5 questions with Lions OL Graham Glasgow: Position change, favorite Halloween costumes

ALLEN PARK – For the better part of the last decade, Graham Glasgow has been anchoring offensive lines around the state of Michigan.

First, he went from walk-on to a 37-game starter at Michigan over three years from 2013-15. Then, he first joined the Lions in 2016, becoming a full-time starter in his second year. After a three-year stint in Denver, he returned to the state to rejoin the Lions and become a key piece to an offensive line considered by many to be the best in football.

MLive spoke to Glasgow about the contract he signed earlier this year, his position switch, adjusting to fatherhood and more in our weekly five questions series:

Last year you entered the season competing for a starting job and on a one-year contract. This year you had a starting job locked up and a long-term contract. Is the motivation any different when you're in that situation?

Yeah, I guess it's a little different. I think that getting moved to left guard made things a little bit more difficult. It made me have to change a lot of the ways I do things and a lot of the ways I have to think about things. Almost having to take like a beginner mindset to it. The last time I played it would have been 2017. So in that regard, it was different, but in a way it's almost kind of the same, because there's a lot of stuff you need to do hopefully improve.

Do you feel like, this many games in, does it get to be more second nature?

Yeah, for the most part. Some stuff is good, some things you need to think about a little bit harder. The technique stuff is coming along, I'd say. I'd say that's getting better.

You've been able to stay on the field in your time in Detroit and avoid major injury. How much of that is good luck and how much is learning what you need to do to stay available after nine seasons in the NFL?

I think that there's taking care of your body off of the field, and I think that everybody kind of does that. I think in some regards, you've got to take care of your body on the field. What I mean by that is like, there are certain plays that you would think to yourself 'There is a chance that I could get possibly rolled up on this play. You've got to keep your feet going, you've got to keep going, you've got to keep churning, because if you stop your feet on a play like that, that's when you'll end up getting messed up. I feel like a lot of times, if you're playing hard, and you're trying hard and you're just continuing, you keep giving effort throughout the play, a lot of that kind of takes care of itself. You don't end up having situations like that.

If you feel somebody falling into you, usually you've just got to go limp, if that makes sense. If you try to resist somebody falling into you, you're usually going to get hurt. You've just got to become like a piece of bubble gum or taffy.

Your kids are 2 and 16 months old. Have you gotten used to being an NFL player and a dad?

Yeah, it's great. During the season, it can be hard at times, especially when you have a full day of work and you go home and maybe they're not in the best mood. I love the part of it when we're in the offseason and I get to be, like, a full-time dad. That's the best, being able to spend basically the whole day with them outside of working out, that's probably my favorite.

We're talking on Halloween. Did you have a favorite Halloween costume you wore as a kid?

In high school once, I think my mom made me a paper mâché bear head and like put some fur all over it and she made a suit for me. It had like, fur. And I thought that was pretty cool.

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