Sport
Detroit Lions sign 8 year $132 million contract with Calvin Johnson
Calvin Johnson. PHOTO/File
The Detroit Lions have signed wide receiver Calvin Johnson to an eight-year contract worth up to US$132 million, the biggest deal in national football league (NFL) history.
Johnson’s agent, Bus Cook, said the contract announced Wednesday is worth US$60 million guaranteed. That figure and the total value of the contract are both NFL records.
“This kind of deal doesn’t come around too often,” Cook said. “He’s the best.”
Johnson helped Detroit reach the playoffs last season for the first time in a dozen years. The Lions have built one of the league’s most exciting young teams by drafting Johnson in 2007, quarterback Matthew Stafford two years later and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in 2010. The challenge now will be keeping all those stars long term.
Johnson, nicknamed Megatron, is a two-time Pro Bowler and his 45 touchdowns receiving are the most in the NFL since 2008. He signed a six-year deal worth up to US$64 million after Detroit drafted him No. 2 overall in 2007, and was entering the final year of that contract.
This extension starts immediately and runs through the 2019 season.
“They were happy to get this thing done with, and I was happy as well,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t a lot of confrontation. We weren’t butting heads or anything. It was just something that we knew needed to get done.”
The deal tops the one given to receiver Larry Fitzgerald of Arizona last year, an eight-year deal that could pay him as much as US$120 million.
