Detroit Lions' Avonte Maddox nearly went pro in MLB: 'Dream was ... the World Series'
Long before he won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, new Detroit Lions cornerback Avonte Maddox grew up dreaming of success in another sport — baseball.
Maddox, who signed a one-year deal with the Lions on Friday, was a star shortstop at Detroit King and only picked up football his junior year of high school.
He walked the Free Press through his sports odyssey at this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans.
“I remember when I was young, I used to get my glove, it'd be a new glove, put it underneath my bed with a ball in it, do all the little things, all the little tricks, breaking it in, going to play catch with my dad, things like that,” Maddox said. “And then dreaming it, yeah, I would be here turning a double play or hitting a home run or scoring the winning RBI. It was always dreams like that and I never really had dreams of playing in the Super Bowl as much. Cause I was always told, ‘Oh, you're too small to play football, you're too small to play football.’ But I never let that get to me because I know me and I know what I can do.”
Maddox played little league football growing up in Detroit, then gave up the sport up to focus on baseball.
He played shortstop in high school and center field and second base on his travel team, and said he garnered draft interest from the Texas Rangers as a senior.
At King, Maddox played football as a junior at the urging of one of his friends. He earned a scholarship to Pitt and planned to play both sports for the Panthers until his dreams were dashed by injuries.
“Baseball, I still love it,” Maddox said. “I feel like I would've continued playing it in college if I didn't dislocate both of my elbows. So that kind of set me back. Yeah, so after that happened I was just kind of like, ‘OK, I'm here on a football scholarship, so I might as well lock into it.’”
Maddox said then-Panthers football coach Paul Chryst gave him the OK to play both sports as a sophomore, but he decided to wait a year after Chryst left for Wisconsin.
Pat Narduzzi replaced Chryst and told Maddox he could play baseball as a junior, but when Maddox dislocated his left and right elbows in consecutive years, he decided the risk wasn’t worth it.
Maddox said he never envisioned himself as an NFL player until one of his Pitt coaches told him as a junior he might have a future in the sport.
“My coach came around and said, ‘Well, your draft grade now would be like seventh round to free agent.’ And I was kind of like, ‘Oh. Well, I got a draft grade. Well, that's kind of cool. I'll take seventh round,’” Maddox said.
A four-year starter at Pitt, Maddox didn’t have to wait that long in the 2018 draft, when the Philadelphia Eagles took him in the fourth round with the 125th overall pick.
He started nine games and had two interceptions as a rookie and has been a key cog in the Eagles’ secondary for most of the past seven seasons.
Last year, he played in all 17 games, mostly as the team’s No. 4 cornerback. He made three starts, had five pass breakups and deflected another pass in the Eagles’ Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“My dream was always to play in the World Series,” Maddox said. “I think things happen for a reason and me having an opportunity to play in the Super Bowl again and not being in the World Series, I kind of look at it as the same thing. I mean, it's the highest level, so it’s just fun. This is a week full of enjoyment and excitement and nervousness and all that, but once we get out there on the football field, it's just another game.”
Maddox said in New Orleans he was fortunate to be drafted by a winning organization in the Eagles — Philadelphia won the Super Bowl two months before he was drafted, and played in another one two years ago — and to play with teammates he considers his brothers for so long.
But he also said he had a fondness for Detroit that never left, and the Lions were a team he still rooted for from afar.
“Philadelphia’s No. 1, but Detroit is definitely No. 2,” Maddox said in February. “I’m always rooting for them and I was hoping we’d play and got a chance to play them, I get to go home and see my family. But it worked out in our favor, we got to play at home for the NFC championship, but I always cheer them on.”
Dave Birkett will sign copies of his book, "Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline," at 7 p.m., March 24, at the Birmingham Public Library.
Order your copy here.
Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Detroit Lions CB Avonte Maddox nearly went pro in another sport
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