Last summer, after an offseason throwing session in their home state of California, Lions QB Jared Goff had to tell someone what he was witnessing in real time. Months before anyone else would.
He picked up his phone and fired off a text to his offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson. Those two share a brain when it comes to knowledge of this Lions offense and what it looks like on Sundays in the fall. The message was simple. Just four words total. But it spoke volumes, ultimately foreshadowing what was in store for his star wide receiver.
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“St. Brown,” the text read, “Huge year.”
That’s St. Brown — as in Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. If you know the name, it’s because he’s worked his whole life to ensure you do. Come Wednesday, that name and the story behind it will be on display to millions, as Netflix’s new docuseries “Receiver” — going behind the scenes with some of the biggest names the position has to offer — is set to premiere.
They couldn’t have picked a better time to chronicle the year that was for St. Brown.
“We pick guys that have slightly different stories to do the show on, so he was more of the underdog guy out of all of the guys on the show — and then ends up having the best season out of all of the guys on the show,” said Shannon Furman, an Emmy-winning producer and director at NFL Films who worked on “Receiver” and closely followed St. Brown last season. “It feels like you scripted it, but you didn’t, you know?”
Furman was familiar with the California native and USC product’s background from her time working on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series, which followed the Lions ahead of the 2022 season. Back then, St. Brown was new to the game, coming off a year in which he broke franchise records for yards and receptions by a rookie. He would follow that up with 106 receptions and 1,161 yards as a sophomore, en route to his first Pro Bowl appearance. He has the eighth-most receiving yards and the third-most receptions in NFL history through a player’s first three seasons.
A creature of habit and consistency, respected by teammates and coaches alike, it’s no accident St. Brown is here.
“The things that he does every day in practice and every game show up all the time,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of St. Brown in January. “That’s what a pro is and it’s why he’s a pro. You can write down everything that he’s going to do, and he’ll do it. I can bank on everything — his whole routine that he goes through every day of the week to prepare, what it’s going to look like in pregame, what it’s going to look like in the game, what it’s going to look like postgame, what he’s going to do on his day off. It’s the same thing and there’s nothing easy about what he does. But, for him, it’s routine and it’s why he’s a great player.”
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St. Brown over the years has blossomed into one of the NFL’s household names among receivers, but that’s not the only reason he was asked to be featured on the show. Netflix and NFL Films were looking for players with compelling stories and personalities. St. Brown just so happens to have both.
He has supreme confidence in his game, a product of an upbringing fostered by his father, John Brown. Brown is a bodybuilder and two-time Mr. Universe recipient who molded his three sons into Power 5 football players, sent two to the NFL and added “St.” to their last names because he thought it would look good on a jersey. St. Brown is petty and remembers everything, famously reciting all 16 receivers selected before him in the 2021 NFL Draft like a party trick. He’s entertaining, plotting out potential touchdown celebrations and dances each week. He has a close-knit family, recording “The St. Brown Bros.” podcast with his brother Equanimeous and hosting relatives at his townhome on gamedays.
Even better was the fact that his team — a Detroit Lions franchise known for its losing ways — was on the cusp of figuring things out. But most importantly, St. Brown was willing to give the crew behind “Receiver” the necessary access to his life.
He was the total package, which is why he was worth pounding the table for when potential subjects were discussed.
“I believed in him just from what I saw on ‘Hard Knocks,'” Furman said . “When it came time to find characters for the show and you’re talking about different players, obviously I was pushing for him hard. It was awesome to just see everything that you thought could potentially happen actually unfold. Maybe be even better than what you thought.”
What unfolded was a season to remember for St. Brown and the Lions. Expectations were high in 2023 after the team won eight of its final 10 games in 2022. That kind of momentum doesn’t always translate from one season to the next, but it did for these Lions. Detroit went 12-5 in 2023, going wire-to-wire in the NFC North. At 23 years old, St. Brown was voted a team captain and emerged as a league-wide star on a team that ended several droughts. First division title in 30 years. First playoff win in 32 years. Most wins in season in franchise history (playoffs included).
That’s the GRIT I’m talking about@amonra_stbrown | #AllGrit pic.twitter.com/bnKTLjGhss
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 17, 2024
As it turns out, Goff’s text to Johnson wasn’t hyperbole. St. Brown would finish with 119 receptions, 1,515 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, earning a trip to his second Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors for the first time. Through it all, he was engaging on and off camera. And while the season didn’t end with a fairy-tale finish — instead, a crushing 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game — St. Brown stuck around the locker room to answer every question that came his way, setting the tone for 2024 in the process.
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“I think that feeling that we all had walking off of that field, I don’t think any one of us want to feel that again if we can,” St. Brown said after the game. “I think the feeling that we have is enough to motivate us for next year. We had a good year as a whole, but it’s all for nothing if you don’t win the whole thing. Everyone’s goal to start the year is to win the Super Bowl and if you don’t, you kind of fail the season. Whether you lose here in the NFC Championship or don’t make the playoffs, it’s all the same.”
That’s the sort of compelling content that should resonate with viewers watching “Receiver.” Furman said the show, which also features Davante Adams of the Raiders, Justin Jefferson of the Vikings and Deebo Samuel and George Kittle of the 49ers, had so much content it was hard to fit all of it into an eight-episode arc. For Jefferson, the show will highlight the injuries he had to overcome amid a difficult season. For Adams, the turmoil of a coaching change. For Kittle and Samuel, a peek at the psyche of a team that can’t get over the hump.
It can all make for strong television in varying ways, but when a subject and season come together the way it did for St. Brown and the Lions, it’s almost too perfect.
“They’ve just been so welcoming to us,” Furman said of the Lions organization. “They trust us, they trust me and the crew that I work with. … We’re not supposed to be fans and everything, but it’s hard not to become a fan when you’ve been around a team like that. You root for good people, and it feels like that’s what the Lions organization is right now — it’s a lot of good people who are just working really hard to try and do this for the city, and all of that feels so genuine. It’s been really fun to be part of it.”
The most fitting end to the year that was for St. Brown came a few months ago. It was the morning of April 25, the opening day of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit. St. Brown, making the rounds in Detroit on behalf of the team, remembers getting a call from his agent, Joby Branion of Vanguard Sports. The two would have conversations every week or two in the offseason about the status of an extension — all but a formality for a player as important as St. Brown is to the Lions, but still worth having.
Finally, the phone call that would end those talks arrived.
“I think we got a deal done,” Branion told St. Brown.
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The Lions signed St. Brown to a four-year, $120 million contract extension with a whopping $77 million guaranteed — making him one of the NFL’s highest-paid receivers. The news ultimately broke when he was in his car, alone. In the moments that followed, he called his father, John, and talked about how far they’d come. He spoke to one of his best friends — a conversation that nearly led to tears (St. Brown claims he fought them off). There was also a celebration outside the team facility in Allen Park, Mich., featuring silly string and champagne, orchestrated by Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond.
But after that, it was business as usual. You wouldn’t expect anything else.
We poppin bottles🍾@amonra_stbrown pic.twitter.com/M4M7vdJzQo
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) April 25, 2024
“It says a lot to be extended,” Lions GM Brad Holmes said. “It speaks to the locker room and who you pay, who you draft, who you extend. I kind of saw the clip of our other wide receivers celebrating St. Brown outside in front of the facility, and I just think that’s really cool because I just think he’s highly respected and I think no one would argue that he’s truly earned that.”
St. Brown knows he’s no longer viewed as the undersized fourth-rounder out of USC. The national respect for his game has grown immensely in such a short time. He knows he’s here for a reason. The work ethic, the no-nonsense approach to training, the confidence, the consistency — they were all traits the Lions coveted as they revamped their roster and scoured for building blocks.
At the same time, though, he also knows the pressures that come with a contract of this caliber.
“People are going to be looking at me and saying, ‘He makes this much money? What is he doing?'” St. Brown told reporters the day after his contract extension was finalized. “There are going to be even more eyes on me, and that’s the pressure I like to feel. I want to put it on myself. I love any expectation people have of me. I’ve always got to do more.”
What St. Brown has accomplished already is more than many have done in their careers. He’s done it all without being the biggest, the fastest, the most explosive. But he’s not wrong. Those eyes are coming — quite literally, with the premiere of “Receiver.” But he’s not running from it.
Instead, St. Brown is giving anyone interested a peek behind the curtain. The hope is that a national audience will see why he’s worth every penny.
(Top photo: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
