For nine seasons with the Detroit Lions, Calvin Johnson was one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history. But despite his individual success, his team was never able to win a single playoff game.
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As we know, Johnson ended up retiring while he still had some gas left in the tank and it had a lot to do with the fact that he was playing for the Lions.
But what if Calvin could have left Detroit and played for another team? Would he have played longer than he did?
“If I could have went somewhere else, maybe I would have maybe tried to stick it out a little longer,” Johnson told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on a recent episode of the All The Smoke podcast. “But it just wasn’t worth it to me doing it here in Detroit.”
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Later in the podcast, Calvin told a story about how whenever the Lions played the Packers, Aaron Rodgers would tell him to come to Green Bay and he wishes he could have made that happen.
“Whenever we played Green Bay, you know. Aaron Rodgers, whenever he was over on our sideline, I just be standing there and he’d come over here like, “Hey man, you need to come over here.” I was like, “Man, I wish I could dude.””
During the episode, Johnson also discussed things like why he held out before his rookie season and he reiterated that the reason he and the Lions do not have a good relationship is that they made him pay back money when he retired.
Johnson also talked briefly about how he has another son on the way, which is pretty cool.
Here is the full podcast if you are interested.