Jamie: Megatron's retirement a Calvin Johnson or Detroit Lions issue? – Detroit Free Press
Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the “Jamie and Wojo” show at 6 p.m. weekdays on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at [email protected], follow him on Twitter@jamiesamuelsen.
Will fans ever really appreciate or understand where retired Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson is coming from?
One of these days, a Detroit great will retire – and we won’t be left to sift through quotes or read the tea leaves to find out why he did it.
One of these days, a Detroit great will retire because his career is done, he’s done all that he can do and left it all out on the field, court or ice.
One of these days, a Detroit great will pull a Scotty Bowman – win a title, accept the trophy and then announce to the world you watched him for the final time.
Until that happens, we’re left with guys like Barry Sanders, Pavel Datsyuk and now, Calvin Johnson. There’s no common thread between these three other than the fact we feel a little shortchanged as fans. All were exceptional. All chose to leave on their terms. All will one day have busts or plaques in the Hall of Fame.
But all leave a few questions.
At face value, Johnson’s departure makes complete sense. He performed valiantly for the Detroit Lions for nine seasons. His level of play was in decline even though he was still the best player on the team and one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. The violence in the sport has become a source of national debate and players are more aware than ever of the health risks they take on every time the ball is snapped. Johnson has long planned for his life after football and saw no need to put his body on the line for even another season.
Then ESPN’s E:60 show tracked down Calvin. They elicited a quote or two about his time with the Lions, the pressure to get your injured body back on the field and the well-publicized quote about him theoretically having a harder time walking away from a ‘contender’. So we’re left to wonder all over again whether this is a Calvin issue or a Lion issue.
The answer, as always, is both. You know what it’s like to follow the Lions. It’s excruciating, numbing and feels as if it takes years off your life. Imagine if you actually played for the Lions. In addition to the excruciating and numbing parts, you literally would be taking years off your life. The average lifespan of the American male is about 78. The average lifespan of an NFL player is about 58. Simple math.
The larger answer is Johnson is becoming like more and more athletes in sports today. He’s a man with a job. His job happens to be playing football. This is impossible for fans to understand because our emotions rise and fall each Sunday. We draft fantasy teams, wager a dollar or two on a favorable line and buy t-shirts and jerseys honoring our favorite players.
To many players, it’s a way to make a living. I’ll never forget interviewing former Lions full back Cory Schlesinger when he was an active player and asking him if he watched football during one of the team’s off weeks. He kind of frowned and said, “No.” He told me he really wasn’t a football fan. He just happened to be good at it, and played it. He parlayed that into a scholarship at Nebraska and a 12-year NFL career.
Johnson may not be the exact same story, but remember this is a guy whose passion as a boy was to play baseball. It was only when he grew and got better in high school that football became the obvious career path. If Johnson was frustrated during his career by the losses and the blown draft picks and the low output on certain occasions, he certainly never let it be known publicly. Given the reverence with which players, coaches and executives speak of Calvin, it’s likely he never shared his opinion privately either. He came to work, did his job effectively, never complained and collected his gold watch at retirement. It’s the classic American story of persistence and retirement.
Now that Johnson is away from the spotlight, he’s allowing us inside just a little bit more. He was active on Twitter after the Orlando nightclub murders and the tragic shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. He told Michael Smith on the E:60 special about his concerns with concussions and drug dependence. He even dropped in that little line about contending, which was his way of saying he loved his career in Detroit, but it sure would’ve been nice if they could’ve done a little bit more. It’s also a pretty clear statement that when Johnson tweets out his 2016 playoff picks, the Lions won’t be among the selections.
Some Lions fans are angry Johnson left too soon. Some are angry he didn’t do more to affect change while he was here. But most understand this was a great player who was sick of the pain, sick of the losing and probably sick of the work.
Johnson doled out everything he had on the field to win. He doled out just enough off the field to get by. In both circumstances, he leaves us all wishing for more.
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