Calvin Johnson played entire season with finger perpendicular to his body

Calvin Johnson has undergone two procedures since the Detroit Lions’ season ended after Week 17. One of the surgeries was for the knee injury that bothered him all season (rumored to be a partially-torn PCL). The other was for a finger injury that bothered him all season. Johnson never mentioned the finger injury, but Lions GM Martin Mayhew brought it up during Wednesday’s press conference to introduce new head coach Jim Caldwell.

Mayhew described the finger as being so mangled it was perpendicular to Calvin’s body.

“He played the entire season where the finger was really pointing perpendicular from his body,” Mayhew told MLive.com. “He’s trying to catch the ball (awkwardly). He would never complain about that, but that was certainly a factor I think in the way he played.”

Perhaps this explains the shocking drops Megatron had in the Monday night game against the Baltimore Ravens. You may recall that Johnson dropped at least three passes that game to give him a career-high amount of drops for the season. Despite the perpendicular digit, Johnson still had 84 catches for 1,492 yards and 12 touchdowns. We should probably expect him to build on those numbers next season.

And after going through several photos of Johnson from the season, it appears that his right ring finger is the one that was screwed up. In most photos of Johnson holding the ball, the finger seemed to be bent awkwardly instead of curving to the pigskin like his other fingers. You can see what I mean in the image in this post.

Helmet smack to Shutdown Corner