Calvin Johnson: redefining what it means to play hurt

Playing hurt is not a new concept. And in a hard hitting league like the NFL, where injuries of all varieties are commonplace, it happens all the time. Even in the time before pain-relieving injections and corrective key hole surgery, playing hurt has always been a routine notion in the NFL. At some point over the course of a season, throughout the history of the league, almost every single player has played through some form of injury.

That only goes so far, though. There is such a thing as a limit to physical endurance. The human body can only cope with so much. Even the top of the gene-pool athletes in the NFL are affected by the limitations of their damaged bodies. Rob Gronkowski’s poor performance playing on a high ankle sprain in Superbowl XLVI is a prime example. Another is Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, who threw 4 interceptions in a 37-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in 2011 whilst suffering with a fractured bone in his throwing hand. These are two great players with unquestioned toughness, but ultimately their injuries proved to be too much of a limitation for them, and their effectiveness on the field was compromised because of it.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson doesn’t believe in limitation. He is different. In a league full of physical specimens, the man they call “Megatron” stands out; and not just because of his behemoth-like 6ft 5, 236lb frame and superhuman physical attributes. Johnson’s ability to play through pain, and to still be productive whilst doing so, is quite simply staggering.

In 2012, “Megatron” had one of the most productive seasons of any wide receiver in NFL history. Despite being double teamed for most of the campaign as the Lions’ only real offensive weapon, Johnson was still able to break Jerry Rice’s NFL record for the most receiving yards in a single season. Rice’s previous record of 1,848 yards had stood for 27 years and wasn’t considered likely to ever be broken. Johnson broke it in week 16 against the Falcons, with a week to spare, and ended up with 1,964 yards when the curtain came down. For good measure, he also finished the season leading the league in receptions with 122, which is tied for the 4th most of all time in a single season.

Johnson’s accomplishments are obviously impressive. His performances this past season have ensured that from now on he will always be included in any conversation that sports fans like to have about who the best of all-time is. He has stamped his mark on the history books in emphatic fashion. But when one considers what Johnson had to endure throughout the season, and yet he still achieved what he did, the admiration for his efforts is taken to an entirely different level.

Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reported via a tweet on Monday that Megatron played the 2012 season with broken fingers. Three of them to be exact. The fingers are said to be so badly damaged that the receiver is still working on straightening them out before the 2013 off-season training begins.

Following this news, the Lions quickly denied that Johnson had broken his fingers at all. The injury wasn’t reported during the season, and as a violation of the league’s policy on injury-related information, the Lions likely wanted to avoid any potential problems with the league’s legal department. McCosky later addressed this in an article for the Detroit News, clarifying the story:

“[Johnson] played with the left hand taped all year, from training camp on. When I looked at his left hand as he was speaking [at the press conference on Monday], the fingers were each going in a different direction. If he played piano, he couldn’t reach an octave with his thumb and pinky…

…So the fingers weren’t broken in a pure medical sense, only the doctors and trainers know for sure. But they were mangled. They were bent. They were gnarled. They caused him pain and discomfort. They were not as they should be.”

Broken or not, it is obvious that Johnson’s fingers were in bad shape throughout last season. For a wide receiver, that is a pretty big deal. Their only purpose in life is to catch the football, which is often thrown to them at an incredibly high velocity. For Johnson to have played with that problem and to still catch a league high 122 receptions is quite an impressive feat. There isn’t another player in the league who could have done that.

However, what is even more impressive is that this wasn’t even the only injury that “Megatron” suffered through in 2012. Kareem Copeland of NFL.com reported in November last year that before Detroit’s week 9 encounter with Jacksonville, the Lions receiver “didn’t practice all week because of a painful left knee, and his status was a game-time decision”.

Johnson not only made the game, he set game-highs in receptions with 7 and receiving yards with 129. He didn’t look his usual self, unable to simply burn past defenders because of his damaged knee. Instead, he used his size and outstanding body control to come up with the ball in front of defenders, dropping to the ground early after catches to avoid contact from players that would cause further damage to his knee.

But this is still not the end of Johnson’s ailments. After a week 4 match-up against the Vikings, Johnson admitted to WXYT-FM Radio that he had played a portion of that game with a concussion, after a helmet to helmet collision with Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway. Of the incident, Johnson said “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.”

The NFL takes concussions very seriously, and does not tolerate teams allowing players to continue playing once a concussion has been suffered. The Lions obviously either failed to test Johnson at all or didn’t perform the test properly. Either way, their only response to avoid a reprimand was to deny that Johnson ever had a concussion, and the wide receiver towed the party line and retracted his statement. It seems pretty clear in the circumstances, however, that Johnson did in fact suffer a concussion. And while it was quite unwise of him to continue playing in that state, it does stand as another example of the receiver’s unwavering toughness.

Johnson went on to admit in November 2012 that, since the week 4 concussion in September, he had been suffering with nerve damage and a shooting pain in his arm that affected his ability to grip the ball properly. The receiver told reporters after the Jacksonville game that he “had some nerve damage, so that was kind of messing up my grip a little bit.”

Finally, Johnson also suffered from a mild ankle complaint in the early part of the season. He missed practice the Wednesday before the Lions week 3 game against Tennessee, and was listed as “limited” in practice for the rest of the week. The injury did not seem to slow him down, however, as he posted one of his best stat lines of the season; 10 receptions for 164 yards and a touchdown.

So to sum up, “Megatron” spent the 2012 season dealing with three broken fingers, a concussion, a sore ankle, a knee injury and month-long nerve damage in his arm. He shouldn’t have been able to run, catch or hold the ball at all for most of the season. Yet, somehow, he didn’t miss a game all year, caught 122 passes and broke an NFL record that had stood for over a quarter of a century. All the while being double teamed by opposing defences on virtually every snap of the ball. Wow. It’s actually frightening to consider what he could have done if he’d stayed healthy all season.

Perhaps now Johnson’s “Megatron” nickname is no longer appropriate. Because, if the leader of the villainous Decepticons actually came up against Calvin Johnson, Johnson would probably win.

Calvin Johnson confirmed that he played with broken fingers last season. Said he’s been trying to straighten them out. No offseason surgery

— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) May 20, 2013