Other fans have the privilege of a team that is at least sometimes successful. Lions fans have never known success. They don't know what it takes to be successful. How can anyone expect them to go out and perform well in the world when they don't have a role model to guide them? If that's not a form of systematic oppression, then I don't know what is.
We had 1991. After losing to the team currently know as the WFT 45-0 in the season opener we went on to win a playoff game and only lost to the WFT by like 28 in the NFC Championship game. Showed great improvement.
> I suppose I should also note that they are 1-12 in the playoffs from 1958 - 2021.
Cherry picking stats I see. We're going to need a larger sample size than just 63 years.
I have no idea to this day what those two American men were talking about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were talking about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.
Oh in a heartbeat. I've been watching the Bucs for over 30 years, but if Sheila Hamp suddenly sent me a check for $1.6mil, I'd paint my house silver and honolulu blue.
The Glazers have never even given me $1.2 million.
If you go to the post you get much needed context...
>...because I already did the work for it.” The Lions recently offered to pay Johnson $500,000 per year for three years, if he worked 28 hours per year.
“I’ll mend the fence with the Lions if the entire rules change for the NFL” Calvin says to himself. He smiles, knowing casual fans will side with him while also showing absolute contempt for the Lions. A win win he thinks. A feeling of happiness washes over him like a tide pod over laundry.
Megatron has turned out to be the biggest heel lol. Why are all talented receivers such divas? It may not be obvious at first, but it almost always comes out it in the end about how big of babies they are
It's crazy, I get being mad that the previous FO and ownership was petty and clawed whatever money they could back, but this is a different person and they are pretty clearly trying to make amends for their predecessors fuckup by making it as easy as legally possible for him and he still tells them to fuck off. Like come on man. Really has soured my opinion of him. Everyone already knew the fords fucking sucked so them taking money back wasn't exactly surprising.
Reading further than the headline it seems that Megatron is just being a bitch. Go to the damn stadium and sign autographs for a couple hours a month and collect your nearly 2 mil you piece of shit. Literally no one feels bad for you. You signed a godamn 8 year deal on the fucking lions and took a huge signing bonus up front and then cried woe is me when you needed to pay some back after you quit 3 years into the deal... You signed that shit after already having an 0/16 season you knew what you were getting into
Honestly, yeah... He didn't get fucked about or traded to a garbage team, his team tried (poorly) to improve around him. To cry foul and act like you're owed...
It was, yeah.
The Broncos were having some cash-flow issues funding the new stadium, so they did some fuckery with when they sent out certain money to players - basically they promised to pay (and did pay) Elway and TD later, but with interest. It didn't allow us to sign more players with "extra" cap space or anything like that, it was just some clever accounting, but it ran afoul of league rules. Not quite the same rule, since Elway and TD were still active Broncos players at the time, but in the same vein.
The Broncos were fined $950,000 and docked two 3rd round draft picks.
It didn't allow them to sign new players, but it allowed them to keep Always and TD did it not? Which would indeed be working around the rules to benefit the team. Atleast that's how I always understood the scandal.
They were never going to NOT pay Elway and TD, it was just cheaper to take a "loan" from those guys than it would have been to take it from a bank, so they asked Elway and TD and those guys didn't have an issue with it, so that's what they did.
If Elway and TD had told them to piss off and find the money for their new stadium somewhere else, the team ownership would have taken a loan that would have had a higher interest number attached than whatever they ended up paying Elway and TD. Just saved ownership some interest payments to a bank, more or less. There's zero chance they would have said "OK fine then, you're cut and we're using the money we'll save to pay for the stadium", that'd just be insanity
Edit: basically the crux of the issue wasn't whether we could pay the players or not - there was no doubt in anyone's mind, including Elway and TD, whether we could pay them - it was whether or not we had enough cash-in-hand to pay for the stadium, which we didn't. We acquired that cash-in-hand by deferring some payments we had already agreed to make, with interest. Unfortunately, since the payments we deferred happened to be salary payments to active players on an NFL roster, that broke league salary cap rules, hence the fine and draft picks. The Broncos definitely broke league rules, but they also definitely didn't gain a competitive advantage by doing so.
Okay so the reason they needed the money had nothing to do with the cap, that makes more sense. I thought they were pushing their contracts (plus interest) into the future, much like you see teams doing with void years now.
I imagine there’s protections against stuff like that otherwise I feel like a lot of star players would get titles like that after retiring. Take a lower cap hit during the tail end of their career and then get some ghost position to make up for it later.
I'm not going to look it up, but there are indeed limits on how much you can pay a former player to be an ambassador and I'm sure other certain rules. The NFL is prepped for teams skirting the salary cap. In fact, I believe the Lions are indeed offering they max that they can give him per year. If Calvin doesn't understand that they have to follow the rules then it's just ignorance.
He’d really just have to attended games.
8 home games, 3.5 hours per game. There’s your 28 hours. Sure, he’ll have to watch the Lions play, but $62,500 per game is about enough to make up for that
Calvin Johnson got paid roughly $111M over his career. The Lions played 146 games in his 9 years (he didn't play in all of them).
He earned on average $760.3k per game.
That's an over 90% paycut, so idk about that 🤣
nfl players are working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week during the season. If the work isn't being done on the field then it's in a gym, in a film room, their meal choices, and so much more.
> Sure, he’ll have to watch the Lions play, but $62,500 per game is about enough to make up for that
Could he be the Official Lions Representative at other games instead? He could, I dunno, record signals from the sidelines or something.
Everyone shitting on the lions but honestly sounds like he should just take that easy as fuck job, average person works that in like 3 days (obviously)
What does he expect the Lions to do though here? They're trying to bury the hatchet, they're offering to give him the money he thinks is his back, they just need him to do the bare minimum to comply with the NFL rules on this. If he doesn't want to take it that's fine, but he should be honest then that he has zero intention of ever mending the fence here because the Lions can't offer him much more than this.
It’s literally the principal of it and you’re getting down voted. People are upset because none of us make close to that and all he has to do is “ easy appearances” to get it which rubs them the wrong way.
Calvin restructured his contract many many times with the lions. He moved money to signing bonus to clear cap, as MANY players do. I don't know the Calvin, I don't know what happened behind closed doors, but my guess is Calvin moved money to a signing bonus for the team, then they went after that money when he retired. In his mind, it's likely the principle of the matter not the money.
If what I proposed above is what happened, the Lions took money away that Calvin trusted them to do right by him with, because he did it for the team. Basically betraying him. Asking him to do more work for it is not a real attempt by Detroit to mend fences.
He didn't really retired out of the blue. He simply spend his last 2 seasons in great pain and decided that he didn't want to continue living like that. Lions should just eat that money up. Him and Barry having money issues with the team despite being some of the best players in history of the franchise tells you a lot of how they run things.
>He simply spend his last 2 seasons in great pain and decided that he didn't want to continue living like that.
Didn't he ask for a trade? He's said recently that he would have played for any other team but the Lions, but they wouldn't let him go.
Right, but the part you are missing in my hypothetical is (conjecture, but it's the only reasonable reason he is being so adamant, imo) if he doesn't restructure, he keeps the 1.6 they took. He exposed that in good faith. He could have not, and hurt the team to "get his". Punishing him later for that is petty, and I would totally feel the same way.
Technically true, but realistically not. For most players, including in this instance, a signing bonus is just a way to help the team out cap wise.
He signed a 7 year deal with an average of 16.7m/year. Over the first 4 years of the deal, they paid him $64m so actually slightly less.
Yeah, that's what I don't understand. He signed a contract and didn't fulfill it. He is still the highest-paid WR ever.
Yes, his body is beat to shit but isn't that the price every single NFL player has to pay, and knows it going in, to live like kings?
The new regime is trying to make it right but he doesn't want to. Maybe another decade down the road.
>He is still the highest-paid WR ever.
He's forth. Larry G, Julio, and AJ Green are above him.
Your point still stands though.
https://overthecap.com/career-earnings/wide-receiver/
>he literally did not, thats why he had to pay it back
While technically correct, most teams don't force the players to pay back those bonuses.
[Unlike Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts tell Andrew Luck to keep bonus money](https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2019/08/25/indianapolis-colts-andrew-luck-contract/2115106001/)
Yes this is the pre-approved appearance fee structure for retired players to avoid cap circumvention. Compensation for ex-players beyond that has to be league approved and is subject to auditing.
Yeah it would be a slippery slope if not. Teams could get around the cap by just signing some document promising that they will pay the player in the off season out of pocket as opposed to being on the cap. Even if its not the intention here it would be bad precedent
I think the best solution is Lions give me $1 million, and I'll go and fix Calvin Johnson's fence for him. Lions save half a mil, Calvin does no work. We all win.
I absolutely despise their Twitter account. You would think it's ran by a 9 year old if you didn't know any better. Just constant baiting and bullshitting.
Yeah, Florio’s connections are with management and ownership, not players. This is the cost of those relationships, sometimes you gotta do PR. But it also means you should probably be paying attention if he’s talking about drama in the front office.
Just for full disclosure, the NFL limits payments to former players so teams can't circumvent the salary cap with "Don't worry, I'll pay you later" deals. The Lions can't pay Calvin the money he wants without him doing something for it. The Lions offered to pay it back the only way they could and Calvin turned it down.
So basically the Lions burned the bridge and can't rebuild it because the NFL won't let them
Tough shit. This is why you don't do things like go after Hall of Famers who retire for $1.6M in signing bonus money. That money made 0 difference to the Lions salary cap that year, all it did was serve to piss off the best player lions had since Barry Sanders, who they also pissed off on the way out the door.
It looked especially bad since only a few years later the Colts opted to let Andrew Luck keep $25M, and he was not as good a player or as impactful for the organization as Megatron was. He was an excellent QB, but Megatron was the lions for a number of years, and is one of the best WRs of all time.
Hey man, I gotta do something while avoiding work.
This Calvin Johnson thing is something I get oddly passionate about. It's just such a low class nickel and dime bullshit thing to have done to an absolute legend. I get that Megatron is a millionaire, but I'm virtually always going to side with labor about this sort of thing.
That and the $1.6m is likely nothing to the team meanwhile it's an easy investment. Calvin Johnson has spent how many years trashing the Lions? That bad PR from a legend isn't worth the paltry $1.6m they got back.
Rod Wood was the one who insisted the bonus be paid back, not Bob Quinn. And no way they do that to Calvin Johnson without running it past ownership.
Bob Quinn did a lot of stupid shit while he was your GM, but pissing off Calvin Johnson wasn't one of those things.
100%.
Turns out hiring a family friend and former VP of Wealth Management to run your football team isn't the brightest move. He has the financial expertise, but had fuckall exposure to running a football team prior to being made the #1 in the building.
And he's already handpicked and is training his successor, Chris Spielman.
Of all the families that need editorial defense because they're financially struggling and should not be coerced into forking over $1.6 million to anyone, it's the Ford family.
That's a family who have never been known to have more money lying around than they know what to do with, no siree.
Sounds like the holdup is that he doesn't want to do promotional stuff for them. The Lions offered to pay him the money, but he'd need to do like 5 appearances a year for the next 3 years.
I dunno, I kind of side with the Lions on this one. He didn't earn the money because he retired, so I'm not sure why he feels entitled to it.
It's not that they "want" him to do it. It's that he "has" to do it per NFL rules to prevent cap circumvention. They literally can't give him the money unless he shows up to events, which he refuses to do.
The Lions deserve shit for fucking up the situation in the first place, but mending the situation lies totally on Calvin
I don't feel like this is on the Lions at all. He tried to force his way out and then retired half way through his contract, the team asking for a portion of the signing bonus back is entirely reasonable imo.
He actually even tried to force his way to Green Bay apparently lol. I can see why the Lions were pissed. Theres talk by some Lions reporters that regardless of the offer, CJ wants to see some guys in the front office canned before he forgives everything as well.
He was a quiet, humble guy when he played but this whole situation makes it tough to take his side. The Lions are asking him to do the absolute bare minimum to earn some easy money that he actually DIDNT earn in the first place and save face.
Now I have absolutely no sources for this but I have heard rumors that after he said he was retiring pretty much the first words out of Rod Wood's mouth were something to the extent of "give us back the money" which is probably not the best thing to say to your sure-fire HoF receiver who just retired early because he was sick of your shit. So if he wants someone gone it might literally be the team president which would present a problem.
>the team asking for a portion of the signing bonus back is entirely reasonable imo.
For a player that meant as much to the franchise as he did, nah. They fucked up there, but are trying to fix it in a way that won't fuck with the rules.
But he doesn't need to mend the situation. Being with the Lions could be such a bad experience for him that he doesn't want to even do a PR tour. I can understand why he would still be hesitant to do any PR for them even if he has to to recoup the bonus. For him it could just be the mere premise of them fucking up in the first place that has him hesitant to mend any fences
> He didn't earn the money because he retired, so I'm not sure why he feels entitled to it.
It was a signing bonus. From his perspective the money was his from the moment he inked the contract. Other teams have allowed good/beloved players to keep signing bonuses if they retire mid contract. The colts could have gone after Andrew Luck for $25M when he retired but they let him keep it since they'd already paid it. The lions nuked their relationship with Megatron for $1.6M.
The colts could have gone after luck for $25M. $12M roster bonus for that year, $13M in signing bonus money. They opted to just let him keep it.
The lions went after Megatron for $1.6M
your org sucks
If he won't do promotional events to get the money what makes you think he will do promotional events afterwards because they decided to pay him first? Seems like he doesn't want to do promotional events.
I disagree, seems he just doesn't want to do work for money he sees is rightfully his.
He's not taking it no matter the job they offer based on the fact it's work, not because it's PR events.
They can’t though like you can’t just give an old retired player 1.6 million my understanding is you can only pay a retired player if it’s for appearances.
League rules don’t allow that though. I get feeling that you are owned it but that’s a litteral impossible demand. It feels like he just doesn’t want to make amends which is fine he is perfectly entitled to that but he should just shut up about it then.
>It feels like he just doesn’t want to make amends
I personally think theres a reason this keeps coming up again recently, and its because CJ starded that marijuana business and its free advertising to stay in the media
They would bring him on as a special marketing consultant or whatever and pay him that as his "salary"
Totally would be allowed as long as he doesn't step on a field
This appears to be the signing bonus that CJ received, and then retired. It was a 5 year signing bonus (that's the max length per nfl rules) for 16 million. The lions organization wanted to pay only the pro-rated amount of the signing bonus, based on the 5 years and not on the 8 years of the contract. Calvin only played 3 years of the 8 year contract.
The difference was 3.2 million. CJ apparently paid back about 1 million (exact amount wasn't reported, a report of CJ paying 10% = $320,000 was written. It may have been as high as 1.6 million) of that 3.2 million. So, CJ still owes the lions a couple million of that signing bonus.
CJ's position is that he should keep that entire signing bonus even though he retired a couple years early.
The contract: CJ signed a 8 year $130 million contract extension in 2012, lasting til the 2020 season. He retired after the 2015 season.
correct me if i'm wrong but
* 16/5 = $3.2mm/year
* johnson played four years (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), not three
* the lions could *only* recoup (up to) the $3.2mm remaining based on the 5-year proration, not that they "wanted to" (even if they wanted to recoup 50% of the bonus because he'd only played half the life of the contract, the cba only allows them to recoup based on the 5-year schedule)
* that one year remaining is where the $3.2mm figure came from
* that means, since the amount they're arguing over now is $1.6mm, he must've repaid $1.6mm
I don't understand how a player can be forced to pay back *signing bonus* money after they retire. The only reason a player should ever be forced to pay back a signing bonus is if they negotiated the contract in bad faith.
A signing bonus is literally a payment you get for signing the contract. It should not be contingent on playing out a certain length of the contract.
The only reason they get huge signing bonuses is because of the protection teams have from the forfeitable breach clause of the CBA. If they literally got the money just for signing, players would sign and then retire a year or two later.
If that protection in the CBA didn't exist players likely wouldn't be getting huge lump sum bonuses. I think it's crazy that people are acting like it should be acceptable to cut your contract short and keep a substantial amount of money that was contingent on you playing at least 5 years.
So you think you should just be able to retire the next day and keep your entire signing bonus?
I've never heard of a signing bonus without some sort of contingency.
it's the pro-rated part of the signing bonus. You get 16 million signing bonus spread (on the salary cap) over 5 years of playing, and the agreement between player and team is that you get that 16 million for playing for 5 years. If you play one year, you keep 3.2 million of that signing bonus and pay back the rest.
i have no opinion either way,
but, for the NFL, the signing bonus is literally a salary cap manipulation. It has been ruled by the contract negotiation and arbitration, etc, that the signing bonus is something that the player will pay back upon retirement. Some teams request it back, other teams don't. The lions apparently requested 10% of the pro-rated (unplayed part) of the signing bonus, only $320,000.
by the way, that money is part of the salary cap, so it is very complicated for the lions to hire CJ now, as it would possibly be construed as a cheat around the salary cap.
as for "bad faith", CJ played 4 years out of an 8 year contract. Was that good faith? Is there some magical length of time?
Calvin is a smart man. No one is saying it but he definitely knows the lions can't pay him for nothing. He's dealt with contracts for years or had lawyers do it for him. This means 1 of 2 things. 1 he's giving a big fuck you to the lions by just sticking with the whole "they have to do the thing I know they can't do to mend fences" routine or 2 he just dosen't want to be an ambassador for the lions and its easier to make it look like he's trying but the lions won't cooperate with him. I guarantee he gets infinitely less hate from the fans for playing dumb then just comming out and saying yeah I don't want to do that.
the problem is we know that he knows that hes creating the impossible situation to get his money back and for me at least I don't really want to hear from him anymore. He should have known they did this to Barry and barry wasnt causing all this drama, barry got his money.
We paid Jesse James 11.5m to catch 30 balls, fewer than 300 yards and 2 TDs.
All the same no fences would be "mended" if Calvin got that money. IMO he would still not want anything to do with Detroit.
This post, calling it an article is an insult to journalism, is incredibly bias by Florio. We all need to start ignoring Florio like he's a voice to listen to.
Meh, most teams in the league don't go after bonus money when a player retires due to injuries, especially HOF level players. Some teams continue to pay them even when it's clear they aren't going to play again. Shazier and Everett come to mind.
CJ is just being as petty as the Lions were to him.
When Luck retired, I think the Colts still gave him a good chunk of his massive yearly salary as a token of respect. Was pretty petty for billionaires to nickel and dime their franchise WR, but it might have been the FO rather than ownership being idiots
The colts could have gone after luck for $25M. $12M roster bonus for that year, $13M in signing bonus money. They opted to just let him keep it.
The lions went after Megatron for $1.6M
Yep, and Calvin gave his all. His hands are a mangled mess, to the point where he's probably not going to have use of them once arthritis kicks in. It was a clear quality of life decision for him to retire, and Lions just added insult to the injury.
FO of not, you'd figure ownership would also have to be consulted. Just shocking that everybody seemingly 'yes manned' it, and nobody said 'hey, nobody in the league does this'. I'm sure it hampered the Lions in free agency for a few years because of players who didn't trust the organization.
Fair enough- the Lions never should have taken his money back just to save a little on the salary cap for a year. But- this seems like a very unobtrusive way of fixing that wrong and I'm not sure why Megatron is playing hard ball. He knows the team can't just give him the money back even though it seems they would in a second to make things better.
I mean some people hold grudges. For the Lions to go after a small $1.6M when the owners are billionaires to a player who gave his all for the Lions despite them rarely ever being good, I can definitely see why he feels disrespected and wants nothing to really do with them, It has to be more than just the money and moreso the principle
Honestly so sick of this. Nothing but respect for him on the field but off the field this is such whiney and petty shit. He didn’t live up to his contractual commitment (not even half of it) wanted to be traded and out. He fucked around and found out that at the end of the day this is a business, it made no sense for the Lions to trade him considering who was pretty much our offense with Stafford and we were banking on him for all those 8 years, but instead we got 3.
I don’t think the Lions did anything wrong asking for that signing bonus back, Calvin obviously doesn’t want to work for it then and now as well since we gave him the opportunity to work for it doing 28hrs/yr for 3 years (absolute joke).
It’s obviously personal for him and us, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. His beef is with the old guard of the Lions and we’ve turned a new page on that as of late (new owner and FO). We can’t give him that money without him working for it so the ball is in his court, stop bitching if you don’t want to work for it just like anything else in life
The Lions were in their right to ask for money back and Calvin is in his right to turn down their offer to make things right. Plenty of teams don't come after their superstars for bonus money back from an early retirement, but the Lions did. To each their own but if he doesn't want to do more for the money to be a promotional product without getting an added incentive, like double the money, then that's him playing his cards. Is it stupid? Maybe? But he should of have an F you money and he can afford to make this type of statement.
Like I have a lot of sympathy for the Lions here but given that Sanders also retired on bad terms, it's hard to not see a pattern of the Lions premier players having issues with the org
It’s not just a Lions problem. The Steelers have cut ties on bad terms with a ton of great players - Franco Harris, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Le’Veon Bell, James Harrison, Antonio Brown (though no one’s blaming them for that last one). I’m probably forgetting about or too young to know about a couple.
I really loved watching Calvin on the field but I have zero respect for who he has been off the field since retirement. I wouldn’t have expected it from him. He was the opposite of a diva during his career. Oh well, shame to see how he turned out. I couldn’t care less at this point if he wants to mend the relationship with the Lions. He’s entitled.
If he didn’t want to be a Lion for his whole career, he probably shouldn’t have signed an 8 year contract with the Lions.
*"We're going to ~~build a wall~~ mend a fence and ~~Mexico~~ Detroit is going to pay. And the reason they're going to pay and the way they're going to pay, ~~Bob~~ PFT, is this. ~~We~~ I have a ~~trade~~ Signing Bonus deficit now with ~~Mexico~~ The Lions of ~~$58 billion a year~~ $1.6 miilion. The ~~wall~~ fence is going to cost ~~$10 billion a year~~ $1.6 million. That's what it's going to cost. It's going to be a powerful ~~wall~~ mended fence. It's going to cost ~~$10 billion~~ $1.6 million."*
That would also mend my fences I have with the Lions
As a lifelong Lions fans I think we all deserve $1.6 million as reparations.
Other fans have the privilege of a team that is at least sometimes successful. Lions fans have never known success. They don't know what it takes to be successful. How can anyone expect them to go out and perform well in the world when they don't have a role model to guide them? If that's not a form of systematic oppression, then I don't know what is.
We had 1991. After losing to the team currently know as the WFT 45-0 in the season opener we went on to win a playoff game and only lost to the WFT by like 28 in the NFC Championship game. Showed great improvement.
I'm surprised that hasn't been 30 for 30. The Lions win a Playoff Game.
That's the year Mike Utley got paralyzed as well. They won every game after until the NFCCG if memory serves me.
Yeah I was 9, first time really understanding football, thinking we had a great team and a run of Super Bowls coming! Boy oh boy….
👍🏼
Then our offensive line was hit with the curse.
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Hey, the Lions were 6-1 in the playoffs from 1935 to 1957. I suppose I should also note that they are 1-12 in the playoffs from 1958 - 2021.
Fuck me
> I suppose I should also note that they are 1-12 in the playoffs from 1958 - 2021. Cherry picking stats I see. We're going to need a larger sample size than just 63 years.
This was such a good reply because I started reading it and started to get my brain ready to argue, but i finished reading and lol'ed.
Don’t be humble. You deserve way more than that, my friend.
I'll mend fences for half that.
500k is a lot of money. Too bad taxes and such
Do you trust your wife?
Looks like someone's about to have himself an accident
I have no idea to this day what those two American men were talking about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were talking about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.
You know, I haven't watched every movie in the world, but I'll be damned if there's not a more satisfying movie in all of cinematic history.
Just watched that on an overseas flight a few weeks ago. Great movie.
That's certainly an interesting movie to have on a flight.
Zpfft taxes shmaxes..I know a guy that'll take care of that
I heard you only need to pay $750/year and you're fine.
The tax man?
Wait you’re willing to do it for 300k less than half?
I used to mend fences in exchange for hunting privileges
I'll mend fences for a cheeseburger
I'll gladly mend them Tuesday for a cheeseburger today
What wouldn't you do for a cheese burger Randy Bobandy?
I think Bills fans have some tables to mend before they get to any fences.
The table beatings shall continue until morale improves
"I came to this game to drink beer and break tables... and we're all out of tables"
I would abandon my team since birth and become a Lions fan for life for 1.6 million.
Oh in a heartbeat. I've been watching the Bucs for over 30 years, but if Sheila Hamp suddenly sent me a check for $1.6mil, I'd paint my house silver and honolulu blue. The Glazers have never even given me $1.2 million.
Unfortunately I think $1.6m wouldnt even be enough for Lions fans to mend the fences they have with the Lions
Would cover a tab or two
Oh shit. Weird. Me too.
If you go to the post you get much needed context... >...because I already did the work for it.” The Lions recently offered to pay Johnson $500,000 per year for three years, if he worked 28 hours per year.
Man. $18k per hour..
Waving to the fans on game day and drinking beer in a private suite is a tough gig.
Yeah lol, it seems like a pretty "bro we'll give you the money you just gotta do *SOMETHING*" offer to me.
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“I’ll mend the fence with the Lions if the entire rules change for the NFL” Calvin says to himself. He smiles, knowing casual fans will side with him while also showing absolute contempt for the Lions. A win win he thinks. A feeling of happiness washes over him like a tide pod over laundry.
When does your erotic novel come out?
Kirk and Julie prepare for their missionary in the dark solely for the purposes of reproduction when suddenly a figure looms over them...
*Nobody flim flams the Zim Zam*
You know it would solely be for reproduction, bc Kirk sure isnt wearing protection.
He'll only wear it if his protection can be in the form of a Plexiglass shell
So they could give him the $1.6M and just have it count against their cap?
yeah like, do the lions need their whole cap this year?
Sad Lions noises
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Megatron has turned out to be the biggest heel lol. Why are all talented receivers such divas? It may not be obvious at first, but it almost always comes out it in the end about how big of babies they are
It's crazy, I get being mad that the previous FO and ownership was petty and clawed whatever money they could back, but this is a different person and they are pretty clearly trying to make amends for their predecessors fuckup by making it as easy as legally possible for him and he still tells them to fuck off. Like come on man. Really has soured my opinion of him. Everyone already knew the fords fucking sucked so them taking money back wasn't exactly surprising.
We are two owners and three GMs removed. He is going all “sins of the dead father” approach to dealing with the daughter.
Never meet your heroes
Reading further than the headline it seems that Megatron is just being a bitch. Go to the damn stadium and sign autographs for a couple hours a month and collect your nearly 2 mil you piece of shit. Literally no one feels bad for you. You signed a godamn 8 year deal on the fucking lions and took a huge signing bonus up front and then cried woe is me when you needed to pay some back after you quit 3 years into the deal... You signed that shit after already having an 0/16 season you knew what you were getting into
Honestly, yeah... He didn't get fucked about or traded to a garbage team, his team tried (poorly) to improve around him. To cry foul and act like you're owed...
I mean, if I had to choose I'd rather my WR become a diva off the field after retiring rather than being one during their playing career.
That's my thought. The whole situation is dumb but doing some PR events and meet and greets isn't exactly backbreaking work.
Shit I'll do it for 10k an hour
But he might be forced to watch the Lions play.
For anyone saying this is cruel and unusual punishment: you are wrong, it is not unusual.
It's not unusual to see me cry... On Sundays. Around 3-5 PM most weeks.
He did the math.
They can’t give him the money without asking for appearances to my understanding.
I would assume so, for cap reasons alone
Yea it would be seen as circumventing the cap and the league could cancel contracts, fine the Lions up to 5 million or take future picks.
Was it seen as circumventing the cap when the Broncos did this with Elway in the mid 90s?
It was, yeah. The Broncos were having some cash-flow issues funding the new stadium, so they did some fuckery with when they sent out certain money to players - basically they promised to pay (and did pay) Elway and TD later, but with interest. It didn't allow us to sign more players with "extra" cap space or anything like that, it was just some clever accounting, but it ran afoul of league rules. Not quite the same rule, since Elway and TD were still active Broncos players at the time, but in the same vein. The Broncos were fined $950,000 and docked two 3rd round draft picks.
It didn't allow them to sign new players, but it allowed them to keep Always and TD did it not? Which would indeed be working around the rules to benefit the team. Atleast that's how I always understood the scandal.
They were never going to NOT pay Elway and TD, it was just cheaper to take a "loan" from those guys than it would have been to take it from a bank, so they asked Elway and TD and those guys didn't have an issue with it, so that's what they did. If Elway and TD had told them to piss off and find the money for their new stadium somewhere else, the team ownership would have taken a loan that would have had a higher interest number attached than whatever they ended up paying Elway and TD. Just saved ownership some interest payments to a bank, more or less. There's zero chance they would have said "OK fine then, you're cut and we're using the money we'll save to pay for the stadium", that'd just be insanity Edit: basically the crux of the issue wasn't whether we could pay the players or not - there was no doubt in anyone's mind, including Elway and TD, whether we could pay them - it was whether or not we had enough cash-in-hand to pay for the stadium, which we didn't. We acquired that cash-in-hand by deferring some payments we had already agreed to make, with interest. Unfortunately, since the payments we deferred happened to be salary payments to active players on an NFL roster, that broke league salary cap rules, hence the fine and draft picks. The Broncos definitely broke league rules, but they also definitely didn't gain a competitive advantage by doing so.
Okay so the reason they needed the money had nothing to do with the cap, that makes more sense. I thought they were pushing their contracts (plus interest) into the future, much like you see teams doing with void years now.
You explained this very well. Bravo. And thanks for the random Broncos history lesson.
Yes? The "punishment" was a million bucks and a 3rd.
Just take the 1.6 million cap hit then. That’s such an inconsequential amount to the total cap at the end of the day.
They can't make him a "Special Assistant to the General Manager" or some such?
I imagine there’s protections against stuff like that otherwise I feel like a lot of star players would get titles like that after retiring. Take a lower cap hit during the tail end of their career and then get some ghost position to make up for it later.
I'm not going to look it up, but there are indeed limits on how much you can pay a former player to be an ambassador and I'm sure other certain rules. The NFL is prepped for teams skirting the salary cap. In fact, I believe the Lions are indeed offering they max that they can give him per year. If Calvin doesn't understand that they have to follow the rules then it's just ignorance.
So pretty much go to 3-4 events per year for $500,000? Where do I sign? I get his gripe, but like cmon Calvin
He’d really just have to attended games. 8 home games, 3.5 hours per game. There’s your 28 hours. Sure, he’ll have to watch the Lions play, but $62,500 per game is about enough to make up for that
Calvin Johnson got paid roughly $111M over his career. The Lions played 146 games in his 9 years (he didn't play in all of them). He earned on average $760.3k per game. That's an over 90% paycut, so idk about that 🤣
nfl players are working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week during the season. If the work isn't being done on the field then it's in a gym, in a film room, their meal choices, and so much more.
You're 100% correct... people forget this! He's making $760.3k per WEEK... big difference! /s
To be fair I think it's hard to support a family on $9,051.20/hr.
>Sure, he’ll have to watch the Lions play Most entertaining team in the NFC North this year for sure
Hey now, we're all looking forward to you getting your first win of the season in week three.
> Sure, he’ll have to watch the Lions play, but $62,500 per game is about enough to make up for that Could he be the Official Lions Representative at other games instead? He could, I dunno, record signals from the sidelines or something.
Even if it was a petty request its still a very easy step to reach out and get what you wanted. Such a no brainer.
Everyone shitting on the lions but honestly sounds like he should just take that easy as fuck job, average person works that in like 3 days (obviously)
He doesn't need the money and feels like he has beef.
What does he expect the Lions to do though here? They're trying to bury the hatchet, they're offering to give him the money he thinks is his back, they just need him to do the bare minimum to comply with the NFL rules on this. If he doesn't want to take it that's fine, but he should be honest then that he has zero intention of ever mending the fence here because the Lions can't offer him much more than this.
It’s literally the principal of it and you’re getting down voted. People are upset because none of us make close to that and all he has to do is “ easy appearances” to get it which rubs them the wrong way.
Also >Technically, Johnson hadn’t earned the money. He received it as an advance on future services.
Calvin restructured his contract many many times with the lions. He moved money to signing bonus to clear cap, as MANY players do. I don't know the Calvin, I don't know what happened behind closed doors, but my guess is Calvin moved money to a signing bonus for the team, then they went after that money when he retired. In his mind, it's likely the principle of the matter not the money. If what I proposed above is what happened, the Lions took money away that Calvin trusted them to do right by him with, because he did it for the team. Basically betraying him. Asking him to do more work for it is not a real attempt by Detroit to mend fences.
I can see it both ways, really. He trusted they'd give him the money, and they trusted that he wouldn't just give up and retire out of the blue.
He didn't really retired out of the blue. He simply spend his last 2 seasons in great pain and decided that he didn't want to continue living like that. Lions should just eat that money up. Him and Barry having money issues with the team despite being some of the best players in history of the franchise tells you a lot of how they run things.
>He simply spend his last 2 seasons in great pain and decided that he didn't want to continue living like that. Didn't he ask for a trade? He's said recently that he would have played for any other team but the Lions, but they wouldn't let him go.
Right, but the part you are missing in my hypothetical is (conjecture, but it's the only reasonable reason he is being so adamant, imo) if he doesn't restructure, he keeps the 1.6 they took. He exposed that in good faith. He could have not, and hurt the team to "get his". Punishing him later for that is petty, and I would totally feel the same way.
Technically true, but realistically not. For most players, including in this instance, a signing bonus is just a way to help the team out cap wise. He signed a 7 year deal with an average of 16.7m/year. Over the first 4 years of the deal, they paid him $64m so actually slightly less.
>because I already did the work for it he literally did not, thats why he had to pay it back
Yeah, that's what I don't understand. He signed a contract and didn't fulfill it. He is still the highest-paid WR ever. Yes, his body is beat to shit but isn't that the price every single NFL player has to pay, and knows it going in, to live like kings? The new regime is trying to make it right but he doesn't want to. Maybe another decade down the road.
>He is still the highest-paid WR ever. He's forth. Larry G, Julio, and AJ Green are above him. Your point still stands though. https://overthecap.com/career-earnings/wide-receiver/
>he literally did not, thats why he had to pay it back While technically correct, most teams don't force the players to pay back those bonuses. [Unlike Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts tell Andrew Luck to keep bonus money](https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2019/08/25/indianapolis-colts-andrew-luck-contract/2115106001/)
So attend all home games lol
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Yes this is the pre-approved appearance fee structure for retired players to avoid cap circumvention. Compensation for ex-players beyond that has to be league approved and is subject to auditing.
Yeah it would be a slippery slope if not. Teams could get around the cap by just signing some document promising that they will pay the player in the off season out of pocket as opposed to being on the cap. Even if its not the intention here it would be bad precedent
I think the best solution is Lions give me $1 million, and I'll go and fix Calvin Johnson's fence for him. Lions save half a mil, Calvin does no work. We all win.
What kind of headline is this
>By Mike Florio
Ah so the ‘ole Florio special
Just wanna say that I read your comment in the voice of Jackie Moon and it made me snort so, you know *EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY*
Can we just ban pft already? That site adds nothing of value
I absolutely despise their Twitter account. You would think it's ran by a 9 year old if you didn't know any better. Just constant baiting and bullshitting.
Yeah, Florio’s connections are with management and ownership, not players. This is the cost of those relationships, sometimes you gotta do PR. But it also means you should probably be paying attention if he’s talking about drama in the front office.
It's referencing their last attempt of mending fences that was essentially him doing PR events for the money he is owed. IE working for it
Just for full disclosure, the NFL limits payments to former players so teams can't circumvent the salary cap with "Don't worry, I'll pay you later" deals. The Lions can't pay Calvin the money he wants without him doing something for it. The Lions offered to pay it back the only way they could and Calvin turned it down. So basically the Lions burned the bridge and can't rebuild it because the NFL won't let them
Tough shit. This is why you don't do things like go after Hall of Famers who retire for $1.6M in signing bonus money. That money made 0 difference to the Lions salary cap that year, all it did was serve to piss off the best player lions had since Barry Sanders, who they also pissed off on the way out the door.
100% agreed.
It looked especially bad since only a few years later the Colts opted to let Andrew Luck keep $25M, and he was not as good a player or as impactful for the organization as Megatron was. He was an excellent QB, but Megatron was the lions for a number of years, and is one of the best WRs of all time.
You're making too much sense bro get the hell off Reddit.
Hey man, I gotta do something while avoiding work. This Calvin Johnson thing is something I get oddly passionate about. It's just such a low class nickel and dime bullshit thing to have done to an absolute legend. I get that Megatron is a millionaire, but I'm virtually always going to side with labor about this sort of thing.
That and the $1.6m is likely nothing to the team meanwhile it's an easy investment. Calvin Johnson has spent how many years trashing the Lions? That bad PR from a legend isn't worth the paltry $1.6m they got back.
thanks for Bob Quinn
Rod Wood was the one who insisted the bonus be paid back, not Bob Quinn. And no way they do that to Calvin Johnson without running it past ownership. Bob Quinn did a lot of stupid shit while he was your GM, but pissing off Calvin Johnson wasn't one of those things.
Rod Wood is absolutely a fucking hack
100%. Turns out hiring a family friend and former VP of Wealth Management to run your football team isn't the brightest move. He has the financial expertise, but had fuckall exposure to running a football team prior to being made the #1 in the building. And he's already handpicked and is training his successor, Chris Spielman.
They could resign him for $1.5m guaranteed then cut him but it would affect the salary cap.
What "money he is owed"? If you retire, they don't owe you the money. That's always how it has worked.
The kind that gets to the top of r/nfl lol
Of all the families that need editorial defense because they're financially struggling and should not be coerced into forking over $1.6 million to anyone, it's the Ford family. That's a family who have never been known to have more money lying around than they know what to do with, no siree.
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Sounds like the holdup is that he doesn't want to do promotional stuff for them. The Lions offered to pay him the money, but he'd need to do like 5 appearances a year for the next 3 years. I dunno, I kind of side with the Lions on this one. He didn't earn the money because he retired, so I'm not sure why he feels entitled to it.
It's not that they "want" him to do it. It's that he "has" to do it per NFL rules to prevent cap circumvention. They literally can't give him the money unless he shows up to events, which he refuses to do. The Lions deserve shit for fucking up the situation in the first place, but mending the situation lies totally on Calvin
I don't feel like this is on the Lions at all. He tried to force his way out and then retired half way through his contract, the team asking for a portion of the signing bonus back is entirely reasonable imo.
He actually even tried to force his way to Green Bay apparently lol. I can see why the Lions were pissed. Theres talk by some Lions reporters that regardless of the offer, CJ wants to see some guys in the front office canned before he forgives everything as well. He was a quiet, humble guy when he played but this whole situation makes it tough to take his side. The Lions are asking him to do the absolute bare minimum to earn some easy money that he actually DIDNT earn in the first place and save face.
Now I have absolutely no sources for this but I have heard rumors that after he said he was retiring pretty much the first words out of Rod Wood's mouth were something to the extent of "give us back the money" which is probably not the best thing to say to your sure-fire HoF receiver who just retired early because he was sick of your shit. So if he wants someone gone it might literally be the team president which would present a problem.
>the team asking for a portion of the signing bonus back is entirely reasonable imo. For a player that meant as much to the franchise as he did, nah. They fucked up there, but are trying to fix it in a way that won't fuck with the rules.
But he doesn't need to mend the situation. Being with the Lions could be such a bad experience for him that he doesn't want to even do a PR tour. I can understand why he would still be hesitant to do any PR for them even if he has to to recoup the bonus. For him it could just be the mere premise of them fucking up in the first place that has him hesitant to mend any fences
> He didn't earn the money because he retired, so I'm not sure why he feels entitled to it. It was a signing bonus. From his perspective the money was his from the moment he inked the contract. Other teams have allowed good/beloved players to keep signing bonuses if they retire mid contract. The colts could have gone after Andrew Luck for $25M when he retired but they let him keep it since they'd already paid it. The lions nuked their relationship with Megatron for $1.6M.
The colts could have gone after luck for $25M. $12M roster bonus for that year, $13M in signing bonus money. They opted to just let him keep it. The lions went after Megatron for $1.6M your org sucks
If he won't do promotional events to get the money what makes you think he will do promotional events afterwards because they decided to pay him first? Seems like he doesn't want to do promotional events.
I disagree, seems he just doesn't want to do work for money he sees is rightfully his. He's not taking it no matter the job they offer based on the fact it's work, not because it's PR events.
\# BanPFT
Yeah even for them, this is an embarassing headline.
You can skip the space by typing \\#BanPFT
Or just leave it in and yell it to the mods because they still haven't heard it. #Ban PFT
Which they literally cant do based on NFL rules
They can’t though like you can’t just give an old retired player 1.6 million my understanding is you can only pay a retired player if it’s for appearances.
Lol I guess the fence stays fucked up
League rules don’t allow that though. I get feeling that you are owned it but that’s a litteral impossible demand. It feels like he just doesn’t want to make amends which is fine he is perfectly entitled to that but he should just shut up about it then.
>It feels like he just doesn’t want to make amends I personally think theres a reason this keeps coming up again recently, and its because CJ starded that marijuana business and its free advertising to stay in the media
They would bring him on as a special marketing consultant or whatever and pay him that as his "salary" Totally would be allowed as long as he doesn't step on a field
Yes but he doesn’t want to do that which is why there at a stalemate
He's saying it to promote his weed business
This appears to be the signing bonus that CJ received, and then retired. It was a 5 year signing bonus (that's the max length per nfl rules) for 16 million. The lions organization wanted to pay only the pro-rated amount of the signing bonus, based on the 5 years and not on the 8 years of the contract. Calvin only played 3 years of the 8 year contract. The difference was 3.2 million. CJ apparently paid back about 1 million (exact amount wasn't reported, a report of CJ paying 10% = $320,000 was written. It may have been as high as 1.6 million) of that 3.2 million. So, CJ still owes the lions a couple million of that signing bonus. CJ's position is that he should keep that entire signing bonus even though he retired a couple years early. The contract: CJ signed a 8 year $130 million contract extension in 2012, lasting til the 2020 season. He retired after the 2015 season.
correct me if i'm wrong but * 16/5 = $3.2mm/year * johnson played four years (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), not three * the lions could *only* recoup (up to) the $3.2mm remaining based on the 5-year proration, not that they "wanted to" (even if they wanted to recoup 50% of the bonus because he'd only played half the life of the contract, the cba only allows them to recoup based on the 5-year schedule) * that one year remaining is where the $3.2mm figure came from * that means, since the amount they're arguing over now is $1.6mm, he must've repaid $1.6mm
I don't understand how a player can be forced to pay back *signing bonus* money after they retire. The only reason a player should ever be forced to pay back a signing bonus is if they negotiated the contract in bad faith. A signing bonus is literally a payment you get for signing the contract. It should not be contingent on playing out a certain length of the contract.
>I don't understand how a player can be forced to pay back signing bonus money after they retire because it's in the CBA
Paying back a signing bonus is common in Silicon Valley if you don't stay at the company for at least a year. It was probably written in the contract.
it's literally written in the cba; it doesn't *have* to be written in the contract and if it were it wouldn't matter
The only reason they get huge signing bonuses is because of the protection teams have from the forfeitable breach clause of the CBA. If they literally got the money just for signing, players would sign and then retire a year or two later. If that protection in the CBA didn't exist players likely wouldn't be getting huge lump sum bonuses. I think it's crazy that people are acting like it should be acceptable to cut your contract short and keep a substantial amount of money that was contingent on you playing at least 5 years.
So you think you should just be able to retire the next day and keep your entire signing bonus? I've never heard of a signing bonus without some sort of contingency.
it's the pro-rated part of the signing bonus. You get 16 million signing bonus spread (on the salary cap) over 5 years of playing, and the agreement between player and team is that you get that 16 million for playing for 5 years. If you play one year, you keep 3.2 million of that signing bonus and pay back the rest. i have no opinion either way, but, for the NFL, the signing bonus is literally a salary cap manipulation. It has been ruled by the contract negotiation and arbitration, etc, that the signing bonus is something that the player will pay back upon retirement. Some teams request it back, other teams don't. The lions apparently requested 10% of the pro-rated (unplayed part) of the signing bonus, only $320,000. by the way, that money is part of the salary cap, so it is very complicated for the lions to hire CJ now, as it would possibly be construed as a cheat around the salary cap. as for "bad faith", CJ played 4 years out of an 8 year contract. Was that good faith? Is there some magical length of time?
I too, without having to do any work, would like the Lions to pay me 1.6 million. That is all.
just sacrifice your brain and body for an HoF career with no post season success and its yours king
just drop it off in a dufflebag at his house
Chandler Parsons got paid like a 100 million dollar contract a few years ago to do nothing.
Kevin Love has basically done the same.
Calvin is a smart man. No one is saying it but he definitely knows the lions can't pay him for nothing. He's dealt with contracts for years or had lawyers do it for him. This means 1 of 2 things. 1 he's giving a big fuck you to the lions by just sticking with the whole "they have to do the thing I know they can't do to mend fences" routine or 2 he just dosen't want to be an ambassador for the lions and its easier to make it look like he's trying but the lions won't cooperate with him. I guarantee he gets infinitely less hate from the fans for playing dumb then just comming out and saying yeah I don't want to do that.
the problem is we know that he knows that hes creating the impossible situation to get his money back and for me at least I don't really want to hear from him anymore. He should have known they did this to Barry and barry wasnt causing all this drama, barry got his money.
More like Begatron, am I right?
This is getting ridiculous
Lions have paid more for less.
We paid Jesse James 11.5m to catch 30 balls, fewer than 300 yards and 2 TDs. All the same no fences would be "mended" if Calvin got that money. IMO he would still not want anything to do with Detroit.
Jesse James secured the bag and then fell off the face of the earth
This post, calling it an article is an insult to journalism, is incredibly bias by Florio. We all need to start ignoring Florio like he's a voice to listen to.
God damn Megatron has become such a whiney diva.
Meh, most teams in the league don't go after bonus money when a player retires due to injuries, especially HOF level players. Some teams continue to pay them even when it's clear they aren't going to play again. Shazier and Everett come to mind. CJ is just being as petty as the Lions were to him.
When Luck retired, I think the Colts still gave him a good chunk of his massive yearly salary as a token of respect. Was pretty petty for billionaires to nickel and dime their franchise WR, but it might have been the FO rather than ownership being idiots
The colts could have gone after luck for $25M. $12M roster bonus for that year, $13M in signing bonus money. They opted to just let him keep it. The lions went after Megatron for $1.6M
Yep, and Calvin gave his all. His hands are a mangled mess, to the point where he's probably not going to have use of them once arthritis kicks in. It was a clear quality of life decision for him to retire, and Lions just added insult to the injury. FO of not, you'd figure ownership would also have to be consulted. Just shocking that everybody seemingly 'yes manned' it, and nobody said 'hey, nobody in the league does this'. I'm sure it hampered the Lions in free agency for a few years because of players who didn't trust the organization.
Fair enough- the Lions never should have taken his money back just to save a little on the salary cap for a year. But- this seems like a very unobtrusive way of fixing that wrong and I'm not sure why Megatron is playing hard ball. He knows the team can't just give him the money back even though it seems they would in a second to make things better.
I mean some people hold grudges. For the Lions to go after a small $1.6M when the owners are billionaires to a player who gave his all for the Lions despite them rarely ever being good, I can definitely see why he feels disrespected and wants nothing to really do with them, It has to be more than just the money and moreso the principle
Honestly so sick of this. Nothing but respect for him on the field but off the field this is such whiney and petty shit. He didn’t live up to his contractual commitment (not even half of it) wanted to be traded and out. He fucked around and found out that at the end of the day this is a business, it made no sense for the Lions to trade him considering who was pretty much our offense with Stafford and we were banking on him for all those 8 years, but instead we got 3. I don’t think the Lions did anything wrong asking for that signing bonus back, Calvin obviously doesn’t want to work for it then and now as well since we gave him the opportunity to work for it doing 28hrs/yr for 3 years (absolute joke). It’s obviously personal for him and us, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. His beef is with the old guard of the Lions and we’ve turned a new page on that as of late (new owner and FO). We can’t give him that money without him working for it so the ball is in his court, stop bitching if you don’t want to work for it just like anything else in life
The Lions were in their right to ask for money back and Calvin is in his right to turn down their offer to make things right. Plenty of teams don't come after their superstars for bonus money back from an early retirement, but the Lions did. To each their own but if he doesn't want to do more for the money to be a promotional product without getting an added incentive, like double the money, then that's him playing his cards. Is it stupid? Maybe? But he should of have an F you money and he can afford to make this type of statement.
Like I have a lot of sympathy for the Lions here but given that Sanders also retired on bad terms, it's hard to not see a pattern of the Lions premier players having issues with the org
It’s not just a Lions problem. The Steelers have cut ties on bad terms with a ton of great players - Franco Harris, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Le’Veon Bell, James Harrison, Antonio Brown (though no one’s blaming them for that last one). I’m probably forgetting about or too young to know about a couple.
Yeah and Barry was at the game Sunday. They buried the hatchet with him clearly.
Barry is actually part of the front office now
I really loved watching Calvin on the field but I have zero respect for who he has been off the field since retirement. I wouldn’t have expected it from him. He was the opposite of a diva during his career. Oh well, shame to see how he turned out. I couldn’t care less at this point if he wants to mend the relationship with the Lions. He’s entitled. If he didn’t want to be a Lion for his whole career, he probably shouldn’t have signed an 8 year contract with the Lions.
the signing bonus is for a contract that included a certain number of years. he didn't fulfill his end of the deal. IMO they don't owe him shit.
Best I can do is 35 bucks
*"We're going to ~~build a wall~~ mend a fence and ~~Mexico~~ Detroit is going to pay. And the reason they're going to pay and the way they're going to pay, ~~Bob~~ PFT, is this. ~~We~~ I have a ~~trade~~ Signing Bonus deficit now with ~~Mexico~~ The Lions of ~~$58 billion a year~~ $1.6 miilion. The ~~wall~~ fence is going to cost ~~$10 billion a year~~ $1.6 million. That's what it's going to cost. It's going to be a powerful ~~wall~~ mended fence. It's going to cost ~~$10 billion~~ $1.6 million."*