Last night Calvin Johnson was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and this morning he spoke with select members of the Detroit Lions media. On that Zoom call, several beat writers have reported that the strained relationship between the receiver and the organization are progressing towards a positive outcome.
“I think that — I know that — myself and Shelia (Ford Hamp, Lions’ principal owner) have had some great conversations recently,” MLive’s Kyle Meinke reported. “It’s been good to get to know her and just really it down and have those face-to-face conversations. So I think we’re moving in the right direction, yeah.”
After Johnson retired in 2016 with two years remaining on his contract, the Lions made a business decision to reclaim a portion of his signing bonus — as permitted by NFL/NFLPA rules — and in the process sacrificing their relationship with their star receiver.
The Lions, who were beginning a regime change with newly hired Rod Wood as team president and Bob Quinn as general manager, were looking for ways to increase their cap space and elected to take this league approved, but widely unpopular, approach. They were able to clear around $1 million in cap space but paid a much steeper price off-the-field.
In the end, the Lions gained next to nothing notable and fractured a relationship with Johnson that has lasted a half-decade.
“I hope we can repair things with Calvin Johnson,” Ford Hamp said in a recent press conference. “He was obviously an amazing player for us. We’re going to continue to reach out to him and hope that we can repair things because I think it’s important that he comes back into the Lions family. We’d love it if he could, if he will. We are 100 percent behind him for his Hall of Fame ballot and hope he gets it this time. He was a great, great player and a terrific person and we’d love to have him back with us and working with us and helping us with everything.”
Recently, the Lions have made a conscious effort to change their approach to how the organization treats its superstars after they move on from Detroit. Barry Sanders has been worked back into the fold, hired as a team ambassador, and this offseason he was involved in their search for a new general manager and head coach. While Matthew Stafford’s preference of playing in Los Angeles was taken heavily into consideration when deciding where he would be traded.
The Lions have a history of making some very public mistakes but since Ford Hamp has taken over as principal owner, she appears to be guiding this organization in a more player-friendly direction.