Fractured relationship between Lions and franchise legend is 'trending up'

Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson said his relationship with the Detroit Lions is "trending up" eight years after he abruptly retired from the NFL. 

Johnson made that statement to the New York Post in a recent interview. 

Johnson, one of the best and most talented wide receivers the NFL has seen in the modern era, shocked the league (and the Lions) when he retired following the 2015 season when he was still very much in the prime of his career. 

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the 2021 class. 

There was some definite bitterness from the Lions regarding that decision as the team recouped $1.6 million of his signing bonus. That helped fracture the relationship between the team and Johnson as he has maintained a desire to get paid back. Since then they have had nothing to do with each other, with Johnson saying back in 2019 the way for the Lions to get him back involved with the team is to simply pay him back. 

Johnson did not go into much detail about what "trending up" means, only to say “We’re trending up. We’re trying to come together and make something happen."

“Obviously I’d love to be around the team and do more things there and help the guys out," he added.  "It’s good that we’re moving in the right direction.” 

Even though Johnson can no longer do anything to help the Lions on the field, it would still be great fo a franchise icon to have some involvement with the team. Especially since the two best players in franchise history -- Johnson and Barry Sanders -- both went through similar situations, retiring in their prime and then having a strained relationship in the years after. 

That is the sort of thing that tends to happen when all-time greats see their careers get wasted. The Lions have not won a playoff game since the 1991 season, with the careers of Sanders and Johnson being the two biggest bright spots in the three decades since then. 

The Lions eventually smoothed things over with Sanders, and might be on track to doing the same with Johnson. 

That development, combined with the improvement the current roster has made under head coach Dan Campbell, might give Lions fans more reasons for optimism than they have had in decades.