The Lions are bestowing their highest honor on their greatest receiver. The club announced Monday that Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson will be inducted into the Pride of the Lions during a halftime ceremony of their homecoming game against the Seahawks in Week 4 on Monday Night Football this season.
Lions COO Mike Disner, who played a central role in ending a long-standing beef between Johnson and the Lions after the team forced him to pay back a portion of his signing bonus following his early retirement in 2015, surprised Johnson with the news Monday morning at a fundraiser for his charitable foundation at the Detroit Golf Club.
Speaking alongside fellow Pride of the Lions inductee Lomas Brown, Disner said that "looking around Ford Field, there's two things missing."
"The first is a Super Bowl banner that hopefully Coach Campbell and his staff and players are going to work their butts off this year to try to achieve. And second is Calvin's name in the rafters."
The Lions' all-time receiving leader in catches, yards and touchdowns smiled and clapped upon hearing the news.
“We are thrilled to add Calvin Johnson Jr. to the Pride of the Lions,” said Lions president Rod Wood in a statement. “His commitment on the field and to the city of Detroit are legendary and this is a well-deserved honor. We are proud that he will be forever memorialized inside Ford Field and as a Detroit Lion.”
Pride of the Lions, a permanent display at Ford Field honoring the greatest players in franchise history, also features Hall of Famers like Barry Sanders, Bobby Lane, Dick 'Night Train' Lane, Joe Schmidt, Lem Barney and Alex Karras and other franchise legends like Brown, Chris Spielman and Herman Moore.
Moore held most of the franchise receiving records before Johnson broke them. Johnson also owns the NFL single-season record for receiving yards, which he set in 2012.