Tate Promises Franchise Turnaround; Johnson 'Can't Say It Was A Waste' In Detroit
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
The brain is a terrible thing to waste, but what about football talent? When it gets dropped into a dysfunctional franchise like the Detroit Lions, is it all for nothing?
That was the topic for Calvin Johnson Tuesday, hours before the NFL's trade deadline. He insisted he wanted to win in Detroit, that none of the time he spent here was worth dropping from his resume.
"I don't view it as wasted," Johnson said. "It took a lot of hard work to do the things that we've done so far. Definitely can't say it was a waste of anything because a lot of hard work went into that."
For as long as Johnson stays in Detroit, and for as long as the Lions continue in their cycle of mediocrity, he will always be compared to Barry Sanders. Sanders was one of the greatest running backs of all time, spending his career with the Lions, and never winning anything significant.
Sanders' career will always be seen by many as a diamond tossed into a cesspool, and Johnson is headed down the same path. Big contracts and long careers can only mean so much to competitive players, when they never add a ring to the collection.
"I want to win here," Johnson said. "This is where I've been, so definitely want to help kind of create a winning culture."
That culture has been chased in Detroit, but never found. Expectations are low, disappointment high. The Lions undeniably have talent, but they're showing they lack the structure to do anything with those pieces.
Golden Tate is another example, albeit not as drastic of one as Johnson. Tate was shipped from a Super Bowl-winning Seahawks team to the Lions. In his first season in Detroit, the Lions were anything but what the franchise has represented for half a century. They won 11 games. They went to the playoffs. They darn near won the playoff game.
Now, Tate is getting the full brunt of what being a part of this organization means.
"I think I still have the same fierce mentality," he said, when asked if it was hard to stay positive within an organization steeped by consistent failure. "I still think I'm the ultimate competitor; just right now collectively it's not coming around. But I can tell you this, as long as I'm here or anywhere, I will never have the loser's mentality."
The Lions' receiving corps provides a stark dynamic of a player who has been in a winning environment and then dropped into a losing one, beside a player who has spent his entire career in a losing culture.
Neither complains. Both profess belief in the ability to turn around a miserable season, within a franchise full of miserable seasons. But both will always deal with questions of whether at least parts of their careers were wasted.
Johnson insisted he wanted to win in the city that drafted him. Tate even went a step further and guaranteed the organization would get to a situation more similar to what he experienced with the Seahawks.
"I still remember like it was yesterday what it's like to be a champion, to be the best in the world," Tate said. "I still remember a time where teams circled my team on the schedule, thinking 'If we beat this team, we can compete.' I'm not going to forget that and that's where we're going to get to. Right now, it's tough getting there, but I signed a five-year deal … I got three years and I plan on making the best of these three years and giving the fans and the media and the team something to cheer for, and I can promise you that."