Calvin Johnson retires.

GT1992 said:
Do any of you remember Elway's last year? He was Peyton. Couldn't throw the ball 20 yards.

Congratulations Calvin, who already has his degree. He comes from a good family and made intelligent financial decisions. He will be fine and happy for the rest of his life. That's the goal.
Click to expand...

Nope. He doesn't have his degree yet. But he does plan on going back to school at Tech to finish it. The rest of your post was spot on though except for Elway. I remember a couple of passes he threw in the back-to-back Super Bowl wins during his final 2 NFL seasons that were lasers.

Link to article about Calvin going back to school
http://espn.go.com/blog/detroit-lions/post/_/id/21598/education-is-important-to-calvin-johnson-including-getting-his-degree
 
Lots of blame being passed to the Lions. However there are lots of players play full careers for bad teams and don't quit early. This seems like it is a Megatron issue and not a Lions issue to me. And lets not forget, that he signed a contract with the Lions beyond his rookie deal. He had a chance to get out and didn't.

Just sayin...
 
Just to make this more painful than it needs to be, please recall that the Raiders wanted to trade the Falcons their #1 draft pick for Michael Vick in 2007, straight up. The Falcons had Matt Schaub as a backup QB at the time. We passed on the offer. The Raiders picked JaMarcus Russell (bust), the Lions picked Calvin at #2 (bust for Calvin), and Vick got thrown in the pen for dogfighting.

We were very close to having a Schaub-CJ connection in Atlanta. Instead the Falcons got set back 5 years.
 
I truly think it's the injuries. He's been banged up most of his career, probably even more than he's let on. Now, if the Lions looked like a team that could win the Super Bowl in the next couple of years, might he see it as worth it to hang on? Only he knows.

I would say his chances of making the Hall of Fame are 100%, while his chances of going in on the first ballot are 70%.
 
Flywheel said:
Just to make this more painful than it needs to be, please recall that the Raiders wanted to trade the Falcons their #1 draft pick for Michael Vick in 2007, straight up. The Falcons had Matt Schaub as a backup QB at the time. We passed on the offer. The Raiders picked JaMarcus Russell (bust), the Lions picked Calvin at #2 (bust for Calvin), and Vick got thrown in the pen for dogfighting.

We were very close to having a Schaub-CJ connection in Atlanta. Instead the Falcons got set back 5 years.
Click to expand...

Schaub would've taken the Falcons nowhere. He was worse than Stafford.
 
05GTCorndog said:
Schaub would've taken the Falcons nowhere. He was worse than Stafford.
Click to expand...

Disagree, but even if you're right, it stands to reason we'd still have wound up with Matt Ryan, and CJ would have been in his prime during the season we were 10 yards short of a Superbowl.

At a minimum, I think we'd see CJ looking for excuses to keep playing in Atlanta versus looking for excuses to leave in Detroit.
 
I am not sure Calvin has ever had great love for football. He is bright, articulate, and seems to be a pretty sensitive guy. He was raised in a good family. Go back to the decision to come play for us and you see he was never one to make the decisions you would expect of a 5-star kind of talent.

God blessed Calvin with freakish size and talent. You wonder if he did not feel compelled to use that talent for athletic success because it was expected of him. I am just not sure his heart was always 100% in the game. If I am right, I hope he takes his money and uses it well and builds a great life for himself. If I am wrong, I hope he gets back on the field again. He is a remarkable athlete.
 
Flywheel said:
Disagree, but even if you're right, it stands to reason we'd still have wound up with Matt Ryan, and CJ would have been in his prime during the season we were 10 yards short of a Superbowl.

At a minimum, I think we'd see CJ looking for excuses to keep playing in Atlanta versus looking for excuses to leave in Detroit.
Click to expand...

But if Atlanta gets CJ in 2007 with Schaub, do they tank so bad that they get the #3 pick and draft Matt Ryan or do they go 6-10 and draft 10th and never get the franchise QB? Lots of what-ifs.
 
05GTCorndog said:
But if Atlanta gets CJ in 2007 with Schaub, do they tank so bad that they get the #3 pick and draft Matt Ryan or do they go 6-10 and draft 10th and never get the franchise QB? Lots of what-ifs.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong. But those what-ifs would have been more fun with CJ in town.
 
05GTCorndog said:
Lots of blame being passed to the Lions. However there are lots of players play full careers for bad teams and don't quit early. This seems like it is a Megatron issue and not a Lions issue to me. And lets not forget, that he signed a contract with the Lions beyond his rookie deal. He had a chance to get out and didn't.

Just sayin...
Click to expand...

Maybe, but whether it's coincidence or not, it doesn't look good for the Lions that their two best players have chosen to retire early rather than keep playing for them, and one of their best defensive players ever left to go to another losing team.
 
gtfan088 said:
Maybe, but whether it's coincidence or not, it doesn't look good for the Lions that their two best players have chosen to retire early rather than keep playing for them, and one of their best defensive players ever left to go to another losing team.
Click to expand...

I assume you are talking about Suh. Suh left because of money. Detroit couldn't afford to keep him because they were paying Calvin and Corky each $20 million per year.
 
So what's CJ's best move from here? He's definitely articulate enough to make a great commentator. Also smart enough to back off athletics and live off of well-invested money while doing charity work for the rest of his days.
 
Flywheel said:
So what's CJ's best move from here? He's definitely articulate enough to make a great commentator. Also smart enough to back off athletics and live off of well-invested money while doing charity work for the rest of his days.
Click to expand...

He's said in past interviews that his mom is going to make him finish his degree.

After that, who knows. I imagine if he ever works again it will be because he wants to, and I don't really know what he's into.
 
05GTCorndog said:
I assume you are talking about Suh. Suh left because of money. Detroit couldn't afford to keep him because they were paying Calvin and Corky each $20 million per year.
Click to expand...

True, but there was a lot of talk that Suh wanted out regardless.

There have been other great players who have played their entire careers for bad franchises, but it's not all that common, and the only other one that comes to mind for the Lions is Barry Sanders, and we know how that went.
 
agt45 said:
He could have gotten that kind of cheese from half the teams in the league.
Click to expand...

So, you're surmising that 14 other teams offered him $60M and he chose to stay in Detroit? All things being equal he chose Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst run organizations in professional sports, and a "Eh...he doesn't totally suck" QB to continue on with his career. That's your position.

Umm.....OK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top