With all due respect, this is nonsense. What does team wins have to do with Calvin as a player.I guess Barry Sanders is incredibly overrated too because the Lions won only one playoff game in his career and he quit on the team too I guess. Has nothing to do with being tired of playing for a trash bag organization, these guys are quitters right? All their fault.
Barely any memorable moments? Really? Which bonehead plays stick out to you? Even if he had a few bonehead plays which were more towards the end of his tenure when he was playing injured, he had dozens of amazing plays to make you forget about the bonehead plays.
As I mentioned in the previous post, he came up big in the big games and he gave it all for the team when he was out there, the guy took an absurd amount of punishment. You should give your head a shake man.
The one place I’ll give it to Calvin is from 2011 - 2013. The averages and yardage totals there are just insane. I understand why some would want to call him the best off of those 3 years alone, but if we’re talking overall production over the span of a decade…man, I have to give it to Fitz.
I was responding to the “dominant” claim. Our team flat out was pathetic while he was here. Dominant players elevate their team’s play, that’s all I was referring to.
He got the trash bag team to like 5 playoff appearances in 10 years, with a win. He singlehandedly won a lot of games, because our QB situation was pretty weak and our defense was nothing special.
Weak. He was bigger and stronger than most WRs, yet he was always whining about injuries, while shrimps like Fitz, Welker, Edelmon, etc were going across the middle and getting decapitated on a weekly basis. While those WRs were giving up 50 lbs across the middle, CJ had a size advantage to the CBs who were covering him. Spare me the victim card of how the guy who lived on outside jump balls is more prone to injury than guys half his size who live across the middle of the field.
He was a really good player on a terrible team. Cool. No way he was the best WR of the decade. No way.
I’m not saying that Calvin was as good as Barry, I’m just saying that it’s a weak argument to discredit him because of team accomplishments. He’s a receiver, there’s only so much he can do to help the team. I’d say that Barry as a running back had more ability to impact games because running backs get more touches and aren’t as dependent on others to get them the ball.
I also made the Barry comparison because you called Calvin a quitter. If Calvin is a quitter so is Barry. Neither are btw.
I think you’re forgetting that Calvin lined up in the slot quite frequently especially in the later years and took a ton of punishment catching balls up the middle. It’s part of the reason why his body starting breaking down so quickly. Some bodies can handle it, some can’t.
He was not just a really good player, he was a dominant FORCE. It just so happens that he had such a short career that it was only a short lived prime.
I also scoffed at the notion that he didn’t come up big in big games. Another myth.
As I said previously, I think some of you have a clouded view of how good he was because of how it ended and the rift that developed between him and the team after.
He was a DOMINANT player here and he gave it all for the team. Just because he stepped away from the game because he wanted a quality of life after football (god forbid), that doesn’t diminish his accomplishments. I wouldn’t say that he’s a slam dunk best WR of the decade but he’s certainly one of a few names that deserve the honor.
I don’t hate the guy, I just think he was a bit overrated. Best player on a garbage team? Sure. Did he get a lot of yards and catches? Yep. I’ve just watched sports enough in my life that I would rather have a red assed guy who goes out and snatches victory from defeat and puts the team on his back, than a guy who goes thru his career accumulating stats and has no real passion for winning. We have had a lot of the latter here over the years.
Stats be damned, I’ll take a Kirk Gibson over a Wade Boggs on my teams every day and twice on Sunday.
How do you know that he didn’t have a passion to win? It seems like such an arbitrary thing to bring up about a player, who never gave any indication until the end when he was playing injured, that he wasn’t passionate about the game. I never got the impression that he gave anything less than full effort on the field. The guy was a tireless worker.
Hell, he only had 4-5 years of a legit NFL QB throwing him balls. Most of the terrible teams were before Stafford established himself. How is that Calvin’s fault? Is he supposed to turn the Dan Orlovskys of the world into Tom Brady somehow? There’s only so much a receiver can do to carry a team.
That’s not really something you hide. Passion is easily recognized. Swapping jerseys and being emotionless after loss upon loss is that status quo here.
CJ was the Slay of the offense. The most talented player on that side of the ball, but you could never tell the difference between a win and a loss with them. They both accept defeat way too easily, but NEVER forget to swap jerseys with the team that ass packed them, 45 seconds after the game is over. That is always a priority.
Simply not a leader. Leaders demand perfection or at least competence. He played for himself. Fitz is a leader. Brady is a leader. Hell, I see more leader out of Jarrad Davis, the problem is, he’s lacking the football part. lol
That’s a lot of assumptions on your part.
Not all leaders show passion in their body language. One would assume that Barry Sanders (again I’m using this example) was an emotionless robot based on his body language but nobody ever said that he didn’t have a passion to win.
Could I buy that he’s a bit overrated in the sense that some put him up there with the all time best receivers? Sure, I can buy that. All the other stuff about him being a quitter, not caring about winning etc. isn’t based on anything concrete whatsoever.
Barry was literally not believable. That shit looked like trick photography, divine intervention, whatver? Human beings can not do what Barry Sanders did. CJ looked like a video game at times - Barry always did.
They stacked 8 guys in the box to stop him. they used spies, they did everything they could to stop him, and rarely could. Impact on game was that there was so much attention on him that Rodney Pete could be successful. In the history of football, play action has never been so scary. Other teams were chasing chickens, praying, crying, shaking their heads in awe. Yeaaaahhhh, MFrz…Barry time!
All of our receivers were in 1-on-1 or loose zone coverage every time. Fantastic.
Probably get heat for this as well - There is no question that Calvin from a physical standpoint and overall athletic ability was by far and away the greatest receiver of the decade. He could take over and dominate and nobody could stop him even 2 or 3 DB’s could not stop him. BUT to me he lacked that 100% on button. IF Fitzgerald had CJ’s body he would eclipse every passing record known to man. CJ let his extreme athleticism define his greatness which was epic but limited. Had he had the drive and passion that Fitz or Rice had he could have been the greatest to ever play the game. But he was satisfied just being really good and comfortable walking away from the game because it was not what defined him. Nothing wrong with that and it takes nothing away from what he did but it does (in my mind) separate him from some of the greats like Rice and Fitz. Rice and Fitz as examples are who they are because of what they gave the game beyond just their physical abilities. That to me defines the true greats in football history.
I appreciate all that Calvin accomplished but he’s dead to me. The selfish bastard was a phony and showed his true colors when trashing the organization for money he had to return which he did not earn. The Lions paid him over 100M in his career so he should be grateful for that.
remember when barry up and quit and never talked to anyone and stayed away and quiet until he had a book he was releasing, then he was all about hanging around the lions. give him credit for staying around, but IIRC he didn’t exactly come back out of the goodness of his heart. I might have that wrong, but that’s how my age addled brain remembers it.
Yeah, Barry was a bit of a coward as well. They both handled it like babies. Difference here is, Barry was no doubt the best RB of all time in my mind. I don’t think Calvin was the best WR in his own time, which is what this thread is about.
I was angry with Barry for many years. I agree that he came back to the organization for a job and monetary reasons. I have no issues with that. He is a great ambassador for the organization. He never extorted the Lions to pay back his bonus either. That’s what Calvin is doing. If he wants to come back as a paid ambassador I’m OK with that too but he is filthy rich and doesn’t need the money. It won’t be millions.
Saint Calvin is not the only player in the NFL to have played hurt. That’s the norm in a brutal game. He knew the dangers when he signed up for this and was compensated tremendously for it.
The fans only turned on Calvin when he acted like selfish spoiled brat. He was well liked before that. He did this to himself.
