ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Jalen Reeves-Maybin grew up in Tennessee, played football at Tennessee, but throughout his life he’s been a fan of at least five Major League Baseball teams.

It’s a loyalty thing, a family thing, which sounds weird until you understand his family. Reeves-Maybin’s cousin is former Detroit Tigers outfielder Cameron Maybin, so wherever Cameron went, Reeves-Maybin was sure to start rooting for that team instead.

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“I’m a fan,” Reeves-Maybin said, “of wherever he’s at.”

That’s likely to be reversed now for Cameron Maybin, who already texted his cousin after Reeves-Maybin was selected by the Detroit Lions in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft on Saturday afternoon.

Reeves-Maybin and Maybin are just two of the athletes in his family, including Reeves-Maybin’s father, Marques, who played college basketball at Louisville. It was Cameron, though, who helped influence Reeves-Maybin growing up.

There was the time Reeves-Maybin shagged fly balls during one of Maybin’s workouts for MLB teams in North Carolina. And there were the times they hung out in North Carolina and Tennessee even though Maybin is eight years older than his cousin and has been a MLB player for a decade. He saw Maybin stay out of trouble, stayed focused and became a professional athlete.

That gave Reeves-Maybin a goal.

“I’ve definitely been watching him my whole life,” Reeves-Maybin said. “And trying to get to his level of success.”

That level starts now after being drafted by Detroit. He’s the first Tennessee linebacker to be drafted since Jerod Mayo in 2008. He had 240 career tackles with 27 tackles for loss, eight sacks and four pass breakups. This is despite not playing much his freshman year and missing almost all of his senior year with a shoulder injury.

Reeves-Maybin said Saturday the shoulder is fine and he’s cleared to play. If he is, that athleticism he helped get from his own work and the rest of his family should show. He was a high school quarterback at Northeast High in Tennessee and played baseball -- third base and in the outfield like Cameron -- when he was a kid.

But Reeves-Maybin gave up baseball for a career in football -- and that’s a career that has now made him a pro just like his cousin.