Calvin Johnson On Future With Lions: 'I Don't Think About That Stuff'
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Less than an hour after the Lions beat the 49ers 32-17 on Sunday, the Ford Field crew was already at work erasing the "Detroit Lions" paint out of the end zone. A college bowl game – with its own logo – will be played there Monday, yes. But fans probably wouldn't be too disappointed over erasing every memory of this 6-9 season as quickly as possible, too.
As Detroit limps to Week 17, the rebuilding process for next year can't get started soon enough. Whether or not that future includes its franchise player, wide receiver Calvin Johnson, is anybody's guess. And when Johnson decided to keep the ball he caught for a touchdown in the second half Sunday, speculation only increased. Another ball in a long line of them that he's kept from his touchdowns? Or a memento from potentially his last home game at Ford Field?
"It's just another game for me," Johnson said after Sunday's game, in his typically soft-spoken and to-the-point manner. "I don't think about that stuff."
The thing is, everyone else is. The Lions are a mess, stumbling their way to a – at best – 7-9 season. They've fired their general manager, president and three offensive coaches. Head coach Jim Caldwell could be next, depending on what the new GM wants to do, whenever he or she is finally hired, most likely at the end of the season.
How that GM decides to structure the rebuilding process will determine whether Johnson is kept in Detroit. His cap hit is around $24 million for next season, and the Lions would save money by cutting or trading him. The franchise could pay for a better offensive line, for one, or some linebacker depth.
But Johnson was drafted by the Lions in 2007, has spent his entire career here, has broken records here, and has professed his desire to stay. A divorce like that is never cut-and-dry.
"I've played here my whole career," he said Sunday. "If anybody had the opportunity to stay in one place and play ball, they would."
But if that place had never once produced a playoff victory during an entire career? Perhaps not everyone would be so sure about staying.
And the Lions haven't been using Johnson as much this season as they have in the past. Before Sunday, he caught only one pass in two straight games. Against the 49ers, in one of the peaks of his roller coaster season, Johnson finished with six receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown. It was the most he had been targeted since Detroit's 45-14 win over Philadelphia on Thanksgiving.
Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said he thinks the questions about Johnson's future are overblown. But it's impossible not to ask them when a star player has spent the peak of his career within a floundering franchise.
"I don't anticipate it's going to be anything other than what it's been," head coach Jim Caldwell said of Johnson's future. "That he's here, he's a great Lion and does a tremendous job. That's what I expect and that's all I'm going to say about that."
"It wasn't on my mind," Johnson insisted, on the possibility of playing for the final time in a Lions jersey. "You can't help but think about it with everyone talking about it, but it wasn't anything I was thinking about going into the game."
