Calvin Johnson lived up to his Megatron nickname over the course of his Hall of Fame career.
Johnson joined Mike Golic Sr. and Jessie Coffield on Monday’s edition of GoJo and Golic to discuss his upcoming induction into Detroit’s Pride of the Lions ring of honor and more.
Johnson said to be inducted into the Pride of the Lions in front of the Detroit crowd, which he said includes some of the best fans in football, as well as his peers and the ownership group carries a lot of weight.
Given the tough times he lived through in Detroit, Calvin says it’s a beautiful thing to see the Lions having the success they’ve had of late. He points out that there are former players serving as coaches throughout Dan Campbell’s staff, and Calvin says that when you have guys who have been where the players want to go, those players are going to buy into what the coaches are selling. And Calvin notes we saw this Detroit squad buy into Dan Campbell in the second half of the season before last and ever since the Lions have been on an upward trend.
Calvin was teammates with Campbell, so Senior wants to know if he’s the same as a coach as he was as a player. Calvin says Campbell’s the same guy as he ever was — gritty, comes to work day in and day out. Calvin recalled that Dan would be out on the field with a torn-up shoulder looking like Robocop but was still able to do his job and do it well. So he respects the heck out of Dan and you can see his energy extending over to his players and coaches.
Johnson was the second-overall pick in the 2007 Draft coming out of Georgia Tech. Senior asked him what his goals were coming into the NFL. Calvin says he came into the league wanting to play 10 years, accumulate 10,000 yards and at the end of the day he wanted to make a statement and make his presence known in the league. He played nine years and accomplished all of his other goals, but he just reached a point where he says his body said it was enough and he wasn’t loving the game like he used to and he was in a lot of pain.
Given all the success he had in his era and how the game is being played today through the air, does Calvin think he would be able to hit the 2,000-yard mark in a season? As if you even had to ask.
One thing that definitely wasn’t around in his era was Flag Football as an Olympic sport. With Flag Football joining Olympic competition in Los Angeles for the Games in 2028, Senior wonders if Megatron would have been interested in bringing home the gold. Calvin says he definitely would have been interested, as he loved playing seven-on-seven. In fact, he thinks he would have Moss-ed a lot of folks under the Olympic flame if the event had been around during his prime.
Watch or listen to the full show below and make sure to tune into GoJo and Golic weekday mornings from 8-10 a.m. ET on DraftKings Network! See more about how to watch DraftKings Network here.
Audio
Hour 1: Where’s GoJo? USA Basketball Shows Weaknesses, Xander Schauffele’s 69 and an AFC South Division Preview
Hour 2: Calvin Johnson on Dan Campbell & Detroit Super Bowls + Sarah Spain on Caitlin Clark & the WNBA All-Star Weekend
Video
Watch GoJo and Golic every weekday on Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Xumo Play, Google TV and DraftKingsNetwork.com from 8 to 10 a.m. ET. The show is also available via audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Mike Golic Sr. on X at @golic and Mike Golic Jr. on X at @mikegolicjr.
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