Tight End University is an annual event created by NFL legends George Kittle, Travis Kelce, and Greg Olsen. The week-long experience brings current NFL tight ends down to Nashville, Tennessee for a gauntlet of training events, partying, and all-around shenanigans—and it all kicks off on Monday.
In the past, several Detroit Lions players have been regular attendees, but this year, there will just be a single participant from the franchise. According to the Tight End University “Class of 2025” Instagram post, Shane Zylstra will be the only representative for the Lions this year among a class of 72 total players.
Last year, three different Lions attended the festivities: Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright, and Zylstra. A few weeks later, LaPorta spoke about the camp, talking about how nice it was to be recognized by so many of his peers after a strong rookie season in 2023.
“A lot of fun. It was cool to have peers, other tight ends across the league recognize me and say, ‘Hey, you had a fantastic year this year. Rookie tight ends, that’s not usually the case. The year you had, congrats on that,’” LaPorta said. “So it was cool to get acknowledged by a lot of those guys down there, and, of course, we had a lot of fun and learned a couple of things as well.”
This year, LaPorta isn’t there. We don’t know the exact reason why, but it’s worth nothing that the 24-year-old tight end got married just over a week ago. He also left this comment on Tight End University’s latest post:
“Hold down the fort men (specifically @shanezylstra8 )”
So it seems likely that if LaPorta could have gone, he would’ve.
Regardless, it will be a good opportunity for Zylstra, who will be competing for the team’s third-string tight end job against veteran Kenny Yeboah and a pair of undrafted rookies (Zach Horton and Luke Deal).
If you want to follow all of the shenanigans of Tight End University, you can follow their account on Instagram here.