The Lions hosted their annual season-ticket-holder summit at Ford Field on Feb. 11, and toward the end of the laid-back affair GM Bob Quinn, team president Rod Wood and coach Matt Patricia entertained a Q&A session. About 30 minutes in, Corey Wolfgang stepped to one of the two microphones facing the stage where Quinn, Wood and Patricia were seated.
He explained that last year was his first purchasing season tickets. The reason, he said, was because the Lions drafted Jarrad Davis. ?I wanted to make sure they knew how much I appreciated it that they gave a chance to someone who was such a good guy,? Wolfgang later told The Athletic.
Wolfgang knew Davis ? or knew of him, at least ? through his brother Brandon, who had attended Camden County High School in Kingsland, Georgia, with the future Lions linebacker. Brandon was diagnosed in childhood with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), now more commonly called an autism spectrum disorder.
?He has a young mind,? Corey said, ?but socially he?s completely there. Everyone who meets him falls in love with him because he?s such a kind heart. He?s probably the sweetest person I?ve ever met in my entire life.?
But by the time he reached high school Brandon also weighed, by Corey?s estimation, close to 500 pounds. Unfortunately, the combination of factors made him an easy target. One day in the Camden County hallways, a bully set his sights on Brandon Wolfgang. Davis, along with two of his football teammates ? Brice Ramsey, later a quarterback-turned-punter at Georgia; and J.J. Green, a running back for Georgia and then Georgia Tech ? stepped to Wolfgang?s defense.
As Brandon remembers it, in vivid detail, the three players formed a wall between he and his tormentor. ?If you want to get to him,? they said, ?you?ve got to go through us.? And with that, the situation flipped from a potentially traumatic one for Wolfgang to a defining memory in his relationship with Davis. ?I was like, ?Heck, yeah. Tell him, Jarrad.'?
Davis probably would tell you that he did what any decent person would do. That he doesn?t deserve any special mention or recognition. That he was just helping a friend.
To Brandon Wolfgang, though, Davis was a ?guardian angel.? To Corey Wolfgang, Davis was a hero.
It was a big moment. There were small ones too: Davis saying hi when he?d see Wolfgang around school, greeting him with a ?Yo, what?s up, Wolfgang?!? when Brandon, who was invited to spend extra time around the team by then-head coach Jeff Herron, would join the Wildcats during halftime of home games.
With each interaction came more proof for Brandon Wolfgang that he wasn?t just a face in the crowd.
?Jarrad had my back since high school,? he said. ?I saw him a lot, and I got that feeling I had a connection with him, like me and him are good friends. Like, close friends.?
Quinn wasn?t aware of the background story until Corey Wolfgang told it that evening back in February, but it didn?t surprise him.
?Jarrad?s a special guy, for many reasons, on and off the field,? Quinn responded, then told a story of how he and several Lions staffers flew down to Gainesville, Florida, before the draft to put Davis through a workout. Davis? agent, convinced his client was destined for a first-round selection regardless, advised Davis not to partake in on-field drills.
?I was pretty upset for about five minutes,? Quinn continued, ?until we walked into the meeting room, we started talking, we started watching film and I started to hear his story and all of the stuff that you?re describing ? and I?m like, ?I don?t need to see this guy work out. I know he?s a guy who?s going to be good for the Lions.'?
The Lions drafted Davis in 2017, but it wasn?t until ?18 that Corey Wolfgang relocated to Detroit. The Wolfgangs were a Navy family, so they bounced to wherever dad Donald Wolfgang?s orders took them. They left roots in Michigan, however, with branches of the family tree in Wyandotte and Lincoln Park, among other places. Donald holds degrees from Eastern Michigan and the University of Michigan.
Donald and his wife, Jacqueline, moved back to the state in 2016 and reside in Portage, where Donald serves as senior pastor at Pathfinder Church. That?s also where Brandon, 24, works, pitching in at a before- and after-school program called Pathfinder Kids.
Last year, Corey accepted a job with the Tigers as a client service rep and moved into a place mere blocks from Ford Field. He bought a Lions season ticket for himself ? Section 335, row 16, seat 1 ? as a roundabout way to thank Davis.
?My entire life,? Corey Wolfgang said, ?when I walked into a room with my brother, especially when he really started getting overweight, I?d look around the room and notice all the people looking at him. Judgmental glances. To know there were people, the most athletically gifted people at our school, that they were able to take the time to treat someone with respect, it goes a long way.?
When the Lions selected Davis, Brandon jumped for joy. His brother later presented him with a No. 40 jersey for his birthday. ?When he got me the jersey, I was just on my knees, bawling, crying,? Brandon said. ?This jersey, it?s what I wanted.?
What is it about a person that allows him to have such a lasting impact on someone else, even when their time together is fleeting? In this case, the answer begins here: It wasn?t an act on Davis? part.
He was a football star at a huge high school, with an SEC scholarship to the University of Florida and an NFL career in his future, but by all accounts remained grounded. He didn?t put on a show of niceties just to appease his teachers or coaches, didn?t step in front of that bully looking for recognition. (In fact, he declined a full interview for this story because he didn?t want to take the spotlight off Wolfgang.)
He liked Brandon. Full stop.
?He was always happy,? Davis said, via a statement from the Lions. ?That was just one thing that was constantly cool about him. No matter if anyone was picking on him or anything like that, he always just had that cheerful spirit. Just being around him and being able to interact with him helped keep everybody on the up and up.?
Last June, Davis threw out the first pitch prior to a Tigers home game. Corey tracked him down while he was there, reminded him who he was and asked if he?d record a video he could send his brother. Davis obliged. Brandon still watches it almost every day, he said, ?like (during) the hard times.?
Corey and Brandon visited Allen Park for one of the Lions? training-camp practices last summer, with designs on flagging down Davis. They thought they were close as Davis ? unaware of their presence ? started heading their direction at morning?s end. When he was not far from them, though, he was pulled back onto the field for additional drills.
?My No. 1 goal this year is go to (training camp) and see my best friend again,? Brandon said, ?because I was so close ? I was so close ? to seeing my best friend last year. ? Jarrad, oh my God, man, he?s awesome. Jarrad?s awesome, he had my back. And it was awesome.?
Goal No. 2 might be joining Corey for a game at Ford Field, so he can watch Davis play in person. He hasn?t had the opportunity to do so since Davis was racking up tackles for Camden County.
But Brandon Wolfgang is putting in his own work, too. He played basketball through the Kalamazoo-area Special Olympics program, and will compete in shot put and softball this year as well. He?s a huge sports fan, in general ? the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, Michigan and Georgia, on top of his obvious connection to the Lions.
That one will be at the top of his list, at least for as long as his buddy plays for Detroit.
?There?s something about Jarrad being a hero before he was even in the NFL,? Corey said. ?He was a hero to my brother before he even got drafted.?
