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C.J. Mosley has become a leader of the Detroit Lions' star-studded defensive line in just his first season with the team. He's emblazoned a heart rate into his haircut as a symbol of perseverence. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- The only reminder C.J. Mosley ever needs that he's still breathing is scribbled into the side of his head. And sometimes, he needs it.

The Detroit Lions defensive tackle has an EKG -- a heart beat -- shaved into his fade, a haircut he adopted recently to remind himself that despite the pain, and the suffering, and the life lost, the man is still here.

C.J. Mosley has 12 tackles through his first seven games in Detroit, but his real value has come in his leadership.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Still here.

"It's kind of like something to remind myself to keep going," Mosley said. "A lot of bad stuff has happened. But my heart's still beating, so you keep going. It's what you do, you know?"

Professional football players are some of the biggest and fastest and strongest human beings on the planet. They seem indestructible. They feel invincible.

But they are not indestructible. They are not invincible.

They have hearts. And no quantity of bench presses can keep the damn things from breaking.

C.J. Mosley knows this. And the adversity he's faced -- and overcome -- has helped turn him into the defensive line's unsung leader in just his first season with Detroit.

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Mosley has always been a unique athlete. When he was 8 years old, he played street football back home in Missouri against high-schoolers twice his age. He was a receiver and tailback, and scored a lot.

He grew to be 310 pounds, and starred on the defensive line at Missouri. The Minnesota Vikings selected him in the sixth round of the 2005 draft.

Mosley had achieved his dreams. That's when his world fell apart.

The day of his first practice with the Vikings, he awoke to a phone call in which he learned the following: His mother, Angela, had breast cancer. His grandfather, Richard Hope, who helped raise him and bought him his first car, had a stroke. And his grandmother, Sarah Hope, already was in the hospital because of a stroke.

Both grandparents died during that camp.

"I was devastated, man," Mosley said. "All my people started dying."

His other grandfather, William Mosley, died a short time later.

C.J. Mosley tackles Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers during a game earlier this year.

Angela battled her cancer for two years at her home in St. Robert, Mo. Even as she lost control of one side of her body. Even as her brain turned to putty.

By the end, she sometimes seemed like she didn't even recognize her own son.

"When the cancer spreads, your brain is a wrap," Mosley said. "I remember one conversation we had on the phone, she was talking, and she didn't even know she was talking to me. It's almost like she's talking to you as if you weren't her blood.

"When it got to that point, I knew."

Mosley went back to Missouri to visit her in the 2007 offseason, when he was playing for the New York Jets. He started the 22-hour drive back to New York City on April 4.

She died the next day.

"Her being there is all you really ever know," Mosley said, "and after she died, you just feel like your world is wrong. And there ain't no answer for it."

And yet, Mosley has persevered. He's still breathing.

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He moved on to the Cleveland Browns in 2009 and Jacksonville Jaguars in 2010. He became a full-time starter for the first time last year with the Jaguars, in the lineup for 13 games.

Then he was surprisingly cut, as Jacksonville hired a new staff that wanted wholesale changes. The Lions called him the next day.

Defensive line coach Kris Kocurek originally noticed Mosley while scouting some future Detroit opponents who were playing Jacksonville. When Mosley became available, the Lions pounced on him to provide depth behind tackles Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley.

"We saw a stout guy who played hard and tough," Kocurek said. "Heck, that's the kind of guy we want. He stood out as a guy who could hold the point of contact."

The Lions have gotten a lot more than they bargained for.

Mosley has two QB hits, five QB hurries and 12 tackles, providing terrific production as a rotation player behind Suh and Fairley. He said this is the most fun he's ever had playing pro football, in part because of the scheme.

He was in a 3-4 in New York and a non-traditional 4-3 in Jacksonville, where the nose played as though he were in a 3-4.

"It just feels good to take the chains off and go," he said.

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But perhaps his greatest contribution: While Suh and Fairley grab the headlines, Mosley quietly has become the new leader of the group (along with Israel Idonije). The ninth-year veteran has filled the void left by the departures of mainstays such as Kyle Vanden Bosch, Corey Williams and Cliff Avril.

That includes in the film room, where Mosley has a sharp eye for diagnosing plays and setting a tone, and on the practice field, where he takes aside younger players to offer advice.

Away from the field, he draws from that catalog of experience -- the good, and bad -- and uses it to develop the maturation of the big-money Fairley all the way down to practice-squad players.

Fairley remembers fearing Mosley was coming for his job when he first signed. Now they're like "brothers."

"I was just like, 'Oh man, what's going on?'" Fairley said. "But once we got to hanging out, getting to kick it, things got well. We got close. We gelled.

C.J. Mosley gets his hair cut, with his trademark heart rate sculpted into his fade.

"Now I pick his brain outside of football. Know what I'm sayin'? Life stuff. He's been with different teams, been in different life situations. Sit down and talk with him. He tells me how to handle myself, because he's been through it all."

Mosley still takes practice-squader Xavier Proctor out for dinner every few weeks, despite the rigors of the season.

"C.J.'s been more than a leader to me. He's like a brother," Proctor said. "We just talk, and he gives me little tips on just little stuff outside of football. Just how to live. Definitely a lot of advice when it comes to women.

"He's not an outspoken guy. But he talks when he needs to talk. When he does talk, it's something pretty important."

Mosley is a lot of things. Ask around the locker room about him, and the first response is almost invariably that he's a funny dude who knows how to keep it light.

"He's got jokes," added receiver Nate Burleson, cracking up. "He'll attack you very quickly, if your jeans are too skinny or your haircut doesn't look nice. He'll jump you.

"He always tells me my haircuts aren't competing with his. He's like, 'That's light. That's light.'"

Mosley's life hasn't been easy, despite his riches and fame. He's lost a lot of loved ones along the way, and went through a recent divorce.

He's been traded. He's been released.

He's scaled the full range of human emotion and accomplishment, a life experience he's now drawing from to help lead Detroit's defensive line. He's still persevering, with a smile.

And playing some pretty good football.

"I'm still breathing, like you," Mosley said. "Everybody has a story. Everybody has motivation. This is mine."