The first NFL regular season since 2007 without wide receiver Calvin Johnson on the field is coming to a close and the former Lions wideout says that the time off hasn’t led to thoughts about unretiring.
Johnson said that he misses some of the camaraderie he shared with teammates, but that he still hangs out with some of them and whatever he’s missing isn’t enough to overcome the downsides of life as a professional football player.
“I’m not coming back, man,” Johnson said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN. “Look, man. I got stuff that’s going to hurt for the rest of my life. I got a finger that’s literally bone-on-bone. This bad boy, it gets smaller. The more and more I do, it grinds bone-on-bone. . . . The thing I don’t miss is waking up in the morning, hurting, the grind of the game. I got chronic stuff that everybody has when they’re done playing football for any length of time. So the good thing is I’m able to walk. I feel good. I’m able to spend more time with the fam. I’m able to chill. I don’t have to go out and run three miles every day in practice, you know what I’m saying. Goodness gracious.”
Johnson spent his first post-NFL fall taking part in Dancing with the Stars and finished in third place. His next plan is to return to Georgia Tech to finish his degree, which would leave football even further in his rearview mirror.
