For nine seasons, Calvin Johnson, nicknamed “Megatron,” delighted NFL fans as one of the league’s truly elite wide receivers.
He led the league in receiving yards twice, made six Pro Bowls and three All-Pro First Teams, and he helped make the long-suffering Detroit Lions at least somewhat competitive.
But the Lions were never able to become contenders while Johnson was there, and he revealed that it was a major reason why he retired early, per Pivot Podcast.
Johnson is widely considered one of the very best wide receivers in football history, and at 6-foot-5 and nearly 240 pounds, he was nearly impossible for opposing defensive backs to cover.
In 2012, he established an NFL record with 1,964 receiving yards, a record that hasn’t been broken yet, even as the game has become more pass-friendly since.
But despite getting to play with a quality quarterback in Matthew Stafford, Johnson wasn’t able to make the Lions into contenders.
In his nine seasons in the league, all of which were spent in Detroit, the team had a winning record just twice, and it made the playoffs just three times, losing in the Wild Card round each time.
Johnson said that playing on a mediocre team “zapped all the fun out of the game” for him and that he wasn’t willing to go through the requisite preparation as a result.
This past season, the Lions finished first in the NFC North and won their first playoff game since the 1991 season — in fact, they made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game.
There’s no doubt Johnson would’ve loved playing on a team like that with a real shot at winning a Super Bowl championship.
