The Detroit Lions introduced Monday that Calvin Johnson will probably be added to the group’s Satisfaction of the Lions, additional signaling a repairing of the group’s relationship with the Corridor of Fame large receiver.
Johnson, 38, will probably be honored at halftime of the Sept. 30 recreation between the Lions and Seattle Seahawks on “Monday Night time Soccer.”
There had been a rift between Johnson and the Lions after the group requested Johnson to repay $1.6 million of the signing bonus he had been given at the beginning of his final contract after he retired following the 2015 season. Nevertheless, the Lions have labored to fix their relationship with Johnson the previous few years.
Mike Disner, the Lions’ chief working officer, shocked Johnson at his charity golf match on Monday with the announcement. Final yr, Johnson instructed ESPN he gave Disner credit score for serving to to restore his relationship with the group.
Johnson instructed the “Up & Adams Present with Kay Adams” that Monday’s shock announcement was a “tearjerker.”
“I did not see it coming. I wasn’t anticipating it,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s simply an honor to be celebrated by my friends and by town of Detroit.”
Johnson, who was inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 2021, holds the Lions franchise document for receptions (731), receiving yards (11,619) and landing catches (83). Johnson, who was chosen to 6 Professional Bowls and three first-team All-Professional squads in his nine-season profession, additionally holds the NFL’s single-season receiving yards document with 1,964 in 2012.
“We’re thrilled so as to add Calvin Johnson Jr. to the Satisfaction of the Lions,” Lions president and CEO Rod Wooden mentioned in an announcement. “His dedication on the sphere and to town of Detroit are legendary and it is a well-deserved honor. We’re proud that he will probably be endlessly memorialized inside Ford Subject and as a Detroit Lion.”
The Satisfaction of the Lions, which was first unveiled in 2009, is a everlasting show at Ford Subject which honors the most effective gamers within the historical past of the franchise. Johnson will grow to be the twenty first former Lions participant to obtain the dignity.
