What Happened to Calvin Johnson? (Why Megatron Doesn't Watch the NFL Anymore)

back in 1934 Detroit Lions owner George Richards was known for his marketing acumen despite that fact his team was failing to attract the crowd at their game so Richard came up with a gimmick his squad would play on Thanksgiving and it worked like an absolute charm not only did they fill the stadium but they actually had to turn people away because they couldn't fit everybody in but that's not it see Richard negotiated a deal with NBC to broadcast a game across the country and that's basically why the Lions play on Thanksgiving every single year now with that said we all know or can at least infer that the Lions have lost more games on Thanksgiving than they've won I check the stats it's close but they have but they did have this one great run between 2007 and 2015 not saying that they were necessarily winning but they were at the very least putting on display one of the greatest y receivers to ever play in the NFL if the Lions were a better team realistically Calvin Johnson could be silly enough for them this Thanksgiving and despite his early retirement he's admitted as much saying that if the lands were a better team there's a very good chance he would have continued to play Brennan irony is Calvin Johnson the guy that called Megatron walks away from the NFL in his prime so today we briefly discussed his illustrious career and why it came to a screeching halt this is what happened to Calvin Johnson aka Megatron [Music] so Calvin Johnson has been a massive figure well before his in FL days in 10th grade he stood at 6 for as the starting receiver for Sandy Creek high and Tyrone Georgia and bro dude was a dog from day one by the time the senior year rolled around he was ranked as the top 5 wide receiver in the country and the best player in the state of Georgia by several different publications now as many of you already know Calvin Johnson decided to attend Georgia Tech and when you're thinking about a dominant wide receiver you don't expect to find them at Georgia Tech you just don't you're talking a triple-option powerhouse right but somehow Georgia Tech pulled off this recruiting upset against Georgia Miami Notre Dame all of these first-class football schools offer Calvin Johnson but he chose Georgia Tech why well proximity to home definitely has something to do with it was pretty close to where Calvin Johnson grew up but the other two factors that I was able to find our facts that probably aren't super well known one Kevin Johnson or his parents at least were super serious about academics now all parents want you to do well when it comes to academics but when you're the number 5 wide receiver in the nation it's rare there's you're gonna be so serious about academics that you really put that over football you know I mean when it comes to your college choice the other thing is that Calvin Johnson was a really good baseball player and Georgia Tech actually wanted him to play both football and baseball at the school the only reason he didn't play baseball was because his mom would not allow him to she told him he had to pick one sport because she felt that if you play two sports he would never have any time for his academics and we're you know therefore fall behind just thinking about how much stuff you actually have to do just to be a student actively playing one sport mom's was probably right Calvin Johnson played three years at the run-heavy school may first-team all-acc in all of them he won ACC Rookie of the years of freshmen and ACC Player of the Year as a junior he's got the most receiving yards most receiving touchdowns and most 100-yard receiving games in Georgia Tech history during Calvin's final season in college he won the Biletnikoff Award which was an acknowledgement of him being the best receiver in college football with that said Calvin constantly showed that there was more to him than just the game during that same year that he won the Biletnikoff Award and finished 10th in the Heisman voting he worked on a project building solar latrines to help the sanitation in Bolivia what a goat and later he'd be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame first ballot the man weighed into the NFL Combine 65 239 pounds bro that's 240 I he ran a four three five he had a 42-inch vertical and an eleven and a half foot broad jump when you coupled that with this production it would not have been a shocker to see him go first okay guys bear for Calvin Johnson went 2nd to the Detroit Lions after a brief holdout Calvin signed a 64 million dollar contract which back in 2007 made him the highest-paid Detroit Lions of all time that record of course has since been broken multiple times it didn't take long for Calvin to become a favorite of the fans and his teammates veteran wide receiver Roy Williams nicknamed the Megatron due to Calvin's big hands and overall towering physique I mean thinking back Calvin was definitely more of a prime but whatever run williams probably watched transformers once when he was a kid and just had the name still there anyway it stuck and it's a dope name so cool Calvin's injury issues that would end his career after his ninth season were already somewhat have been issued during his first season a back injury bothered him throughout his rookie year and he revealed that he had to take vicodin twice per game just to get through the final month of the season and if you know what comes later you can already start to see why Calvin finished his injury-riddled rookie season with 48 catches for 756 yards and 4 TDs the 2008 season is one that Calvin will always remember he went over a thousand receiving yards for the first time in his career led the league and wide receiver touchdown also a career first yet somehow he didn't make the Pro Bowl why was he snubbed maybe it's because his team was the first to go absolutely winless ever since the NFL implemented a 16-game season you know yeah Detroit we come in the following year they drafted Matt Stafford out of Georgia but he and Calvin both dealt with injuries that season and the Lions won only two games still is an improvement right from 2010 through the rest of Calvin's career he and Matt Stafford developed a great chemistry where Matt kind of throws it up to the six five four three running beast of a man and he catches it right Stafford had the arm strength and the gunslinger mentality that Megatron needed in order to get past the strong where he might not look open but the man is always open Calvin Johnson plays six seasons with Matt Stafford and make the Pro Bowl and all of them except that first year you know the one where he got snubbed and led the league in touchdowns that year and once you consider all that you got to give Matt Stafford credit because once he came in the league Megatron put up Pro Bowl numbers literally every year since Megatron was at his absolute peak during 2010 2011 2012 and 13 for dominant seasons where he led the NFL in receiving yards twice including the year he broke Jerry Rice's single-season receiving yard record with 1964 receiving yards damn near 2,000 yards bro the man was unstoppable now I know I just said he was at his absolute peak from 2010 to 2013 but he was still definitely in his prime from a production standpoint for 2014 and 2015 that's why it's in shock waves through the NFL world when he announced his retirement following the 2015 season some of the people were shocked and it's hard to blame him because people don't usually walk away after having the type of season that this man had in his final season he caught 88 passes the third highest total of his entire career he had 1200 receiving yards and nine touchdowns dude was far from wash and was still one of if not the best wide receiver in the NFL during that year he also didn't sustain a season-ending injury or anything like that and most of the stuff he was dealing with the general public had no idea about during Calvin's career he sustained a plethora of injuries bone bruising his back at least nine concussions busted up foot messed up knees a finger that's permanently bent at an angle crazy enough when he sustained that finger injury the Lions told him look man you can play with that just fix it after you retired crazy now Calvin's a smart guy and it wasn't hard for him to realize that the team really didn't care about his well-being as long as they could push him out there on that field he can get 1,200 receiving yards cool they didn't care about anything ups he figured that out early okay this is a business relationship and he treated it as such now keep in mind this cat has been through injuries since his rookie season in the NFL in order to deal with those injuries the Lions would essentially give out opioids vicodin percocet oxycontin they was popping them like skittles cavil was right there in that bunch he was taking what his employer told him was illegal to take and it was legal but it just wasn't healthy it wasn't safe Cal they hated the way the pills made him feel so he opted for something a little more natural marijuana in a post retirement interview with Sports Illustrated Calvin admitted to using marijuana after almost every single game of his NFL career we know it's something that's frowned upon in the league but honestly it doesn't make any sense and it's a far better alternative than the stuff that they're giving the players now here's a quote of Calvin recalling one instance of him getting a concussion and the team telling him that he didn't have a concussion BAM hit the ground real hard I'm seeing stars I can't see straight but I know a couple of minutes I'm gonna be fine because I've done this plenty of times before but the problem came in 2012 and Calvin told reporters that he suffered a concussion in the game versus the Vikings the issue was that we'll get the Lions in a world of trouble so they came out and said and they still maintain it by the way they say that Calvin passed the concussion protocol and he was fine then they turned around and made him apologize and say that he misused the word concussion and that really isn't what happened they made him change the story Calvin Johnson had actually contemplated a retirement for a while before he actually went through with it prior to the 2015 season he almost walked away but he was unsure dude was in constant pain and just getting out of the bed every day was becoming a challenge still he figured out a way to manage his pain drugged himself out there on the field and still put up unbelievable numbers today Calvin pulls for the Lions players but not necessarily the organization there's definitely some bad blood there after Megatron sacrificed his body for the team only to have them turn around and make him pay back a portion of his signing bonus when he retired now Megatron admits he didn't necessarily the money but of course neither does the organization and while the liens definitely had a legal right to do it they didn't have to do it and it's something that you just don't do to one of the best players who's ever played for your organization and is retiring because his body is beat down for a comparison sake when Andrew Luck retired the coats allowed him to keep his thirty two million dollar signing bonus instead of being Petty and making him pay it back and it's funny because the line has actually had the exact same thing happened when Barry Sanders retired they made him pay back a portion of his signing bonus and he had friction with the organization for years because of that they finally settled it but they've yet to settle with Calvin today coming Johnson says he barely follows the NFL he doesn't watch it really doesn't keep up with it but he hasn't lost his love of the game just of the business he still runs an annual camp for younger kids back in his home town that he's been doing his entire career when it comes to his brand do straight in his career he earned well over a hundred million dollars he invested in real estate runs a consulting company that helps athletes prep for life after sports and of course he founded a marijuana company called primitive now Calvin is well aware that his early retirement is gonna hurt his Hall of Fame bid and he even says that he doesn't expect to get here first ballot he says if he does get in that's amazing but if he doesn't he ain't trippin he really doesn't care he says awards are just compliments and if he gets the compliment cool but if you don't cool here's a quote I was a beast during that time I was hands-down the best receiver in the game I'm not gonna argue with you but I know it was well doing I go get know pretty bad for me he was the best in the game at that time he was absolutely dominant he put up video game numbers in the short career that he had and he deserves to be in all the things I really hope in the future a lot more NFL players adopt Calvin's mindset now every player can't do this because every player is not at all time great every player doesn't get one not a contract I understand it but I feel like way too many players hang on to the game too long they continue to sacrifice their health and well-being for a team that claims to love them but would trade or release them the second they no longer have that same value as a player that they once did Megatron is one of the few guys I've covered that wasn't forced out of the league could still play but was smart enough to know when it was time to get out he doesn't need the Hall of Fame to validate his career he knows he was that dude during his time and that's enough for him he doesn't care what the Hall of Fame voters think and listen bro compliments and validation from others is great but if you really that do that whatever you do you'll need nobody else to tell you you already know Happy Thanksgiving I'm out of time next time my name some go grab what [Music]

Channel: FlemLo Raps

Views: 1,389,114

Rating: 4.9176097 out of 5

Keywords: calvin johnson, nfl highlights, american football, detroit lions, calvin johnson highlights, hall of fame, calvin johnson megatron, calvin johnson camp, calvin johnson 329 yards, calvin johnson interview, calvin johnson retirement, flemlo raps, college football, what happened to, video essay, megatron

Id: 4DlmfGFfsUY

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 27 2019