ALLEN PARK -- For the most part, NFL training camp is the story of how rosters go from 90 players to 75 to 53 in a matter of four weeks.

But strip away preconceived notions of what being an NFL football player looks like and all you have are 90 guys living together in a hotel, away from their family for weeks, trying to earn or keep a job.

Sunday, the Detroit Lions returned home, back to their families and -- in a way -- back to reality.

They've checked out of the hard knocks hotel and will sleep in their own beds tonight, three weeks after entering the world we call training camp.

Into the wild

Detroit Lions starting outside linebacker DeAndre Levy knows that he has a job. In that way, he's one of the lucky ones. Other guys further down the depth chart are well aware that these few summer weeks may be the most work they'll see all year.

When DeAndre Levy is done running with the backs, he runs with the bulls.

For Levy, who's entering his sixth season in Detroit, the concerns of camp are veteran.

"I think the most important part about training camp is finding a routine," a sweaty Levy said recently in the spare moments he had between a two-hour afternoon practice and a position meeting. "You kind of get in a daily grind day in and day out. You've got to get in a routine of what your lifting is like, your recovery, your rest.

"You kind of block out the rest of the world and focus on football. For some guys whose focus might not be there, training camp forces you to focus on what you need to focus on."

Levy's focus is there to a point that he has to seek out ways to decompress each night, ways to not think about football. As soon as he finishes his last meeting and before the team's 11 p.m. curfew, he disappears into the valley of Pamplona or the depths of the Sierra Nevada.

"I try to get through a couple books," Levy said. "Whatever gets your mind off of camp. Right now I'm reading 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'Wild.' I'm trying to be ambitious and knock two out at the same time. 'Wild' is a story about this woman. She hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail.

"It's my way to escape into the wilderness."

Do not disturb

Purposeful steps are taken by NFL teams to ensure that focus is solely on football as much as realistically possible. One big step was moving all 90 guys into a private floor of a nearby Dearborn hotel, where no one but the players had access.

"Nobody can even get up to our level," second-year corner Darius Slay said. "You can't even bring your family up. Everything feels like you're in a prison, but with visitation downstairs."

Of course, the type of prison that has down pillows and room service.

"Yeah," Slay smiled, "It's a little bit nicer. That's it."

Quarterback Dan Orlovsky has his hands full as soon as practice ends with his two and a half year old triplet sons.

From the time players reported on July 27, they were given two days off, both Sundays.

The busy schedule is warranted, since teams have roughly one month to cut the roster almost in half (from 90 to 75 in the days leading up to their final preseason game and from 75 to 53 in the two days following).

They also had to allow time for travel to two preseason road games in Oakland and an upcoming trip to Buffalo for an Aug. 28 game.

Rookies and second-year players are assigned roommates for the weeks spent in the hotel, while veterans get rooms to themselves, which they relish.

"These younger guys have to have roommates, so that must be terrible right now," Levy said. "The older guys get a little more leeway, you get your own room. Rookies need roommates. They need to work together."

The team also had all of its meals together during this time, two at their training facilities in Allen Park and one late night back at the hotel. A small break in the middle of the day is often used for lifting, stretching, a massage or whatever a guy has to do to help his body maintain for the grind.

First-year Detroit head coach Jim Caldwell has introduced a varied practice schedule as an attempt to cut through the monotony. Not only have practice times varied from as early as 8:30 a.m. to as late as 7:30 p.m., but the locations have switched up in contrast to what previous head coach Jim Schwartz had done. The Lions held one public practice at Wayne State University's football field, a little less than 10 miles down I-94, and held another public practice at Ford Field.

Still, each day it's back to their temporary home -- a place where guys say the season's worth of chemistry is established.

"At first it's a little awkward not being at home," said Cassius Vaughn, a fifth-year veteran cornerback who's new to the Lions but accustomed to NFL training camp. "Now it's just a chance for you to intertwine with the guys that you're going to be with and play with so you can build a better bond. You play harder for somebody that you care about. We build a great bond being in the hotel, being in the same area together all the time.

"When you hear a lot of people say family, brotherhood, those are the types of things that we're building together in this time of camp."

Family matters

For Levy, books offer escape. Running back Steven Miller uses the same tactic but to quell a different sort of stress. This is Miller's second training camp with the Lions after going undrafted out of Appalachian State in 2013. He was signed and released by Detroit three times last season, bouncing between being a practice squad player and expendable when the front office needed room on the roster.

He's giving it another shot this August and has continued to stick around Detroit in between employment stints. Reading at night helps Miller not think about how temporary life in the NFL can be.

"I actually just got a book yesterday, The 'Art of War,'" said Miller, who's assigned roommate -- fellow running back Theo Riddick -- appears to have a firm grip on one of Miller's coveted roster spots. "It's pretty thick, but thus far, it's pretty good. I just finished 'The Alchemist.' That's my new thing right now. I'm trying to get into reading all different kinds of books. I haven't always been a reader. I actually got into it a couple years ago. I fell in love with it ever since then.

"As soon as we get back to the hotel, we probably don't get back until about 10 o'clock anyways, the running backs at least. So as soon as we get home we want to unwind and take it down."

Detroit Lions linebacker Tahir Whitehead stops between practice and interviews to hold his newest son. Whitehead believes, ""Small boys become big men through the influence of big men that love their small boys."

Miller admits that the training camp life is "a whole lot easier" for young guys like him who don't have a wife or children back home while they're sequestered in the hotel.

"I have a son so I have to make sure I check on him," Slay said. "You got to do something or they may think you don't love 'em no more. If you go too long, they could think you're trying to put football before family. But it's always all about family."

Guys on the team with a wife and kids try to find that balance. For many of them, the hour or so of free time before curfew must be used for family, however they can make it happen.

"That's what it is. Always have a time slot for the family. Happy wife, happy life," Vaughn said. "You have to keep her and the children happy. Whatever you can do - Skype, FaceTime, texting, phone time. Anything you can do to take yourself away from it just a little bit.

"But this is your reality. This is what pays our bills. This is what keeps us going. This is what we love to do. This is our reality. And your wives, your children, even from a young age, they understand what Dad is doing. They understand what their uncle or cousin is doing when they leave and go for camp. So it's kind of like the whole family has to be intertwined with the lifestyle. Everybody has to be on board."

Home sweet home

Down the hall from Levy and Miller, away from gamers like Slay and Vaughn, Glover Quin flips through the pages of a book on house design. He's been in the league since 2009 and has his roster spot in the Detroit secondary locked down.

"It's not normal life. But, at this time of year, life is not normal," Quin says. "We're at the stadium 14 hours a day, so the only thing you're doing at the hotel is sleeping, really. I think it does help. When you do have some free time, guys are close enough that they can hang out together and build that chemistry. I think that's a great thing about it. But I do think when you put the guys in the hotel, it puts you in that, 'we're in camp' mode.

"We're living, eating, breathing, sleeping football for a few weeks. That's how training camp is."

Quin is noticeably unfazed when first talking about camp life, but when it comes to being away from home, he is visibly sentimental.

"It's tough, obviously going from the offseason, where you spend a lot of time together each and every day and then all of the sudden daddy's gone for a while," Quin said. "When you have young kids, they don't always understand it. But we get to talk each and every day. I miss them; they miss me. It's just one of those time periods where daddy gotta suck it up and say, 'I got to go do what's best for the family.'

"And that's have a job and take care of this side of it. This is for you, you know?"

So every night back at the hotel, once the football and the FaceTime is over, he hits the books. He's planning the design of his family's future home, planning for the inevitable life after training camp.



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