For the second time in the Franchises’ history, the Detroit Lions made an all-time player quit in the prime of his career.
Former Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson recently had in depth interview with Sports Illustrated and spoke on numerous things regarding the Lions. One of them being how the team forced him to lie about concussions just so he could play in the next game.
Johnson, who remains at odds with the team after they made him pay back a seven-figure portion of his signing bonus upon his retirement in March 2016, also spoke on the fact that he smoked weed after every game.
“Of course Calvin Johnson didn’t need the money. He made so much that he doesn’t even know the exact amount the Lions made him repay when he retired in March 2016. “One point six [million] or something like that,” he guesses of the returned, prorated portion of his signing bonus. But the Lions didn’t need it either. And that is his point. You may see a squabble between a millionaire employee and a billion-dollar business. Johnson sees confirmation that he played for a backward organization, in a league that demands more heart than it shows.
He is sure he suffered at least nine concussions in the NFL, one for every season—a “super conservative” estimate, he says.
If the team had been better he probably would have kept playing, but he is glad he left. He smoked pot after every game, to heal, but that’s not why he’s getting into the cannabis business.
He excelled at that job, but his employer kept failing. The Lions did not win a playoff game in his nine years. Their ineptitude was comical, unless you cared. One coach hired his son-in-law to be defensive coordinator. A general manager decided on draft night to use a first-round pick on a player he didn’t even want. Veterans would join Detroit and tell Johnson about everything the team did wrong. Eventually he started to notice himself. The front office and coaching staff were rarely aligned. The massage therapist who was there on Fridays and Mondays would be gone the next year. Stuff like that.
“I knew I was concussed because I blacked out. I wasn’t seeing straight. And they wanted me to change my story.” Mostly, he says, he played through concussions because in his NFL that’s how you earn Employee of the Month.”
Not a good look for the Lions at all.
