Early Sunday morning in Allen Park, they filed in, one by one.
Rob Sims. Dominic Raiola. Stephen Tulloch. Tahir Whitehead. Gosder Cherilus. Willie Young. Ryan Broyles.
The former Detroit Lions entered the team’s indoor practice facility to greet their old teammate, Calvin Johnson, who had already been there for hours personally setting up cones, step-over dummies, agility ladders and just about every other piece of equipment for the free, all-positions camp he regularly hosts through his foundation.
Several teammates flew in from around the country because they wanted help Johnson at his camp. But also for another reason.
“I came to see history,” one of them said. “I didn’t think this would happen.”
Indeed, that’s what he got Sunday when a precedent was set through the first partnership between the Hall of Fame receiver and the Lions, who gave him access to their facility and support staff to help run the camp for about 100 high schoolers.
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Sunday was significant because Johnson has been at odds with the Lions since they forced him to pay back $1.6 million, a prorated portion of his signing bonus, after he retired early following the 2015 season.
Johnson also attended the team’s organized team activities recently. But helping out at OTAs isn’t as personal to him as the mission of his foundation, whose charitable work is dear to him and involves his whole family. His mother worked the check-in table Sunday and his wife was busy helping out everywhere.
Although the cold war isn’t completely over — Johnson calls the slow healing a “process” — Sunday’s camp is proof the thawing is underway, even though one relationship remains particularly frosty. Team president Rod Wood, who asked Johnson to pay back the money, approached Johnson during minicamp last week. Reporters watched as they shook hands and spoke briefly, but Johnson downplayed the exchange Sunday.
“I wasn’t really talking with Rod,” he said. “I was just passing by. We haven’t really had conversations yet.”
Ouch. But hey, even Gorbachev and Reagan had to start somewhere.
Luckily for the Lions, they have Mike Disner, their chief operating officer who reached out to Johnson and helped orchestrate the camp. Disner was in attendance Sunday holding a travel mug and watching from the sidelines, looking a little like that meme of wise Baby Yoda sipping his tea, keenly aware of something others can only guess at.
“Mike Disner’s been a huge part of bringing this thing back together, the team,” Johnson said. “So I’m appreciative of them, appreciative of the whole organization allowing me to have it here, collabing with me and doing that because, like I’ve said, it’s a heck of an experience for these kids.”
I’ve attended Johnson’s camps before and I’ve watched him interact with young players. He’s a natural coach and teacher. I asked him for the best advice he could give a young person in football and in life. He nailed it like he was catching a back-shoulder pass in the end zone.
“One thing I do tell the kids is that, just like being a receiver or just in any position of football, working your tail off early in the down, it’ll set you up for success later in the play,” he said. “And that’s transferable to just life in general.”
Johnson got plenty of help from his ex-teammates, who lent a hand running position drills. Hall of Famers Charles Haley and Warren Sapp, who introduced himself to campers as “No. 99 in your program, No. 1 in your heart,” also provided assistance.
Johnson, 37, has plenty to keep him busy these days. He and Sims own Primitiv, a thriving cannabis and research company. He also has three young sons and his foundation, which will host its first golf outing Monday at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield.
But it’s clear football still pulses in Johnson’s bloodstream. The way he talks about it and teaches it, and the way he relates to young players and old teammates is undeniable.
When photos appeared of Johnson attending OTAs, Lions fans were elated and relieved to see one of the team’s iconic players returning to the fold. Johnson could sense that happiness. He took similar pleasure in returning to the same practice field where the grueling work of becoming Megatron began 16 years ago.
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“It feels good to be around the guys,” he said. “It definitely does.”
Sunday marked a big step for Johnson and the Lions. Their path toward a full reconciliation looks to be growing shorter and certainly looks promising because, as anyone who watched him play could tell you, it never took Johnson too many steps to get where he wanted to go.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.