Calvin “Megatron” Johnson recently talked with ESPN host and commentator Michael Smith in an exclusive interview about why he decided to retire early.
Many people were shocked when the three-time first-team All-Pro wide receiver announced that he would be retiring earlier this year. Now, come to find out, Johnson said on ESPN’s E:60, that he retired early based on a number of factors related to how he was he feeling.
WATCH: E:60 – Factors that led to Calvin Johnson’s retirement
The 30-year-old is the latest in a troubling trend of NFL players who have decided to retire young either due to an injury or to protect themselves from long-term damage. He joins San Francisco 49ers Linebacker Patrick Willis and others who have said they value their health over their football careers.
“I decided to retire based off of the way my body, the way I felt mentally, and all of those things working together,” he told Smith. “I wanted to not have those problems later, down the road.”
In his revealing interview, he also discussed the NFL’s attitude towards concussions and how he endured some.
“It’s clear to see when you get a concussion, man,” he said. “In football, concussions happen if not on every play, on every other, on every third play, you know. With all the helmet contact, guys hitting the ground, heads hitting ground. It’s simple when your brain touches your skull from the movement or the inertia, man. It’s simple to get a concussion, you know. I don’t know how many I’ve had over my career, you know, but I’ve definitely had my fair share.”
When Johnson started his career in the NFL, concussions were hardly in the spotlight. Now, medical officials are not only increasingly becoming concerned about their impact on NFL players, but also their impact on young people.
According to new data from national nonprofit, called FAIR Health, concussions in those under the age of 22 are being diagnosed at an increasingly high rate, up 500 percent from 2010 to 2014.
“Every time you get [a concussion], there’s some effect on the brain that doesn’t go away,” Dr. William Meehan, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness told U.S. News & World Report. “Concussions have a cumulative effect.”
During his interview, Johnson not only openly discussed concussions in the NFL, but he also discussed how teams would give players pain killers to get them back on the field as quickly as possible.
“I guess my first half of my career before they really, you know, before they started looking over the whole industry, or the whole NFL, the doctors, the team doctors and trainers, they were giving them out like candy, you know?” Johnson said in the interview.
Calvin Johnson says painkillers were handed out "like candy" to NFL playershttps://t.co/j8UnGPNG92
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 7, 2016
Johnson’s interview only adds more smoke to a fire that has been growing for a long time. Once again, the dark side of the NFL is back in the public spotlight, because a high profile player is talking about its culture towards concussions, pain killers, and pain in general.
“Guys as we all know are pressured to play,” ESPN smith said in referencing his interview with Johnson. “But when a guy with the caliber of Calvin Johnson gives voice to that in retirement more open than we’re used to seeing him, the Players Association, they’re saying, ‘Look you want to go to 17 games? You want to bring back all of the intense off-season workouts that were dialed back in the last CBA negotiations?’ So it’s significant to see Calvin Johnson give voice to the things we all suspect. Because nobody wants to know how the sausage is made. Here’s a possible Hall of Famer saying here’s how the sausage is made, at least in my case.”
As the most popular sports organization in America, the NFL needs to do more to protect players or risk more players taking matters in their own hands. For example, many football players have come together to file class-action lawsuits against the NFL for not protecting them, like they believed they should have done. Additionally, after Johnson’s interview, other players might decide to retire, concluding they value their life over their football life.
As Smith said in an interview, “He [Johnson] could also be an example for players realizing that it may not be worth it, because if they don’t take their own health in their own hands, who will?”
At the end of the day, as more is revealed about the impact of concussions and other injuries suffered from playing in the NFL, it wouldn’t surprise me if more players choose to retire to avoid extensive issues later. I think the NFL really needs to have more effective and honest conversations around the impact football can have in the long-term. Officials need to significantly put the health of their players first.
The win of a game can last for a moment, but the impact of an injury can last for a lifetime. Johnson’s reasons for retiring are ones that all athletes should take to heart. I’m sure others might agree with me.
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