Calvin Johnson ready for big numbers
Sunday, April 20, 2008By Tom Kowalski
ALLEN PARK -- If it was the lunch hour, Calvin Johnson was usually nowhere to be found.
Almost every day during the week in the regular season, reporters are allowed to interview players in the locker room for a 45-minute period. During Johnson's rookie season last year, he almost always spent that time eating lunch or working out or just killing time somewhere -- anywhere -- until those pesky reporters would finally leave.
"I knew people would ask about it and I didn't want to talk about it," said Johnson, who is currently taking part in the team's off-season workouts at Allen Park.
Johnson doesn't like to talk to the media much anyway, but what he didn't want to discuss was his season, which was decent by most standards but fell short of the expectation of a second overall draft pick. Johnson caught 48 passes for 756 yards and four touchdowns; he also scored on a 32-yard run.
Did the Lions make a huge mistake? Critics sounded off all year -- they should've drafted Adrian Peterson. They should've drafted Joe Thomas. They should've drafted Patrick Willis.
What Johnson didn't want to talk about is the fact that he never got healthy after suffering a deep bone bruise in his lower back in the third game of the season against the Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson continued to play most of the games, but was nowhere near full strength.
"I was on meds the rest of the season. I was taking Vicodin twice a game just to get through the game," Johnson said. "I stayed hurt the whole season, probably because I was trying to come back too soon. But I'm not going to be the kind of guy who's going to say, 'I can't do this or this because I'm hurt.' "
Fans did not know how severely Johnson was hurt, and it took the coaching staff some time to realize it, too.
Then-offensive coordinator Mike "Martz couldn't stand the fact that I wasn't practicing," Johnson said. "When I first got hurt, that Wednesday I was out there in my sweats watching practice and he told me to go run. I said, 'I can't run.' I couldn't even walk fast. I was thinking, 'Why are you telling me to run?' "
"He stayed hurt because he kept landing on it," Lions trainer Al Bellamy said. "It kept lingering."
After missing one gamethe game after Philly, Johnson was back in the lineup. He entered the starting lineup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and that's when he had one of his most memorable plays. Stiff-arming defenders and shedding would-be tacklers like they were Pop Warner players, Johnson scored on an electrifying 32-yard end around.
"In college, one of his best games was against Virginia when he was hurt with a deep thigh bruise," said Eric Ciano, Johnson's strength and conditioning coach at Georgia Tech. "He had some of his best games when he was banged up. He just doesn't complain. He's not a training-room type of guy."
"I've played with injuries before, but I've never had anything like this," Johnson said. "I didn't have my explosion."
Johnson said he still feels some discomfort from the injury, but Bellamy said Johnson will be 100 percent by training camp.
"I had almost 800 yards last year and I'm not saying I could double that, but I can put up 1,200 yards." Johnson said. "I did that in college in 14 games. I expect the highest out of myself, and I put big numbers in front of myself as goals. I'll get 1,000 yards, no doubt."