The Detroit Lions introduced Monday that Calvin Johnson can be added to the staff’s Pleasure of the Lions, additional signaling a repairing of the staff’s relationship with the Corridor of Fame large receiver.
Johnson, 38, can be honored at halftime of the Sept. 30 sport between the Lions and Seattle Seahawks on “Monday Evening Soccer.”
There had been a rift between Johnson and the Lions after the staff requested Johnson to repay $1.6 million of the signing bonus he had been given firstly 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 event on Monday with the announcement. Final yr, Johnson advised ESPN he gave Disner credit score for serving to to restore his relationship with the staff.
Johnson told the “Up & Adams Show 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 the 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 Pleasure of the Lions,” Lions president and CEO Rod Wooden mentioned in a press release. “His dedication on the sector and to the town of Detroit are legendary and it is a well-deserved honor. We’re proud that he can be endlessly memorialized inside Ford Subject and as a Detroit Lion.”
The Pleasure of the Lions, which was first unveiled in 2009, is a everlasting show at Ford Subject which honors the perfect gamers within the historical past of the franchise. Johnson will develop into the twenty first former Lions participant to obtain the dignity.