Lions fan creates Amon-Ra St. Brown snow sculpture
Jamison Agnello and his family built the 7-foot snow sculpture in the front yard of their Harrison Township home.
Amon-Ra St. Brown’s career has been a rocket ship.
A fourth-round pick in the 2021 draft, St. Brown is widely regarded as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL and four years into his career has two first-team All-Pro selections, three Pro Bowl appearances and more receiving yards than all but five players in Detroit Lions history.
“I feel like if you told me five years ago that this was all going to be happening, I would probably tell you that’s pretty crazy,” St. Brown told the Free Press in a video interview in early July. “But I feel like … you don’t wake up one day and it happens. … To me, it’s a slow progression. So it honestly hasn’t been too crazy for me cause like I said I feel like I’ve been working towards this and it’s been happening for the past two, three years.”
As the Lions’ team success has begun to mirror St. Brown’s accomplishments on the field, the wide receiver has enjoyed a growing profile off it.
He has appeared in commercials for Little Caesars Pizza, Cure Auto Insurance and Henry Ford Health in recent years, and this fall he will be featured on boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios as part of a national ad campaign highlighting some of the best touchdown celebrations in the NFL.
St. Brown joined Cincinnati Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase and Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson at a commercial shoot this offseason where he recreated the headstand touchdown celebration he first executed in a win over the Green Bay Packers last November.
Incarnate Word receiver Jalen Walthall did a headstand to celebrate a touchdown one day earlier, and St. Brown and Atlanta Falcons receiver Drake London replicated the feat in the weekend’s NFL games.
“I saw (Walthall) do it, I was like, ‘Damn, that’s pretty cool. I feel like I could pull that off,’” St. Brown said. “So I get into the locker room, this is before the Green Bay game. I think our game was at, we were the second slot of games, so there was the 1 o’clock games were before us and so Drake had done the headstand before cause he was playing before us. I’m like, ‘Damn, he already did it. I’m going to have to probably do something else.’ And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to still do it. Drake did it, but I feel like I can still do it.’
“So I ended up scoring and I think that was the first touchdown of the game, so I did it and I mean, once I saw it after the game, the (still photo of it), it just felt like everything happened at the right time. And I didn’t know it was going to blow up like it did and then sure enough, man, everyone just gravitated towards it, they started making graphics, socks, snowmen, cakes. It was crazy.”
And now, the pose will be featured on cereal boxes across the country.
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St. Brown, Chase and Jefferson also appear on boxes of Reese’s Puffs together, Chase is on boxes of Lucky Charms, and Jefferson is featured on Cinnamon Toast Crunch and has his own Jetta’s Mix of Frosted Lemon Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Strawberry.
For St. Brown, who said he grew up eating Honey Nut Cheerios, the ad campaign is in some ways the fulfillment of a childhood dream to have his picture on a cereal box like so many star athletes of the past.
“It’s insane,” St. Brown said. “To be on the box, it’s definitely a dream come true. And to be able to tell my kids I feel like one day that I was on the box, because I remember my dad texted me when I was telling him I was doing this deal with General Mills, I was going to be on the box. He’s like, ‘Man, that’s a huge congratulations. That’s huge.’ He said as a kid growing up, he always wanted to be on the box. So I think that’s my one up on him is I’m on a Honey Nut Cheerios box and he wasn’t.”
This fall, St. Brown will try to one up every other receiver in Lions history and become the franchise’s first player with four straight 100-catch seasons.
He sat out most of the spring after undergoing a minor knee procedure but expects to be on the field when training camp kicks off later this week.
The Lions have won two straight NFC North titles and are one of the favorites to represent the conference in the Super Bowl, but have a new offensive play caller in John Morton and lost two starters from one of the league’s best offensive lines. Former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is now coach of the Chicago Bears, and St. Brown said the changes have had a rejuvenating effect on him and the offense.
“With Johnny Mo coming in, it’s kind of been a refreshing kind of thing for us because, especially for me, I feel like I’m now back in the playbook studying because I have to,” he said. “It’s new plays, it’s new formations, and I think everyone kind feels that way. We feel like we’re eager to learn the new offense, to do different things.
“Ben’s offense is great, but it’s obviously it’s just going to be a different offense, so we all got to lock in and buy in, which is the most important thing. And at the end of the day, I mean players make plays. I don’t care who your coach is, how good he is, how bad he is. If you’ve got players that are going to go out there, play together and they’re talented, I think that’s the biggest thing. So we know we got the players, we just got to put the work in and stack days.”
If that happens, St. Brown said the Lions will be set up to accomplish his one and only goal for the season — win a Super Bowl.
“For us, we obviously want to have homefield advantage, win the North, do all that stuff because that gives you an advantage,” he said. “But at the end of the day, man, whatever it takes to get into the playoffs and win the Super Bowl, that’s a successful season for us.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
