Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

First, he got a fat new contract. Now, Darius Slay has a new name.

Slay changed the name on the back of his familiar No. 23 jersey to read "Slay Jr." and debuted the new look at Wednesday's night practice in Allen Park.

Slay said he's always been a Junior, but he never before wore the name on the back of his jersey for "personal reasons."

So what changed?

"Respect level." Slay said. "I respect my dad, love my dad. You’re only blessed with one dad, so I know it’ll make him happy so I feel good about it so I just did it for him. My daddy."

Slay isn't the first Lions player to add a suffix to the back of his jersey in recent years.

Titus Young added "Sr." after the birth of his son in 2012, and Mikel Leshoure did the same later in the season.

Slay said he only had to show the equipment staff his license with "Jr." in his name in order to get the jersey change.

"They just wanted to make sure I had junior on my license," Slay said. "It wasn’t that hard. It’s kind of sweet, though. I like it on the back."

Slay, who signed a four-year contract extension last week, said he was also excited to see his ranking on the Madden football game.

Slay checked in with a 90 overall grade, tied for the highest on the team with defensive end Ziggy Ansah.

"I am loving that," Slay said.

Slay said his only complaint is that gamemakers only gave him a 93 grade in speed.

"I’m way faster than 93 speed," Slay said. "I run 93 speed backpedaling. I need to be 99 speed, that’s all I’m saying. I need to be 99 speed. That's it. That’s the only thing I need them to do, put me 99 speed."

More notes and observations from Lions camp:

• Wednesday's practice was the Lions' annual training camp practice for first responders from the Detroit, Dearborn and Allen Park police, fire and EMS departments. About 1,000 tickets were distributed for the event, and Matthew Stafford's wife, Kelly, and Lions president Rod Wood, handed out two preseason tickets to most in attendance.

• Theo Riddick on what it's like having a night practice: "More bugs, man. Definitely."

• Riddick returned to practice after a two-day absence. He only did individual drills Wednesday, with Zach Zenner taking Riddick's usual second-team reps on offense.

• I've mentioned before how thin the Lions are at cornerback behind starters Slay, Nevin Lawson and Quandre Diggs. It was eye-opening to see Damian Copeland, who the Lions re-signed Tuesday, outplay Alex Carter in one-on-one goal line work. Copeland shook Carter, a third-round pick last year, off the line of scrimmage on their first rep and had a few-yard cushion on a fade route he caught in the back of the end zone. Carter got his hand up to bat down a pass on their second rep, then Copeland had easy wins on Reps 3 and 4.

• Jay Lee showed a few nice moves in goal line work against Ian Wells, but Lee also had a drop in an 11-on-11 period when he subbed in for TJ Jones with the second-team offense for one play. Jones, Jeremy Kerley and Andre Caldwell were the second group of receivers in (after Golden Tate, Marvin Jones and Anquan Boldin), but it was interesting that Lee was next off the bench.

• The Lions ran a 2-minute period Wednesday with the ball at the minus-35-yard line and 90 seconds on the clock. Matthew Stafford led the first-team offense to a touchdown when he checked to a quarterback draw -- kind of unfair when he can't be hit -- after a questionable pass interference call on Nevin Lawson against Golden Tate in the end zone. Lawson did appear to commit a pass interference penalty a few plays earlier in the drive that wasn't called.

• Neither the second- nor the third-team offense reached the end zone when it had the ball. Dan Orlovsky's final pass, intended for Andre Roberts, appeared to be broken up by a defender in the end zone. With the threes, Don Carey -- who played as the third-team nickel cornerback in his first practice off the physically unable to perform list -- nearly intercepted Jake Rudock on the first play.

Jake Rudock earning praise as Detroit Lions QB

•The one-on-one pass rush period was shortened to only one rep for most linemen and Wednesday's version was a little more evenly matched. Ziggy Ansah did blow past Taylor Decker on their snap, but Geoff Schwartz (vs. Caraun Reid), Travis Swanson (vs. Khyri Thornton) and Joe Dahl (vs. Wallace Gilberry) also took good reps.

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!