JOHNSON: ‘I’M NOT COMING BACK’
Former Lions wideout content in retirement
For anyone still wondering why Calvin Johnson retired in March after nine NFL seasons, the answer was on his right ring finger Saturday.
Nearly six months after he played his last football game and four months after he filed paperwork officially ending what should be a Hall of Fame career, Johnson showed up for his annual youth football camp at L’Anse Creuse High School in Harrison Township, Mich., wearing the same finger splint he donned as a player.
Johnson, 30, who announced his retirement in a lengthy statement released by the Detroit Lions before the start of free agency, said in his first public comments since that decision that the wear and tear of the game drove him from football and he had no plans to return.
“I’m not coming back,” Johnson said. “You ain’t got to worry about that.”
The Lions’ career leader in nearly every receiving category said he’s content in a retirement that’s consisted of getting married, spending time with his 2year-old son and traveling the globe.
He said he hopes to return to school this fall — he’s 30 credits shy of completing his degree in business management from Georgia Tech. He said he plans to be active in the Detroit community, though eventually he’ll call Atlanta his full-time home. And he said it’s important to preserve what’s left of his health.
“I know everybody wants to know why I retired, but it’s more so I put a lot into the game and it’s taken a lot out of me, and that’s where I’m at right now,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to get into the specifics of the things that I feel it’s taken away, but it definitely feels good, I guess I can say for myself, to spend more time around the family, my son, I just got married. So things are going good right now.”
Johnson had finger and knee surgeries after the 2013 season and barely practiced at times over the last two years because of a nagging ankle injury.
He said those injuries helped him decide before last season that it was time to call it a career.
“My finger’s jacked,” Johnson said. “I mean, I’m beat up. After you play that long you’re going to be beat up, so it’s just a time where you are content with what you did and I’m content with what I did so far.”
Rob Sims, one of Johnson’s former teammates with the Lions and a counselor at his camp Saturday, said Johnson has settled seamlessly into retirement in part because he “saw it coming, he saw it far away.”
“The ability (to play is still) there, but I think he gave so much to the game he was just ready, ready to just enjoy the fruits of his labor,” Sims said.
The second overall pick of the 2007 draft, Johnson finished his career as the Lions’ all-time leader with 731 receptions for 11,619 yards and 83 touchdowns.
He said he considered retiring after the 2014 season but ultimately thought he had one more year left in his body.
Last year, Johnson said he told his family before the season that he planned to retire, and a handful of close friends and teammates learned of his decision during the season.
Though the Lions only made two playoff appearances and did not win a postseason game in his career, Johnson downplayed that lack of success as a factor in his retirement.
“Nah,” he said. “I wouldn’t just quit because we were losing. It was just body. I was just tired of it, fed up. Just had enough.”
Though Johnson had no plans to return to football, he said if he ever did it would be with the Lions.
“If I came back, I’d come back here,” he said. “Nothing wrong with here, but … whenever I go different places somebody sees me in the airport they assume that I’m coming to visit Boston, ’cause I was just in Boston. Or I’m coming to visit Miami or something like that. It doesn’t work like that.”
Saturday, Johnson arrived at his camp just after 8 a.m. and spent the next 45 minutes consulting notes on his phone as he personally set up stations for about 43 L’Anse Creuse players to rotate through.
Ex-Lion Dominic Raiola, Johnson’s cousin Dorian Guy and former Georgia Tech teammate Taylor Bennett were among those who joined Sims as counselors at the camp, with Raiola jokingly shouting, “Comeback” at one point when Johnson demonstrated a ladder drill.
Johnson said he planned to continue running free football camps and awarding scholarships through his Calvin Johnson Jr. Foundation in retirement, and after Saturday’s three-hour session was done, he posed for pictures and signed autographs for campers and volunteers.
“I made my own decision,” Johnson said when asked if he was happy with the way his career ended. “I’m good with it.”
Birkett writes for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY NET WORK.