Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

FLINT – Haloti Ngata has been voted to five Pro Bowls as a player, but the 32-year-old defensive tackle is looking forward to next week’s game – when he and the rest of the Detroit Lions defensive line will go as guests of Ziggy Ansah – as much as any of his previous trips.

“It’s kind of hard (to play in the game),” Ngata said Friday when he joined Ansah and several of his teammates delivering bottled water to the city of Flint. “You want to chill, too, when you’re there, but then you got to go practice and all that. It’s better (this way).”

Ansah, who was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time this year, offered to take the Lions’ entire defensive line, including coaches Kris Kocurek and Matt Raich, with him to Hawaii upon learning of his selection in December.

Calvin Johnson did something similar with the Lions’ receivers in 2012, and defensive end Darryl Tapp said he was with the Seattle Seahawks when veterans like Patrick Kerney and Julian Peterson took the entire defense.

“I told Ziggy last year, I said, ‘Dude you have the ability to be the top, if not the top guy, the top three defensive ends in the league in the next two to three years,’” Tapp said. “I said, ‘The deal is, if you get voted to the Pro Bowl, you’ve got to take us all.’

“We’re all going to make sure we do everything we need to do because even as special as an athlete as Ziggy is, he needs the rest of the three guys on the D-line to make a lot of plays. Don’t get me wrong, he makes a lot of plays on his own. He’s got a lot of God-given ability. But he needs the rest of us. I said, ‘Hey, man, you do what you need to do, we’re going to do what we need to do. If you get that nod, you got to take the whole D-line.’”

Ansah had a career-high 14.5 sacks this year and was one of the few bright spots in a disappointing 7-9 season. He finished third in the league in sacks, behind J.J. Watt and Khalil Mack, and fell a half sack short of tying Robert Porcher’s single-season Lions record.

“You can fully see that we are a brotherhood,” said Ansah, the only Lion scheduled to play in next week's game. “It’s not just about being teammates. We’re a brotherhood on and off the field and I’m happy they’re here to help and we’ll be in Hawaii together, too.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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