Calvin Johnson is a well-known former American football wide receiver who spent nine years with the Detroit Lions. He went to Georgia Tech for college football and was drafted second overall by the Lions in the 2007 NFL Draft.
Despite his early retirement at the age of 30 in 2016, Calvin Johnson is regarded as one of the best wide receivers of all time.
Here are some of his inspiring quotes.
“My phone blows up all the time. I had to change my number.”― Calvin
“I got a finger that’s literally bone-on-bone. This bad boy, it gets smaller. The more and more I do, it grinds bone-on-bone.”― Calvin
“It wasn’t really until the 10th or 11th grade when I started to play well, and football took the place of baseball, which was my love when I was five years old. I don’t know what happened; baseball just got boring to me, I guess.”― Calvin
“I have my own people that make my clothes because it’s hard for me to find stuff that fits.”― Calvin
“I like to dress up every now and then.”― Calvin Johnson
Guys get concussions, they don’t tell the coaches. It happens.”― Calvin Johnson
“The team needs me out there on the field. And sometimes you allow that to jeopardize yourself, but that’s just the nature of the world.”― Calvin Johnson
“I don’t want to dog the NFL.”― Calvin
“I gotta go through, like, a little routine when I wake up in the morning to get everything functioning and ready to go. But, the only thing is everything just goes back to gridlock so fast once I sit down, ’cause you know you go to work again.”― Calvin
“My biggest regret is that I wasn’t able to help give our fans a championship.”― Calvin
“I’ve got a lot of miles on my legs.”― Calvin
“It’s a part of football, you get concussed, you gotta keep on playing. You can’t get afraid to go across the middle any more than you were at the beginning.”― Calvin Johnson
“When you’re in the game, you’re still in the moment.”― Calvin Johnson
“Sometimes, it’s just unfortunate you get injured in the game. But you can definitely take strides to prevent those things.”― Calvin Johnson
“Whatever you want to call it, they have all these names for these coverages, I’ve seen them. Like those linemen coming out to jam me on the line of scrimmage. A lot of crazy stuff.”― Calvin
“I can have three touchdowns and 200 yards, but if we lose the game, what’s it all for?”― Calvin Johnson
“Anything negative that comes at me throughout the week, you just take it and put it in that box over there for motivation and use it on Sunday.”― Calvin Johnson
“Not many of my friends I had from college are playing in this league. Everybody knows it’s a privilege, so you definitely don’t knock it because you never know where you may end up.”― Calvin
“I’ve watched Urkel since I was a little kid.”― Calvin
Sometimes, I’m just a fan of the guy, and we’ll switch jerseys.”― Calvin
“Sometimes you usually know the point where to keep your mouth shut.”― Calvin Johnson
“You shouldn’t put your hands on a woman. Simple as that.”― Calvin Johnson
“I’m going to discipline my kids, and can’t no one tell me how to discipline my kids.”― Calvin Johnson
“It’s not a public matter when you discipline your family.”― Calvin Johnson
“My dad’s funny. He’s laid back and a cool guy.”― Calvin Johnson
“I’m okay with anybody expressing their rights.”― Calvin Johnson
“It was cool to meet Cris Carter. That dude has some of the best hands to have played the game.”― Calvin Johnson
“When I was in college, I used to love to watch football on Sundays.”― Calvin Johnson
“To be able to sit back and enjoy the game, sit back and watch guys that you know played and you might have worked with it or you personally know, it’s cool; it’s awesome to sit back and say I know that guy because you’re more of a fan of that game and that person.”― Calvin Johnson
“Bless my mom. Mom is everything to me.”― Calvin Johnson
“When I first came into the league, my first three, four years, I had a teammate from college win a Super Bowl.”― Calvin Johnson
“I had great stats in my career, you know, but really, you want to win.”― Calvin Johnson
“Even if the coverage is leaning toward you or whatever it may be, there’s ways to beat it.”― Calvin Johnson
“You love the game, but it’s hard to do the things you do when you’re feeling like you’re a leg down all the time, literally. Or you’re always beat up, even coming into the season. So it’s just not as fun when you’re down, and you got to work your way up. And you can’t really get there because you’re so beat up.”― Calvin Johnson
“Retired life’s good, man.”― Calvin Johnson
“If you feel like you’ve got a concussion, if you don’t know, if you take the test whatever, if you feel like you’ve got a concussion, the biggest thing is rest, man. Cause you usually compound your injury so much if you go back out there, and we all know that now.”― Calvin Johnson
“Each year, you’ve got to talk about it more and more, you’ve got to have programs. You’re doing these camps, you’ve got to talk about concussion awareness.”― Calvin Johnson
“All of us growing up, if you’re a professional player or a college player, you’re molding your game after guys. You see guys, you see things guys do. Like Randy Moss, I’m a Randy Moss guy.”― Calvin Johnson
“I’ve got a lot of other things I want to do.”― Calvin Johnson
“That’s everybody’s goal, when they come to the league, is to win a Super Bowl. That’s the ultimate goal.”― Calvin Johnson
“Be real with yourself in whatever area of your life and your game that you need improvement on. Once you figure that out, you just have to go out and work on it. For me, it’s footwork. I constantly work on it, and it’s a never-ending process.”― Calvin Johnson
“I’m an honest guy.”― Calvin
“I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”― Calvin
“I’m just a worker.”― Calvin Johnson
“You know what’s funny? There’s times when you catch a ball and really didn’t even see that ball. You’re like, ‘That couldn’t have been all me.’”― Calvin Johnson
“I know where my body’s at, know how it feels, you know.”― Calvin
“Concussions happen. If not on every play, then they happen like every other, every third play, you know.”― Calvin Johnson
“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.”― Calvin
“I had fun while I did it, and I left it all out there on the field. I’m tapped out.”― Calvin
“I’m not coming back to play.”― Calvin
“I got stuff that’s going to hurt for the rest of my life.”― Calvin
“I got chronic stuff that everybody has when they’re done playing football for any length of time. So the good thing is I’m able to walk. I feel good. I’m able to spend more time with the fam.”― Calvin
“The thing I don’t miss is waking up in the morning, hurting, the grind of the game.”― Calvin
“I don’t even like to talk Lions too much just because the way our relationship ended.”― Calvin
“That’s what everybody calls me, ‘Cheat Code,’ because they just throw the ball up to me.”― Calvin
“I’ve been a Madden guy since I was little.”― Calvin
“As NFL players, we have such a platform to spread the Word of God. And that is an area I don’t mind speaking out on at all. As far as talking about my football skills, however, I will let my abilities and actions speak for themselves.”― Calvin
“During the season, I dodge the media, kind of. It’s not that I’m trying to avoid them, but I know if they get a hold of me, there’s going to be, like, 10 people around me, and I’m going to have to answer question after question, where in that time, after practice, I need to be taking care of my body and recovering.”― Calvin
“I’m on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ because I want to prove my sister wrong. My sister literally told the world that I could not dance, so I have to redeem myself.”― Calvin
“My son makes me want to be better so that I can be there for him.”― Calvin
“We all understand it’s a privilege just to be playing in this league.”― Calvin
“For me, to just have my own shoe is unbelievable. As a kid, you see Jordans and wonder what that feels like to have your own shoe, and the fact that I have one is really surreal.”― Calvin
“I’m a Southern guy, so Jeezy, T.I., and Outkast are always playing on my iPod.”― Calvin
“I was a baseball guy. Mom wouldn’t let me play football when I was little because she was scared I’d get hurt. So, I finally convinced her to let me play in 7th grade.”― Calvin
“I hope I can be as good of a father to my son as my dad was to me.”― Calvin
“Any time you’re dealing with an ankle, you’ve got to run, you’ve got to cut, you’ve got to do all those things. It makes it tough.”― Calvin
“If I was to keep playing, I had to play in Detroit, and it just wasn’t for me anymore.”― Calvin
“Trying to be smarter, work smarter, and just take care of my body more and more.”― Calvin
“The team doctor, the team trainers, they work for the team. And I love ’em, you know. They’re some good people, you know. They want to see you do good. But at the same time, they work for the team, you know. They’re trying to do whatever they can to get you back on the field and make your team look good.”― Calvin
“It’s easy to show off if you are making plays all the time. But it’s not me.”― Calvin
“I have always been like this. I take after my father. I’m just chill.”― Calvin
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