Lions Lowdown

ALLEN PARK >> Funny, Darren Fells doesn’t feel like he’s 31 years old.

There’s a good reason for that. The Detroit Lions tight end has only been playing in the NFL since 2013. So his body is not beat up like you might expect from a 31-year-old tight end.

“It’s a lot of fun for me to come in here and try to do things to turn people’s heads that his old man can still do a few things,’’ Fells said on Wednesday.

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions)

Fells didn’t play football in high school — instead focusing on basketball. That led to a scholarship in basketball at UC Irvine.

After playing professional basketball from 2008-2012 in Belgium, Finland, France, Mexico and Argentina, he decided to give the NFL a try.

He’s in his first season with the Lions after he spent 2014 through 2016 with the Arizona Cardinals.

“In basketball the biggest beating you take is a lot of jumping on your knees here and there. I wasn’t the most explosive guy so I didn’t take that much beating on my knees,’’ Fells said. “It’s drastically different (than football).’’

Five things to know about Fells:

1. He had his best game with the Lions in the win at the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday when he had four catches that were all first-down conversions. Fans started to notice No. 87.

2. On those catches he started out blocking, then got open for Matthew Stafford to find him. “It’s definitely a huge weapon especially since I’m seen as a blocking tight end first, they’re not going to really respect me in that aspect,’’ Fells said. “It helps me get open a lot more, I don’t have the speed (Eric) Ebron has to get open.’’

3. When the Lions signed him as a free agent they saw more than a blocking tight end in the 6-foot-7 Fells. “That was the first thing they actually said to me is they were surprised I wasn’t doing more as a receiving tight end, especially being 6-7,’’ Fells said. The Lions felt with his basketball background that he could go up for a pass like he did for rebounds.

4. The Lions started working with him in OTAS and training camp testing out different routes. Obviously he passed the test.

5. Stafford has been happy with the play of Fells along with Ebron and rookie tight end Mike Roberts. “ think our guys did a nice job, and you’re going to see it in the pass game and the stats and stuff, but I think they did a really nice job on the run game too. We asked them to block the defensive ends one-on-one a lot of times in the run game and in the pass game, and they did a heck of a job, so hats off to all three of those guys for pulling their weight in the run game, and then getting some big conversions from Fells early, Ebron had a couple nice plays and obviously the one to Mike Roberts was a big one as well,’’ Stafford said.

ALLEN PARK >> While it was nothing on the scale of the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay shooting, Lions wide receiver Golden Tate and his wife, Elise, were left scarred by a shooting in 2012.

It was on Dec, 23, 2012, the night of a big win while Tate played for the Seattle Seahawks.

Elise Tate posted on Instagram after the Las Vegas shooting that it brought back “terrible memories.”

(Photo from Instagram account of Elise Tate)

Golden Tate talked about that night on Wednesday.

“We’d just beaten San Francisco late in the season when we were both powerhouses. We were out at a place a block from my house, Munchbar, where guys on the team would go every Sunday night after we won, hang out and enjoy each other.

“The crowd that day wasn’t a typical crowd. My brother was there, I had probably 7-8 friends there. Elise and I and a couple friends, we were just in a circle kind of hanging out. The next thing we know we heard gunshots that were so close it kind of messed up her hearing permanently, like some sounds.

“It all happened so quick and we all felt so helpless because you hear gunshots, I didn’t see anything. (They were about 20 feet from where  the shooting happened.) Just reaction, I pushed her down, gave her a concussion and was on top of her until the shooting stopped and momentarily we got up and ran to the bathroom where we were in a stall with (Seahawks’ tackle) Breno Giacomini. It was scary because she had cut her foot on glass as her heel came off and we were scattering.

“She had a concussion so she was a little confused. I didn’t know if she got shot or not because I just saw blood, I just saw her bleeding. I was like, ‘Did you just get hit?’ She didn’t. We made it out safe, I think someone ended up dying that night from getting shot.

“We got to the hospital, to make sure she’s OK. They cleaned her all up. Probably one of the hardest things that day was to call her parents at that time of night and calmly let them know your daughter is OK, but this is the situation,’’ Tate said.

One man was killed according to the Seattle Times.

That night has changed them.

“When we go in places, no matter where we are, we try to look at the exits because you don’t have much time for something like that,’’ Tate said. “We find the exits and if we’re out and about we try to hang out within reach of the exits so we can get out of there quick.’’

Tate said Elise, who was his girlfriend that night, wasn’t the same for a while.

“You can’t help to think what if one of those stray bullets — stray bullets don’t have eyes — it just happened. We both felt so helpless. You hear gunshots, you can’t find them. The first thing you’re going to do is drop and pray one of those don’t hit you and if it hits you that it skims your arm,’’ Tate said.

The Vegas shooting brought back images from that night in 2012.

Elise Tate’s Instagram post included these words: “Only a few shots were fired but deadly in the shooting I was in, but in Vegas there was 10 minutes of active rounds. I can’t stop thinking about the pain I went through and multiplying that by thousands for what these people have and are going through.’’

With the Lions off to a 3-1 start, people are starting to notice that maybe this team could be something special.

Detroit is starting to earn the respect that comes with winning.

The Lions are ranked No. 2 in power rating released today by the NFL.com and USAToday.com. Not everybody is buying in, but they’re at least top 10 in most rankings.

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions)

Here’s a look at the ratings and comments from several sites:

— No. 2 from NFL.com. Comments: “These aren’t the same old Lions. They are 3-1 (with a bit of an asterisk on the 1). They made the playoffs last year. And since owner Martha Firestone Ford addressed the media midway through the 2015 season — announcing the firings of team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew while sternly advising that the circumstances around her football team would change — Detroit is 18-10. Also keep in mind that two of those losses came on an Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary and the dreaded rulebook monster. If running back Ameer Abdullah can keep this going (109 total yards on Sunday), the Lions will win the NFC North.”

— No. 2 from USAToday.com. Comments: “All steak, no sizzle. Detroit leads league with 11 takeaways, plus-9 turnover differential and can suddenly run ball. Probably deserve to be 4-0.”

— No. 5 from BleacherReport.com. Comments: “It’s refreshing that Stafford doesn’t have to pull three magical rabbits out of his butt to win every week. This defense is tough and physical, Stafford is being careful with the football, and we’re finally seeing a running game. It’s safe to say Detroit is a complete team.”

— No. 6 from CBSsports.com. Comments: “They found a way to win a physical game at Minnesota, which keeps them tied for the division lead with the Packers. They could easily be 4-0.”

— No. 6 from SportingNews.com. Comments: “It was nice to win a road game without the fourth-quarter heroics of Matthew Stafford and on the strength of stingy defense and much-improved power running from Ameer Abdullah. The Lions are becoming a very complete and dangerous team.”

— No. 8 from ProFootballTalk.com. Comments: “Put Jim Bob Cooter at the top of the list of 2018 coaching candidates (if he decides on a first name).”

— No. 9 from ESPN.com. Comments: “The best offense is sometimes a good defense. The Lions are tied for the league lead with 11 takeaways, which has led to 47 points off turnovers. Last season, Detroit had 14 takeaways, leading to only 28 points off turnovers.”