ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Defensive back Darius Slay still doesn’t care whether or not he was traded from the Detroit Lions earlier this week. He heard the rumors and ignored them. He spent a day which could be stressful for others, with futures in the balance and all, playing video games -- getting better at Call of Duty and NBA 2K.
If the Lions decided they didn’t want him anymore, so be it. He was OK with that. But don’t take that the wrong way, either. Darius Slay has no problems staying, either. And has no issues being around for a long time if that’s what ends up happening. Including his entire career.
“I wouldn’t mind,” Slay said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t mind playing my whole career, who wouldn’t want to play on just one team. But it’s a whole business.”
Slay knew that before last week, when the Lions traded safety Quandre Diggs to Seattle -- setting off a raw, honest media session two days later where Slay let his feelings about loyalty be known. He’s always known the business side of it, told to him early on in his career by his mentors in the locker room.
But now with the trade deadline come and gone and Slay being with the Lions for at least the rest of 2019, he’s ready to play -- although he wouldn’t say if he’ll be available this week against the Oakland Raiders (Sunday, 4:05 ET, FOX) as he’s nursing a hamstring injury.
How much longer Slay plays -- and how much longer it’s in Detroit -- he doesn’t know. He said he hasn’t thought about his playing future, insisting the only future he thinks about is the one with his family. And he’s not sure how many more years he wants to play football, either.
“I ain’t trying to play that long,” Slay said. “I ain’t Rod [Woodson] or Charles [Woodson], none of them. I ain’t trying to play no 20 years.”
Rod Woodson, who mentored Slay early in his career, played 17 NFL seasons. Charles Woodson played 18 years. Neither played their entire careers with one team.
Slay said he wasn’t sure how much longer he wants to play, but that it won’t be 20. Not close. When asked if 10 was a realistic number -- he’s in his seventh season now, he said that would be “a great number.”
“But whatever the Lord bless me with,” Slay said. “How I’m feeling at Year 10, but whatever. Twenty for sure, no. Not even thinking close to that.”
Money isn’t an issue -- Slay referenced good financial standing multiple times, including saying “I’m a millionaire, dude,” when asked if he didn’t at least care a little about whether or not he got dealt. No one in the organization talked to him about his comments or about whether or not he was on the trade block.
He said he wasn’t fined by the organization for his comments, either, and if they had done so, “it would have been a problem, too.”
Instead, Slay is going to continue to say what he wants, when he wants. As he said -- the media asks him questions and he answers them. It’s just him being honest. It’s why he still says he didn’t care whether or not he was traded.
And he didn’t care if what he said last week might have gotten dealt as well.
“The whole point in time, y’all didn’t understand it, that I didn’t care if I did,” Slay said. “It is what it is, a whole business. All I was doing here is playing ball and trying to win games.”