Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell is confident that the franchise will be able to mend its relationship with retired wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
Over the weekend, Johnson made some noise about being unhappy with the way his tenure with the Lions ended after the 2015 season. There is speculation that Megatron was upset the Lions asked him to repay $320,000 of his signing bonus upon retiring.
Caldwell wants the sides to repair things and thinks that will happen.
“Playing in the National Football League for a team, it’s like a family. Families sometimes have disagreements. But we get the differences worked out.” Caldwell said, via ESPN’s Michael Rothstein. “I think the same thing will happen in this situation. Maybe there’s a disagreement, a little different viewpoint, but the most important thing, I think, is perhaps this whole thing will bring about a little bit more dialogue.”
Barry Sanders had similar issues with the Lions when he retired from the league.
The whole thing makes you wonder why a franchise would risk ruining goodwill with star players over a little bit of money, especially when there are so many franchises that pay their icons just to be goodwill ambassadors for the team. Hopefully the Lions will reach out to their franchise leading receiver to try and make things right.
