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Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson is open to mending fences with his former team, but he has a stipulation.
“The only way they’re going to get me back is they put that money back in my pocket,” Johnson told the Detroit Free-Press on Saturday. “Nah, you don’t do that. I don’t care what they say. They can put it back, then they can have me back. That’s the bottom line.”

Johnson announced his retirement from the league following the 2015 season. The then-30-year-old was still dominant in his final campaign, hauling in 88 passes for 1,214 yards and nine touchdowns and being named a Pro Bowler for the sixth time.
But he was forced to pay back at least $1 million of his signing bonus to the team, which clearly doesn’t sit well with Johnson.
Lions president Rod Wood expressed hope last month of having Johnson around the team again.
“That’s on the agenda this year, reaching out to him,” Wood told the Free Press.
“We have Barry (Sanders) coming in this week for a couple events and I want to kind of try and find a way to do something similar to what we’ve been doing with Barry if Calvin would be interested. So that’s on my agenda to get to him and talk about it.”
In his career, Johnson totaled 11,619 receiving yards and 83 touchdowns. He played in all 16 of the Lions’ games in 2015 despite battling an ankle injury.
–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)