It has been over two years since the day Calvin Johnson shocked the NFL and announced his retirement. Since that moment, it has slowly become more and more apparent that there was some sort of fallout between Johnson and the Detroit Lions shortly after he ended his playing career.
First, it looked like he was angry about having to give back $320,000 of his signing bonus. Later, it was reported that number was actually over $1 million. Debate raged on whether the Lions were right in reclaiming that money—which they are well within their rights to do—but some within the NFL consider touching a player’s signing bonus bad business, especially with an All-Star as beloved as Johnson.