Parkston’s Reiff Gets Veteran Mentor with Lions

It could have been very awkward for Parkston native Riley Reiff during his rookie training camp with the Detroit Lions.  He's been tabbed to replace long time Left Tackle Jeff Backus, who's been in Detroit for a franchise-record 176 straight starts.

But Backus sees the writing on the wall -- and surprisingly he's OK with it.

Backus recently told The Detroit Free Press:

"I knew this time in my career was going to happen, especially after they drafted Riley, that the Lions would be planning for the future," said Backus, who signed a two-year, incentive-laden deal this year. "But I'm not going to sit here with a poor attitude about it.

"I'll do what I can to help this team, and that's get myself ready to play, help Riley and all the other young tackles get ready to play, including the rest of the offensive line, control my effort and control my attitude and that's to be positive."

The mentoring continues for one more pre-season game, Thursday against the Bills.  We'll see if the lessons paid off when the Lions open the regular season at home with the Rams September 9th.

Check out the complete story here.