Alex Anzalone right at home in leading Detroit Lions' charge to change their story

TAMPA, Fla. — The easiest distance they’ve traveled in years was surely the couple dozen rows they navigated to get to their son at the edge of the field Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium. Alex Anzalone’s parents, Sal and Judy, had only gotten back to the U.S. a few days earlier after a harrowing trip to Jerusalem.

“Scary,” Anzalone said when asked what it had been like for him and his family.

And fortunate. Not to mention eye-opening.

And if the Detroit Lions linebacker were looking for perspective, he found some when he saw a couple of his parents' photos with rockets overhead. He thought about that as he listened to a choir sing a gorgeous rendition of the national anthem before his Lions beat the Buccaneers Sunday. Thought enough about where he was standing and where his parents recently stood to lean over to his defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn, and talk about gratitude.

“It puts life in perspective,” said Anzalone after playing arguably his best game as a Lion. “There are some tough things going on around the world and it’s just a blessing to be here in America.”

Being with family is a blessing, too, along with being healthy and relatively safe, no matter where you are. For Anzalone and his parents, that place just happened to be on the edge of the field within an NFL stadium, where he tracked them down after the Lions' 20-6 win.

“It was definitely a crazy week for me,” he said. “(My parents) were able to enjoy the game. The best thing was (being) able to give them a hug and a kiss after the game in the stands. It was a memorable moment.”

Anzalone is playing the best football of his career. And while he still gets labeled with words like “smart” and “tough” and “savvy” — and those descriptions are all true — he isn’t manning the “Will” linebacker spot because of his grit and determination.

He is skilled and swift, as well. He can run, too. And when he gets to where he’s going, which is darn quick these days, he arrives with authority.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a 'backer playing better than him right now,” said his head coach, Dan Campbell.

Campbell is guilty of calling him "smart." On Sunday, he added “bell cow,” a football cliché usually reserved for running backs that carry heavy loads.

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“He is playing as physical as I’ve ever seen him,” said Campbell.

Anzalone agreed.

Why?

Time and confidence. Oh, and freedom.

Before this season, he primarily played in the middle of the defense — the “Mike” spot, as it's known — a position that involves a bit more diagnosing and caution. The move to the outside has liberated him.

“Though I feel like I can play both, (the Will) suits me best. That's how I feel, you know, just flying around making plays, playing free. It's a credit to the guys around me, too. Allows me to play at a high level.”

Add in experience — this is his seventh season — the confidence that comes with that experience, and that he’s at the apex of his physical prime (he’s 29) and you’ve got a player that not only anchors a defense, and not only directs it, but commands that side of the locker room.

“Hitsville,” said Tracy Walker, when he ducked into the circle of reporters talking to Anzalone outside the Lions locker room Sunday.

What?

“That’s what we call him. That’s what we call our defense.”

Anzalone is a magnet like that. A leader, Campbell said. Someone to whom the rest of the defense looks up.

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“It’s been fun to watch,” Jared Goff said. “Seeing him grow and seeing him play as well as he is right now … it’s the best I’ve ever seen him play. He's certainly the igniter over there on defense. He's a helluva leader; he’s a helluva dude. He comes to work with a smile no matter what. (During) some of the hard times, he always had a positive outlook.”

Ah, there are those character words again. And, again, they ring true. Teammates and coaches don’t keep using them for no reason.

Besides, they matter. Perhaps as much as raw talent. Though without talent? Not as much. Asked why the defense is so much better this season, Anzalone doesn’t hide from the truth.

“We’ve got some missing pieces we’ve needed,” he said.

Translation: talent. The Lions have more of it, and Anzalone has been thrilled to help guide and lead that young talent. Not just on defense, either, which is why he sprinted — yes, he can sprint — to Jameson Williams after the receiver caught his first touchdown of the season, a 45-yarder on which he had to twist and turn and twist back again to nab.

“That's my guy,” Anzalone said of Williams. “He's right near me in the locker room. I feel he’s ‘Mr. Misunderstood.’ It's just so great to see him make that play. I hear the outside noise for him. It just makes me so proud to see him do that.”

Anzalone talks about that noise with Williams. Tries to help him through it and maybe even shield him from it. He’s protective that way. Just as his parents tried to teach him about the world and, at times, shield him when they needed.

On Saturday night, three days after they returned from Israel, he joined them for dinner in the Tampa area. They were home. He was home, too, in a sense. He keeps an off-season house in Clearwater, a half hour from the stadium (depending on traffic).

He trains with some of the Buccaneers in the offseason. He went to school up the road in Gainesville, playing for the Florida Gators. Feeling the vibe, eyeing his parents periodically in the stands, knowing he had friends in the stands, too?

“There was no way I was going to play a bad game (Sunday),” he said.

Not even close, actually. He played his best game of the season, in a season in which he has played the best football of his life.

Can he keep it up?

There’s a lot of season left, he’ll tell you. And he wasn’t raised to thump his chest. And yet … there’s this narrative out there, and he and his defensive teammates are itching to tear it down.

“We definitely notice when guys talk about: ‘We’re a better offense than defense.’ We take that personal. We're starting to change the narrative in that regard.”

Indeed, they are. Tampa may not be the 1999 Rams, or even the 2023 Dolphins, but they’re plenty capable of scoring touchdowns, and they didn’t Sunday — not a single one. That’s the second time this season the Lions have pulled that trick.

Anzalone, once again, was in the thick of it all, leading the charge to change the story. Afterwards, all he had to do was hug his parents.

It was among the sweetest embraces of his life.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions finally getting the most out of LB Alex Anzalone