Calvin Johnson: I should have been traded like Matthew Stafford was

Calvin Johnson clearly hasn’t mended fences with the Detroit Lions, and it shows based on some new comments he made this week.

Johnson said he was pleased for former teammate Matthew Stafford that the Lions agreed to trade him. The former wide receiver also added, however, that he wished he’d been granted the same wish.

“We asked would they release me or let me go to another team. … They wouldn’t,” Johnson told Woodward Sports, via TMZ Sports. “You know what, it sucked that they didn’t let me go, but they let Matthew go, but hey, you know, it is what it is.”

Johnson added that he “loved” Stafford and wasn’t mad at him for getting his wish. The 2021 Hall of Fame inductee also said the Lions had not reached out about repairing the relationship, contrary to what he said earlier this year.

Johnson has long held a grudge against the Lions for forcing him to pay back a portion of his signing bonus after his 2015 retirement. He’s added more critical stories about the organization over the years. There had been hope that the two sides would sort everything out before his Hall of Fame induction, but that does not look to be happening.