Detroit Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown went off script for 'Jar-ed Goff' chant at NFL draft

The NFL had no plans for a group of current and former Detroit Lions to speak before the start of Thursday's draft, but newly paid wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had a different idea.

St. Brown said he made an impromptu decision to lead an estimated 275,000 fans in a "Jar-ed Goff" chant after initially being told he and other Lions weren't going to speak before the start of the first round.

Goff, the Lions quarterback whose name has become a rallying cry for fans across the state, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and Hall of Fame ex-players Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson joined NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Michigan-born hip-hop legend Eminem on stage to kick off the draft Thursday.

"I thought we were going to speak, cause I saw Travis Kelce’s (speech at the draft in Kansas City) last year," St. Brown said Friday at a news conference to announce the four-year, $120 million extension he signed earlier this week. "I was like, 'Oh, they all got on the mic, so I'm expecting I’m going to be on the mic.'

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"I asked the lady, I said, 'Are we going to speak?' She said, 'Oh no, you guys aren’t speaking.' I said, 'Oh no, I got to do a chant for Jared.' So I told Jared I’m doing it. So we get out there — and I actually told the commissioner before we go, I said, 'I got to say something on the mic.' He’s like, 'Go ahead, go ahead.' He was cool about it. So I kind of started off. If I wouldn’t have said anything, no one would have said anything, so I went out there."

St. Brown said he did not realize how large the crowd was until he walked on stage and saw the mass of Honolulu blue.

"Yo, yo, what up Detroit?" St. Brown told the crowd Thursday. "Hey, this is crazy. I can't believe it. But before we get off the stage, I need to hear one thing: 'Ja-red Goff, Ja-red Goff, Ja-red Goff.' "

Goff followed St. Brown to the lectern as fans chanted his name.

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"Welcome to Detroit, let's go, baby!" he said.

Hutchinson, Sanders and Johnson also spoke briefly.

"I went out there and said what I did and then had the Jared Goff chant, and then Jared went up there and then everyone had to go," St. Brown said. "So we made Calvin go, we made Barry go, so that’s kind of how the whole thing went down."

St. Brown said he feels fortunate to have landed with the Lions three years ago as a fourth-round pick out of USC, though he admitted he was reluctant to go to Detroit at first.

In three seasons with the Lions, St. Brown has 315 catches for 3,588 yards and 21 touchdowns. He was selected to the Pro Bowl each of the past two seasons, earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2023 and was briefly the highest-paid receiver in the NFL after agreeing to his new deal Wednesday, only to be surpassed when Philadelphia Eagles receiver A.J. Brown agreed to a three-year, $96 million extension Thursday.

"When I got drafted, this is the one team I didn’t want to go to," St. Brown said. "If you told me you were going to Detroit I'd be like, 'Damn.' But now looking back on it, it’s probably the best. I don’t think there’s any other team that could have done — or I don’t think I'd be able to do what I did on any other team than here.

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"Like I said, the people, the organization, the coaches, the players, the city and the fans. I didn’t know coming here what kind of fans they had here. I knew it was a, for the most part, a losing franchise, so I didn’t think the fans were like this. I thought it was just going to be like whatever. But I remember my rookie year, the fans, they were at almost every game and we weren’t winning any games and they were still there supporting us so just from then on I knew what kind of fans that they had here, the people of this city and that’s something that I really appreciate as a player cause things happen in sports. You have losing seasons, you have winning seasons, but to feel love and supported by your fans is great and that’s what Detroit, Detroit city and the fans are like.

"But the situation that was I brought into, early on some might say it’s not the best but I feel like we have the last laugh right now, all of us that came in. But we still have a lot of work left to do. We fell short last year, which was heartbreaking but I feel like we learned from that and I feel like we’re excited to get this new year going."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown: Jared Goff NFL draft chant not planned