A few weeks after Trey Flowers won his first Super Bowl with the New England Patriots in 2017, the new Detroit Lions defensive end showed up for 7:45 a.m. service at the Huntsville, Alabama, church he’s attended most of his life.

Flowers and his family have been regular churchgoers for as long as anyone in Huntsville can remember, so much so that the first pew at Union Chapel Missionary Baptist Church is, for all practical purposes, reserved for them.

As Flowers made his way to the front of the church, not necessarily on time, pastor O. Wendell Davis paused to recognize him as “the newest member of the Super Bowl family.” When Davis finished feting Flowers, the 1,500 or so people in attendance broke out in applause.

“They gave him a standing ovation,” Davis recalled. “And of course, after service, there wasn’t many people shaking my hand that day. They had him surrounded.”

One of the parishioners near the back of the church that day, another regular at Union Chapel’s Sunday morning service when he’s in town, was then-Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson.

Johnson joined the rest of the congregation on its feet, cheering Flowers and his accomplishment, not knowing fate would one day unite the two on the football field.

“I just felt very happy for him,” Johnson said. “That’s a tremendous thing for him and his family.”

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Flowers and Johnson grew up about 15 minutes apart in Huntsville, a research hub in northern Alabama near the Tennessee border.

They knew each other only in passing, though both had big athletic reputations in a sports-crazed town.

Flowers, the seventh of 11th children in an athletically inclined family — his father played football at Alabama A&M and one of his older brothers played basketball at Cincinnati — starred at Columbia High on Huntsville’s west side before going on to play collegiately at Arkansas.

Johnson, who’s four years Flowers’ junior, starred at Madison Academy, a private school just outside Huntsville. Like Flowers, he came from a family of athletes. Two of his older siblings played college basketball, and his brother, Kerron, beat out future NBA star DeMarcus Cousins for Alabama’s Mr. Basketball award.

Kerryon Johnson played three seasons at Auburn and was a second-round pick by the Lions last year.

Now, he and Flowers, who signed a five-year free-agent deal this summer, are two of the team’s most important players heading into Sunday’s season opener against the Arizona Cardinals.

“It’s pretty cool,” Flowers said. “My daughter actually goes to school with his nephew, they’re in the same class. You sit there and think about it, there’s a lot of connections. But it’s pretty cool. It just shows you, he came from a humble upbringing, so did I. We just work hard and stay focused on our track and we’re here living out a dream.”

‘Good things’

Johnson’s NFL career got off to a fast start last season, when he finished second in the league in yards per carry (5.4). He had his first 100-yard game in Week 3, snapping the Lions’ 70-game drought without a 100-yard rusher, and he was on pace to become the Lions’ first 1,000-yard back since Reggie Bush when he went down with a knee injury in a mid-November win over the Carolina Panthers.

Johnson missed the final six games of last year, but showed enough as a rookie for the Lions to believe he could be the engine of their new run-based offense.

“He’s a talented player,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “Kind of unassuming, I think, not only the way he carries himself but even sometimes the way he runs the ball. You look up at the end of the game and you’re like, ‘Man, he had a bunch of yards.’ I think that’s not to be anything but a compliment. But talented guy, can kind of do it all. I wouldn’t say, you don’t sit there and go, ‘Man, he’s the fastest guy on the field, or he’s the biggest, or he’s the quickest,’ whatever. I think he’s just a really well-rounded player.”

Johnson showed his receiving chops last year, catching 32 passes, more than he had in any season at Auburn. But it’s his ability to move the chains as a runner that has everyone so excited for 2019.

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When the Lions hired Darrell Bevell as offensive coordinator in January, they signaled their desire to move away from the days of Stafford slinging the ball 40 times a game and become more run-oriented.

In 12 seasons as coordinator at two previous stops, with the Minnesota Vikings (2006-10) and Seattle Seahawks (2011-17), Bevell produced six top-five rushing attacks and twice led the NFL in rushing.

Future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson had four seasons with at least 1,200 yards rushing and twice topped 300 carries while playing for Bevell, and Marshawn Lynch, another back with a case for Canton, had the four best seasons of his career with Bevell calling plays.

“He likes to run the ball, I play running back so that means good things,” Johnson said this week.

To prepare for his new offense and the bigger workload that certainly will come his way, Johnson, who logged just 118 carries as a rookie, said he spent the early part of the offseason watching film of Lynch and Peterson.

Johnson, at 211 pounds, is a different style running back than both those players, more slithery and not quite as physical, but he said the film was instructive in that it showed him “how they read things, how they saw things from their perspective,” and it left him tantalized by the thought of what he could accomplish with Bevell calling plays.

“It’s like, if he can do it, hey, I have a chance,” Johnson said. “Things are different for us. Obviously, they have Russell (Wilson at quarterback), we have Staff. So things are different. Personnel is different, our O-line is different. It’s just cool. Bev has seen them run, Bev has seen all these guys run and now he comes and brings that same offense."

To prepare for the season, Johnson, who did not need surgery on his knee, spent the winter training both at Auburn and at his father’s gym in Huntsville.

The goal was to put enough armor on to absorb a season’s worth of carries, like the workloads Lynch and Peterson had under Bevell.

Lions coach Matt Patricia always has favored a timeshare in his backfield as a way to keep his backs healthy for the stretch run, and while Johnson said he’s not sure what to expect in that regard, he’s ready for whatever Bevell throws his way.

“I just run,” Johnson said. “I’m determined to get yards every play and like I said, I’ve always had that mindset of, ‘Hey, if I run as hard as I can, 100% every time I touch the ball, every game, every week I’ll be where I need to be at the end of the year.’”

Pride of Huntsville

The Lions finished last season with a disappointing 6-10 record, losing four of six games with Johnson out of the lineup. After the season, general manager Bob Quinn said he needed to find “more playmakers on both sides of the ball.”

Offensively, the Lions have two good young skill players in Johnson and wide receiver Kenny Golladay, plus a quarterback in Stafford who has put up prolific numbers in his career and a promising young tight end in first-round pick T.J. Hockenson.

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Defensively, the Lions are older and have fewer rising stars. Damon Harrison is one of the best run defenders in the league, but he turns 31 in November. Darius Slay is coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons, but he, too, is nearing the end of his prime.

That’s one reason why the Lions made Flowers their No. 1 target in free agency, and why giving him one of the richest contracts for a defensive player in NFL history could pay huge dividends this fall.

Flowers has never had a double-digit sack season in college or the pros, and he won’t confuse anyone for Khalil Mack or Aaron Donald on the field. But he spent the last three seasons making plays on one of the NFL’s best defenses in New England, and he’ll play an almost identical role at right end in a loaded defensive front in Detroit.

“He’s just a hard-working guy,” Lions defensive line coach Bo Davis said. “Going to go out and do his job and play hard and put a good product on the field. That’s the thing you’re going to see from the guy. He’s going to be a hard worker and do his job and just go out and play like he normally plays.”

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Flowers had 21 sacks and five forced fumbles in 46 career games with the Patriots. He’s a top-notch edge run defender and relentless pass rusher, but like Johnson he has injury concerns.

Flowers played sparingly as a rookie after suffering a preseason shoulder injury that lingered into the fall. Last year, he battled through another shoulder injury to help the Patriots win the Super Bowl, then underwent surgery in February.

He did not play a snap this preseason and has practiced only sparingly with his new linemates. But Davis and others insist that’s not reason for concern.

Hard work, Davis said, was instilled in Flowers, both by his family — Flowers started working for his father’s construction company while he was still in elementary school — and by the community he’s from.

“There’s a lot of pride (in Huntsville),” said Davis, an Alabama assistant in 2007-10 and again in 2014-15. “A lot of hard-working people come from that area. Tough-minded people and guys that, most of the guys that come out of there, their main thing is to be successful, no matter what it is. Work hard. They got great work habits. That’s the way they were brought up, and that’s one of the things when you look at guys — not just saying from that area — but they understand how to work and they understand how important things are, too.”

Numbers game

Because of their age difference, Johnson and Flowers never met on the football field in high school or college, despite playing at rival SEC schools.

They did, however, square off once on the basketball court, when Johnson was an eighth grader starting at Madison Academy and Flowers was a senior in high school.

“I remember him being pretty good, but I was a senior at the time so I kind of told my team, we not about to let no eighth grader come and (beat us),” Flowers recalled. “He was the guy.”

Flowers didn’t let his team lose that day, but he and Johnson dispute why.

“He fouls a lot,” Johnson said. “If Trey ever tells you he’s never fouled, he’s lying. Trey fouled every play, every game, every time. Like, it’s ridiculous.”

“No, I don’t remember fouling him,” Flowers said. “But I remember saying, ‘Nah, ain’t no eighth grader about to come show out.’ I was in 12th grade, but yeah, he was pretty good.”

Davis, the pastor at Union Chapel, said both were good enough to make a big impact on the congregation as high school stars and both are still held in high regard in Huntsville today.

Every winter, around the time of the Super Bowl, the church encourages parishioners to wear sports jerseys to a special Sunday service to represent their favorite teams.

While some wear college paraphernalia, and the area is largely a mix of Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons fans, Flowers’ No. 90 jersey with the Patriots has been an increasingly popular choice in recent years, and last year a number of people wearing Johnson’s No. 33 Lions jersey filled the crowd.

Davis said he’s given sermons wearing Flowers’ jersey in the past, and this year he plans to wear different jerseys for the 7:45 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. services – No. 90 and No. 33 Lions jerseys to represent the congregation’s most famous parishioners.

“I’m just as proud of both of them as I can be,” Davis said. “I just don’t know what to say. Grateful is one word I will use. I’m grateful they have represented the city of Huntsville and their communities and their families, and of course the Detroit Lions the way they’re doing.”

One more thing: Davis said he learned after the fact that Johnson was in church the day he recognized Flowers for his Super Bowl win and “got on him about not letting me know so I could have recognized him as well.”

“I’m hoping to be able to do that for the Lions the next time (Trey) and Kerryon come home,” Davis said. “Hopefully, they’ll be representing the Lions’ Super Bowl trophy.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.