Drew Petzing and his younger brother, Dean, have competed against each other most of their lives.
“Video games, etc.,” Drew said.
The Petzings will square off for the third straight year on the football field when Drew’s Detroit Lions take on Dean’s Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sunday, Oct. 5 (8:20 p.m., NBC).
Drew is in his first season as Lions offensive coordinator, but he coached against the Panthers, with whom Dean is an offensive quality control coach, the past two seasons in his role as OC with the Arizona Cardinals.
“We're 1-1,” Drew said Thursday. “I think it's probably more stressful on my parents than it is on us. We just want to win.”
nearly as depleted as theirs
The Petzings took similar paths into coaching, with Drew spending time at Harvard, Boston College and Yale after his playing days at Middlebury College and Dean working his way up through similar small-school ranks in the northeast, working at St. Lawrence, Yale and Villanova before moving on to FBS-level programs Notre Dame and LSU and making it to the NFL.
Drew told the Free Press in February he and his brother have both pushed each other and been each other's biggest supporters in coaching, even as they've tried to lead separate coaching lives.
“One of the things that I’ve struggled with, when I was [with the Minnesota Vikings] we had four father-son combinations, which I appreciate and some of those guys were great coaches,” Drew said. “I love Klint Kubiak, he’s a close friend of mine. And I also have had the opportunity to hire my brother and I haven’t because of some of those experiences, which also, I’m shortening his network by doing that and I feel bad about that. But there’s a pride factor when we play each other.”
Dean’s Panthers beat Drew’s Cardinals late in the 2024 season to knock the Cardinals out of playoff contention, and Drew’s Cardinals got revenge with a 27-22 win last year.
Drew said he talks football with Dean “in a way that I can’t with a lot of people that I know in my life,” though their relationship is about much more than ball.
“I certainly can with the coaches, but it’s nice to have people that you’re very close with or that you’re family with that you can share that love and that appreciation,” he said. “I know it probably puts a ton of stress on our parents. I’m sure they don’t love that all that time, but no it is. It’s pretty cool.”
This week, Drew said his brother “probably wants us to lose by 50 and I want him to lose by 50. And I don't think that's ever going to change.”
For Petzing’s parents, the hope is neither brother has to suffer a beatdown of that magnitude.
“Our parents are going to be stressed out and probably want just a really high-scoring game on both accounts and a tie game if that could ever happen,” Drew said. “But it's fun. I talk to him. I wouldn't say it's any different. I really don't treat it any different. Obviously, I love him and he's very close to me, but on Sunday I hope he has a really bad game.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions OC Drew Petzing faces younger brother this week at Carolina
