The friendship between Detroit Lions safety Louis Delmas and tight end Tony Scheffler goes back to their college days when they were teammates at Western Michigan.
Delmas is black. Scheffler, white. They have an unconventional relationship, which they discussed with the Detroit News' Terry Foster.
"Me and (Scheffler) have a relationship many people do not have -- both black and white," Delmas told Foster. "I look at him like my brother. I love him to death.
"He greets me, "What up, n-----?' But I understand it. So I say, 'What's up, cracker?' But we would never take it outside the building."
It's certainly controversial -- a white guy using the N-word, a black man calling a white man a "cracker" -- especially in the wake of Philadelphia Eagles receiver Riley Cooper being caught on video barking the N-word to a black security guard at a concert.
But Delmas and Scheffler are completely OK with it.
"I treat Louis like a little brother," Scheffler told Foster. "He knows my wife and kids. He calls me 'white boy' and 'cracker.' We go back and forth with it and we are both comfortable with each other.
"I can't say the same with other relationships in the locker room or how other guys would feel about it. So it is a tough dynamic when you are using those types of words. Everybody does not react the same."
Case in point: Delmas was critical of Cooper for using the same word he allows his friend to call him, because Cooper's slur was uttered in public and directed at a stranger.
"You will never see me going outside the building calling someone cracker," Delmas said.
Delmas acknowledged that slurs eventually should disappear from society, Foster wrote, but justified using them in this context because it actually helps teammates bond. Other Lions were comfortable with Delmas and Scheffler's name-calling when asked about it, but didn't seem to share the same kind of relationship with teammates of the opposite color.
One player described the locker room as racially divided, Foster wrote, and several white players said they don't appreciate hearing slurs from teammates they're not close with, but choose to stay silent for the good of the team.
Scheffler said being called names by players other than Delmas isn't a big deal.
