The Detroit Lions have reached out to former receiver Calvin Johnson in hopes he will join the team’s training camp in Allen Park, Michigan, team president Rod Wood told WJR Radio on Monday.
“I did invite him out to training camp,” Wood said on WJR on Monday. “We’ll see if he does that. Hopefully, he shows up and he’s a great player. We want to have him in the tent and not outside the tent.”
We get how Wood is feeling, Johnson called out the Lions, saying the Lions were indeed one of the reasons he retired.
Earlier this month with Italian reporters Johnson brought up the idea of super teams when he was asked if he thought about switching teams.
“Of course, I thought about it,” he said. “Just like in basketball, you know, guys, they create these super teams. But it’s not quite like that in football where I had the freedom just to go.”
“I was stuck in my contract with Detroit, and they told me they would not release my contract, so I would have to come back to them. I didn’t see the chance for them to win a Super Bowl at the time, and for the work, I was putting in, it wasn’t worth my time to keep on beating my head against the wall and not going anywhere.”
Johnson also was asked about possibly returning to the NFL.
He said it would be too much of a toll on his body if he played and that he was tapped out.
Wood really wants to work things out, clearly, there is a bad taste on how things went left, and can you blame Johnson for feeling that way.
Johnson played with the Lions from 2007-2015, through the years with the Lions they didn’t win a playoff game.
In 9 years Johnson became the franchise’s all-time leader in catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
Not to mention Johnson was a part of probably one of the worst teams of all time, the 2008, 0-16 Lions.
Lions coach Jim Caldwell chimed in earlier this year, hoping the issues could be worked out.
“Playing in the National Football League for a team, it’s like a family. Families sometimes have disagreements,” Caldwell said. “They look at things a little differently. I have grown children. Sometimes we look at things a little differently. We hash them out, talk them out. There’s dialogue, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love them. But we get the differences worked out”
“I think the same thing will happen in this situation. Maybe there’s a disagreement, a little different viewpoint, but the most important thing, I think, is perhaps this whole thing will bring about a little bit more dialogue.”
Johnson is retired and that might not change, the Lions have to move on from their mega star.