Outside of Jerry Rice, nobody has dominated at wide receiver over the last 20 years quite like Calvin Johnson. Picked second overall in the 2007 NFL draft, Johnson absolutely balled out for the Detroit Lions in 135 games over nine seasons. By the end, he’d posted 753 catches, 11,619 yards and 83 touchdowns. That was good enough for six Pro Bowl teams, three All-Pro nods and one trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, Johnson never succeeded in the postseason, as Detroit infamously couldn’t build a winner around him. The franchise and their all-time greatest receiver were on bad terms over money and other issues for years afterward. However, it seems that the Lions organization is finally making peace with Megatron – at least enough to share the same roof for a day.
According to Eric Woodyard at ESPN, Johnson is hosting a high school football camp at the Lions’ facility.
“Hall of Fame receiver Calvin Johnson returned to host a high school football camp, welcoming all positions, in partnership with the Lions. Johnson’s connection with the Lions has been trending up lately as the franchise tries to repair its relationship with him. He was spotted on the sidelines during an OTA session in late May in addition to returning for the last day of mandatory minicamp Thursday.”
Johnson told ESPN that he doesn’t have a designated role with the team and says there’s still work to be done, but he credits the Lions’ chief operating officer Mike Disner for helping to mend the fences.
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