(97.1 The Ticket) -- The paid-back signing bonus is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Calvin Johnson's grievances with the Lions.
In a wide-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated, Johnson reflected on his nine-year career and playing for an organization that he remains estranged from to this day.
The relationship ended when the Lions took $1.6 million from Johnson, legally so, upon his early retirement in 2016. Johnson insists it's no big deal, but told SI, “at the end of the day, you don’t do that to your best players.”
And as much as the Lions want to bring him back in the fold, Johnson said he “won’t step foot in anything Lions-related” unless the organization pays back his money.
But his frustration with the Lions stems from his playing days. He came into a losing organization in 2007 and walked away from the same dysfunction nine years later.
Along the way, Johnson, who was never diagnosed with a concussion, guesses he sustained at least nine of them -- one for each season. There was one incident in 2012 where he told reporters he suffered a concussion against the Vikings, until the Lions, who claimed Johnson passed their concussion protocol, told him to walk back his story. Johnson subsequently explained he misused the term 'concussion.'
But he told SI, “I knew I was concussed because I blacked out. I wasn’t seeing straight. And they wanted me to change my story.”
Johnson's former teammate Travis Swanson backed up his story via Twitter, while also claiming that the Lions didn't put him in front of a doctor for an "entire week" when he suffered a concussion of his own in 2016.
But it wasn't just concussions that ultimately turned Johnson away from the NFL. He suffered a litany of injuries over the course of his career, including a number of mangled fingers. During another game in 2012, Johnson said, one of his fingers was bent at a 90-degree angle; the Lions training staff told him to get it fixed after he retired.
To treat the constant pain, Johnson said he tried to avoid opiods, which were freely available to players when he entered the NFL. He chose marijuana instead, which he said he smoked after every game to help his body heal.
In the years since he retired, Johnson, indisputably the best wide receiver in the game at the height of his powers, has maintained he likely would have played longer had the Lions been more competitive. "There is a very strong possibility," he told SI. Detroit made the playoffs just twice in his his career, losing both times, and went 54-90 overall.
Johnson witnessed the incompetence almost as soon as he arrived. In his second year with the team, he said quarterback John Kitna "left the meeting room one day and told the coaches and the whole team that we’re not gonna win a game if we go into the season with (this) system. Somebody should have listened. Because we were 0–16 after that.”
During that season, Johnson added, "plenty of guys on the team (said), ‘I don’t know if I want to play football anymore.'"
Johnson's career blossomed a few years later under wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson. He credits Jefferson for helping him breaking Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record in 2012. He said Jefferson was the best receivers coach he's ever seen in the NFL.
After the 2012 season, then-head coach Jim Schwartz chose not to renew Jefferson’s contract. Why?
“Maybe there’s egos that play (into it),” Johnson told SI. “I think that was part of it.”
It's situations like these that began to sour Johnson on the Lions. Asked if he questioned the organization's commitment to winning during his career, Johnson said, “Of course. I can say that. And I say it more confidently after I left and saw the way other teams operate.”
Lions president Rod Wood has said mending the fence with Johnson is a "very high priority" for the organization. Johnson said in June he hadn't heard from Wood. He told SI they've talked one time since, and it was only because Johnson called the team to help his accountant attain some information.
While his relationship with the Lions remains closed, Johnson has linked up with other NFL teams in recent years, like when he was a guest coach for the Raiders during training camp in 2017. He has told Matt Patricia that he's open to working with the Lions' receivers, according to SI, but only if it's away from the team's facility.
Johnson said he still cheers for some of Detroit's players, because he has friends on the team.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I cheer for the Lions,” he said.
Given what he knows, it's hard to blame him.