Rookie Receiver Corey Fuller Enjoying The Learning Experience Of A Lifetime
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - At 23 years old, Corey Fuller is working with the best in the business.
As part of the wide receiving corps for the Detroit Lions, Fuller learns daily from perhaps the two of the best role models a rookie in the NFL could imagine - Calvin Johnson and Nate Burleson.
"It's the best example you can come into," center Dominic Raiola said. "You can't slack. You can't take a play off. You have the best player in the world. You have the best No. 2/motivator/jump-your-ass accountability person over there in the world. That's a good deal."
Fuller knows what he has got. Even as Burleson conducts an interview beside him, Fuller is tuned in. When the reporter comes to him with similar questions, he cites Burleson, seconding the veteran's response.
"I kind of feel like with Nate and CJ, I've got like a microphone, and I try to listen to everything they say," Fuller said. "I don't care what it's about. I'm listening. I can learn something."
"It's a wide variety of stuff that I can talk to any of them about and learn things," Fuller added. "Whether it's family, financial, investing money in things, marriage, just a wide variety of stuff, I can just sit there and listen, and be like, 'Oh, okay.'"
Johnson is easily the most widely known player on the team, a bonafide NFL superstar and maybe one of the best ever. Burleson, a talented and capable No. 2 receiver, always handles the media with grace and smiles, holding court for serious and goofy questions alike, projecting a genuine interest and patiently willing to explain with more than just the usual sports clichés. Both take their jobs seriously and hold themselves accountable for doing those jobs well.
"They're very business-like," Raiola said. "There's not a second wasted with those guys. When they come in, they're working. First thing in the morning, I come in, and Calvin's here, he puts his stuff down, changes, he's in the weight room. For a young guy when you come in and you see the best in the world doing that? Same thing for Nate."
Learning from such solid individuals, Fuller has high hopes for his own future.
"It's really good," Fuller said. "They're both, as far as professionals, they're what you look forward to. CJ, he's the best receiver to play, Nate, one of the greatest to play, he's a professional, he puts his hands in a little bit of everything, everybody loves him. CJ's quiet, Nate's loud, so I'm learning.
"I'm getting a lot of it, so if I can just get a little bit from here, get a little bit from here, I feel like I can just be ..." He pauses for a minute and smiles. "The sky's the limit."
