are all competitive, you can lose any Sunday. But when it comes to my brother, I can trash talk him as much I want so I kind of have fun with it. But he's still on the other side, so I can still say what I want.
"It's fun, it's a lot of fun just with family being around, getting to play him, kind of know some of the players on the team through him," St. Brown continued further. "He knows some of the players on our team through me so it's not like I only know my brother over there, I know some other players too. It's a lot of fun. I get to talk to him before the game, after the game. If I have a good game against the Bears, it always means a little more."
St. Brown has no shortage of motivation. The third-year wideout has gone above and beyond to prove his toughness while keeping record of all the receivers drafted ahead of him.
With four consecutive 100-yard games, he has emerged as one of the league's most prolific wideouts. As he continues throughout the 2023 campaign, he's striving to be a consistent factor within the Lions' offense.
"I think for me, consistency is the biggest thing and that's I think one of the hardest things to do in this league is be consistent. And that's really what I pride myself on is trying to be consistent, so trying to do it every week is tough, it's hard. But I put the work in every week to try to go out there and do it, to give myself the best chance to do it, and go perform."
His receiving statistics lead the Lions and are among the league's best. Yet, he's not concerned with that output as much as he is with finding a way to make an impact that helps his team emerge victorious.
"Every week, it might not be 100 yards, it might not be two touchdowns, but if I can impact the game in any way, whether it's run block, making a big block down the field after, say, Sam catches a third-and-5 short, I make a block to help him get the first down. Whatever it is, if I can make an impact and help this team win, that's the biggest thing. The numbers, stats, all that, those will come with hard work. Keep doing your job every day, I think it'll come. For me, I just think it's about being consistent as a player."
The Lions offense ranks among the best in the league in a number of statistics. Its firepower was on full display Sunday against the Chargers, as they put together 533 yards of total offense.
Yet, St. Brown believes the unit still has more to give in its pursuit of an NFC North championship.
"I would like to say so, but we've got to keep going. It's only been two games where we've done that. I think we've had more guys healthy that last game then we've had in a long time," St. Brown stated. "So I think if we can stay healthy and try to get better, we had a pretty good game last week but there's areas where we could've been better. The red zone, that fourth down, wish we would've had that one back, the touchdown to Jamo had a ticky tack penalty there. There's things we still feel like we can be better at. That's what's so great about this game, you can never really be perfect even if you look at a game like last week where you look damn-near perfect, there's still room for improvement."
The North is viewed as Detroit's to lose. Before Week 11, though, there's been just one opportunity to prove it. The Lions have not played a divisional opponent since Week 4 against Green Bay.
Sunday's game against Chicago starts a stretch of three divisional games in four weeks. As a result, the magnitude of this next wave is increasing as the Lions chase the postseason.
"I think every game is important, obviously. As the season goes on, games may seem important but I think a division game is definitely more important, I wouldn't say more important but it means more," St. Brown explained. "They're in your division, it means double, you get a win on your record if you win and hand the other team in your division an L. It kind of means a lot more. If you take care of business at the beginning of the year, the games toward the end of the year don't matter as much but if you don't take care of business at the end of the year, then the games at the end mean a lot more. It just kind of depends on what season you're having. If you take every game just as serious, it should work out well."
