Games with Names - “The Fake Spike Game” with Calvin Johnson | 2013 Week 8: Lions vs. Cowboys

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

On today’s episode, we highlight a wild regular season showdown and one of Calvin Johnson’s greatest performances: the 2017 Cowboys vs. Lions matchup aka “The Fake Spike Game.” We go back to the world of October 2017 (7:25). We run through this wild regular season matchup and take a look at both teams (20:42). Megatron himself, Calvin Johnson, joins us to go deep on this shootout and his insane performance (36:42). We wrap it up and score the game (1:09:23).Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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October 27th, 2013. Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan. 33 seconds left in the game. Calvin Johnson lines up out wide. Matthew Stafford drops back, looks deep.

He airs it out to Calvin Johnson. He's down at the one-yard line. Just enough time on the clock to take a shot. This is the fake spike game hello and welcome to games with names presented by win bet I'm Julian Edelman I'm Sam Morrell we're on the search to find the greatest games of all time today's episode 2013 week 8 the Lions a viable playoff team at the time, Lions, versus the Cowboys, America's team. The fake spike. Basically, this is just an excuse to talk about Calvin Johnson. Two, 329 yards, a tutty, and 14 snags.

And he should have had like five touchdowns. He kept getting tackled at like the two. This whole game he's getting tackled right before he breaks in. Yeah, it was, he didn't quite get always in the end zone, but he definitely made a lot of big plays. A really, like a crazy game. That's like a legit video game stat that he's throwing up against, you know, a pretty good Dallas Cowboys football team.

Dallas was pretty good. They had a lot of guys. Romo was fun to watch, man. He was fun to watch. Witten, to see the drama on the sidelines with Dez Bryant. Dez Bryant was like, he's like a girl who's amazing in bed, but she will scream at you in the one train you know and people are looking at you and you're like why are you with her and you're like there's a reason

she hasn't been released let me let me explain she's dynamite at one thing that and you know as a receiver we all got a little diva on us and we're not you i definitely we all do we all do but not at that level not at that level. Not at that level, no. I mean, you got to keep that under control. And that's honestly the reason the Cowboys haven't won a Super Bowl since my co-host Mike Lervine, the playmaker, was playing on the team. So, you know, it'll be fun to get into that, get Calvin's perspective of being a complete polar opposite type of receiver.

Yes, a superstar receiver like Dez Bryant, if not one of the best of all time. Who do you think is better, Dez or Calvin? Calvin Johnson. Yeah. Calvin, I mean, he was Optimus Prime out there, literally Megatron. He was a transformer. He looked like, I say it for Gronk all the time, he looked like a freshman high school kid playing against third graders

with how much taller he was than all these defenders, how he could just run by people. He could make the catch in traffic. He could moss you, jump over you. Didn't matter what kind of coverage it was. If he was lined up there he was never covered right yeah he was unstoppable it's just he unfortunately played for the detroit lions you know it's it's it'll wear on a guy to lose yeah wear on a guy of course and we've seen it

here you know first thoughts you get of when you when you see a game like this it's the detroit lions and and you instantly think of man megatron could have had way longer career even though he got beat up and stuff but like when when you're not winning games the motivation to go out there and literally lay your body on the line you know goes out the window we saw it with barry sanders we you know you see these generational type players that play on franchises that aren't notoriously known to win that's hard mentally for guys and i don't i don't know that like and i'm not trying to be a dickhead or like try to flex or anything you're just like you should when we have money should be like look i can't relate to

losing because i always win no but we would lose, but I was in a different ecosystem. Of course. So it's completely different. You entered a winning culture. So exactly. So I always had a motivation. I had a standard that we've talked about on this show. When you go to Detroit, I mean, the biggest thing you got going is Thanksgiving football.

And that's usually when the season starts for us. And we're all a little annoyed the Lions are still playing on thanksgiving i love it it's tradition it's tradition but it's one of those where you're like wouldn't you rather see a better team i mean you never know you're gonna you're gonna hear a little eminem music a little kid rock i do like you know in between halftimes they might be at the game because they're taking their family there i love detroit man detroit well we're gonna need that enthusiasm because uh look detroit pizza we've we've raved i love detroit man detroit well we're gonna need that enthusiasm because uh look detroit pizza we've we've raved about it detroit is cool the franchise the fans are great too we've seen the fans stick it out through the losing seasons but like there's a reason you have

guys like calvin johnson barry sanders icons at their position icons of the league retire so young it i mean it's a tough it's a tough place to play but this is actually a freaking crazy game great game i mean back and forth the crazy amount of explosion plays by calvin johnson turnovers left and right you know reggie bush is on this team reggie bush balls out for detroit we got romo over there sean lee has a big game uh you know you got des bryant who i don't know what was going on the sideline but it didn't look like it was um you know a friendly encounter over there it didn't look like it was anything productive for the team that came out on the losing side what do you think when you see that when you see jason whitten and des bryant just going at it like you're someone from such a i don't you don't you don't really see that on patriot side yeah it's tough i mean i think that

goes to coaching honestly because i mean if it's going on they're allowing it to go on and he's the type of player that's great enough to like where you have to yeah you could you deal with shit you'll definitely deal with shit you'll definitely deal with shit because he's gonna he's gonna score touchdowns he's gonna be a baller but when it gets to the area where it becomes a distraction to the team and you have young football players young guys guys that are on special teams guys that are rookies that are you know high drafted guys and they're saying oh well that's the superstar and he's doing that and he's still getting paid this money and he's still like that's not really what you want that's gonna tell me your

team's not gonna have the chemistry to go on in late december early january to compete for a super bowl like distractions will literally bury your team and you had tom brady and when you have a guy like tom brady who's not doing that shit who on the Patriots can get away with it exactly and that's and that's the truth so I I don't you know I'm a I'm a huge fan of Dez Bryant and I guarantee if you brought Dez on here at this day and age after watching those kind of antics and stuff I bet you he would he would think differently he was a lot younger and he probably wouldn't he he wouldn't agree with it that's's why he was teamless, and he could still probably play. Yeah, I bet we'd get a great interview out of him, but he would abuse our producers.

But we'd be like, it was worth it for the interview. Hey, anything for the interview. Just like how he played, you know? Well, let's go back to October 27, 2013. On this day, 2013, the number one movie in America was Jack jackass presents bad grandpa did you ever see that what do you mean was it that was the johnny knoxville one where he was the grandpa wasn't was it oh i thought that was a deniro movie for some didn't they have a deniro movie called bad grandpa too uh i believe deniro was dirty grandpa with zach efron Yeah, this was kind of one of those hidden camera

jackass road trips. Johnny Knoxville dressed as an old guy. Budget of 15 million, made 151 at the box office. Whoa. Can't be mad at that. Did you see Dirty Grandpa? I never saw that one. That was De Niro's.

It just came out recently though. Like probably last three years. With De Niro? Yeah, Dirty Grandpa was 2016 that was that's a deniro money grab that's that's your like his brett farve portion of it that's brett farve and the jets deniro it's brett farve and wranglers for like 22 years you'd always see brett farve in his wranglers and the the truck throwing a uh you know a spiral to this other you know other guy who's got a beer belly who's probably clearly from like that area with the golden retriever like chasing them and stuff that's such brett farve right there loved it money grabs money grabs deniro too i mean look

you either retire daniel day lewis or you work long enough to make little fuckers let's be real right i love the fucker movies i love the first one the mate the first meet the parents is incredible yeah i love that that see i don't know i like i like that character for deniro he plays it so well he's incredible in it the first one i it was a money grab after that come on yeah i guess i mean it was but then then they incorporated uh dustin hoffman and barbara strice and strice and they're great and well he was the sex teacher or she was the sex teacher the crazy thing about it is i have a friend who actually his mom is a sex teacher and it was just like that lady i guess and like he used to tell me the craziest stories about her

like like teaching him how to put a condom on a banana, like at like, Oh my God. Like 10 years old. If there's a list of shit that I would not want my mom to talk to me about, that's top of the list. Imagine how embarrassing that mom is when you like, you're going to prom and you bring like the girl back to take photos.

Like, you know how embarrassing in front of the girl. She's like, remember when you finger her work the clit and you're like all right mom jesus christ please i mean i couldn't imagine it just being a younger guy having terrible yeah terrible harlem shake was harlem shake was popping i love but this was the reincarnated harlem shake right because they had the harlem shake probably in 2004.

I mean, that was probably when we were younger in high school. And then they had the Harlem Shake video thing with the heat. Remember LeBron and Birdman they were doing in the locker room? Hilarious. It was pretty good. Yeah. I never had that much fun like that in the locker room. You weren't allowed to bring any content in the locker room in patriot world that i mean can you imagine pitching that to belichick

like bill please it's for my stories it's my instagram stories look this is fucking fox bro this isn't fucking hollywood get the fuck out of here with that snap face bullshit he calls snap he calls it snap face he calls it snap face i love that. That makes me like Belichick even more. That's amazing. And he always has to like, he always tell you like, I don't know what the fuck this shit is. Like, I have no clue. But like the Snap Face, this, that, you just keep it off the fucking premises, K. Like, that's what you always say.

This is when Michael Douglas got throat cancer and blamed it on Catherine Zeta-Jones, remember? I thought he said he gave too much congolingus. What is it? Congolingus? Congolingus. Yeah. You know my pronunciations aren't always the best, but I thought I heard it was because he had so many-

He went down there too much? He went down on so many girls that that's the reason why. And I would believe Michael Douglas. I think Michael Douglas is a stud yeah and guess what his doctor called it stage two totally worth it i mean awesome michael douglas is a legend and i'm sure he's seen so many awesome vaginas in his day countless countless countless what's your favorite michael douglas movie i mean we all love wall street wall street's class i love the game the game is great

dude the game is such a fucking crazy movie and it took place in san francisco so like it was like i always like loved that wasn't it in san francisco i don't remember where it was i remember i remember the twists and turns early fincher young sean penn young sean penn he was Michael Douglas just black rain I never saw black rain it's all right but he always had the same he was like always like a real rich guy that was up to some scheming yeah always had a hot babe good good villain good villain yeah actually my buddy basic instinct you've seen that basic instinct every man of our age has seen that movie multiple times jumping around scenes i mean being a 90s kid it was hard to you know it wasn't like nowadays no it wasn't it just what the access wasn't there you had to come up the imagination

you had to be very very creative on these these matters you had to be. But that was a classic. Channel 99. All fuzzy. I think I just saw something there. This week in sports, the Red Sox Cardinals 2013 World Series taking place. The Sox would be, they would tie the series at two on this same day.

Yeah, they won this one. Yeah. 2013. It was awesome. Johnny G gomes he was on that one who was my other guy sammy nap my boy nat we would go i hung out with a couple of those guys we went to a pool hall once and uh nap i someone may have beat me. And all I remember, the last thing I remember, there was a pool stick in the wall. So, you know, we were competitive.

We were very competitive. Naps, he started some shit? No, we were in a fun manner. Not like that. We're boys, but we were just like, someone may have broke a pool stick. There was one on the wall. This week in sports, Alex Ovechkin scored 10 goals

through the first 10 games of the NHL season. Crazy. Unreal. I mean, that guy was just a natural scorer. I know we have one of our producers, Kyler. He always talks about the Penguins, this, that, and Crosby. I love Crosby. But when you think of pure just scoring ability yeah and ovechkin was like lebron for a while he's just

such a huge guy that could go around be nimble on the ice fall down flick it in i don't know power and and skill and an amazing personality yeah even you know, there's some things we don't... There's some stuff. He supports some people that we don't support. I don't know if he supports them. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but he definitely hasn't put it out there that he doesn't support them, so, you know.

Can you imagine if there was, like, a German star in the 40s and they're like, he's friendly with Hitler. He's just... They're like, you know. But he's just... But he's a great athlete. He's a great basketball player. He's brought the Lakers three Super Bowls.

That would be terrible. What was I doing in 2013? I was on the road hard playing a lot of shitty rooms. I was on the road every week that year. I remember doing like bars, some clubs. But I was going hard on the road that year. And I was gearing up for a special. But I was, yeah, that was an unglamorous road i was doing 2013 i was uh welker got shipped out to denver a bunch of injuries on the team just a young spry guy trying to take advantage of

opportunities trying to get in there trying to get in there where I fit in there. Yeah. And, you know, we lost in the AFC Championship that year. That sucked. Yeah, what do we got, Jackie?

105 catches, 1,056 yards, six touchdowns. Yeah, it was a good year. It was a good breakout year. Julian Edelman, hot on the scene.

That was a, you know, that's where it all changed. Almost became a giant after that year. Crazy. Yeah, you know. We would have loved to have you. You know.

We would have embraced you in New York. Would have been fun. And then I took a trip out to go potentially play with my hometown 49ers. And then the Patriots anteed up and gave me some extra coin. But you went out. Did you ever think you were going to actually go to the 49ers or were you kind of like let me get my money up a little or what I was trying to get money up a little bit yeah I mean when you get there and you go and you walk in the facility and you see the pictures of Joe Montana Jerry Rice right here

you know what I mean Brent Jones you see Tom Rathman in the hallway dap you up with the fat chewing or I don't know if he's supposed to have that in if his wife will get mad at him but you Yeah. Brent Jones. You see Tom Rathman in the hallway, dab you up with the fat chewing, or I don't know if he's supposed to have that in, if his wife will get mad at him, but you know, better for the story. If someone hears that, uh, you know,

those are the things that I grew up on. I love those guys. Hometown kid. I'm sure they use that. Did they say that? Were they like, I mean, this is,

this is your team, right? They were saying a bunch of shit like that, but, and they were going to pay me actually more money. Really? Yeah. A lot more?

Nah, not like significantly more, but a good amount. Actually, I mean, yeah, it was a pretty good amount. But you were thinking what? Long term, I'm better off staying in New England? I loved Boston at the time. I liked the system, the ecosystem. I liked the coaching and then you know the quarterback reach out to you at all during this period no no one no one fucks

with your shit when you're no no everyone lets you go and do your thing when you're in that free agent world but did he say anything when you came back any of the guys be like we're really glad you've resigned did anyone say anything like that yeah once you get what you resign you know you know everyone comes at you because like it's like a standoff in the facility when you're there like in your contract you're you know you're having your exit physicals and like you guys have been talking but we're nowhere near where we need to be and then like free agency period comes and you know you walk by nick casario who's the gm of you know houston right now who was doing a lot of the contracts, or Bill would try to corner you in and, like, try to talk about contracts without your agent and stuff,

like try to bully you. Wow. You know, and not bully you, but, like, you know, he's just sometimes you got to cut out the middleman. He'd try to get the deal done right there. Sure. I would always play dumb. I'm a coach, you know.

I think I have an agent for this. Coach, you know, I don't know this stuff. I'm just a dumb football player. I would always tell him that, you know I think I have an agent for this Coach you know I don't know this stuff I'm just a dumb football player I would always tell him that you know I'm just worried about X's and O's You just forget English football Football fun Football fun coach work hard

That's amazing that Bill's trying to Go around your agent I don't know if he was trying to go but he would Of course he was In the go, but you see him in the cafeteria. Hey, Jules, come sit down. This is some New England clam chowder right here. They don't make it like this in the Bay Area. Actually, I think that's hot take.

I think the chowder, and I might get hated on. Is better in the Bay Area? I don't know if it's a better chowder, but you get it in a sourdough bread bowl. And I'm a sourdough kid. And when you get the soup in there. The chowder, but you get it in a sourdough bread bowl. And I'm a sourdough kid. And when you get the soup in there. The chowder's amazing in New England. The seafood overall in the Bay Area is pretty top notch.

It's very good. I would say it's a little different. I like the breads. The breads in the Bay. I don't know if it's the humidity but like anytime you put that that soup the soup i can give you a 20 10 15 percent difference on soup which is gonna be okay if i have you know the bread bowl that's fucking spectacular that like the best part of the soup is when you get it in you get a little the the bread in there and then you eat it afterwards

you throw a couple of the seagulls while you're on the you know on the bay so so belichick he say anything any you remember anything he said that tried to keep you there any any of the phrases no in fact everything he said made you want to go like what look like you're not the best fucking receiver in the league he's nagging he's nagging it's a negotiation tactic it's a negotiation so i go into these i go into this thing like man fuck dude i'm terrible what is this he beat you down he got it belichick he got me he got me for a good price i mean you gotta tip your hat to the guy no he's literally like he's the dude who goes to a girl at a bar like you you're okay looking, I guess.

That's Belichick's vibe. I mean, you're like, I mean, it's last call and you're fine. I mean, I heard other guys saying you have a weird nose, but I think you're good looking. And she'd probably end up leaving with him. Yeah, Belichick's got game, clearly. Belichick's clearly got game. He negged you in the stand. I mean, Linda, she's a good looking lady.

He's got some game. Belichick's got game. He negs people. All right, well, let's get to the teams here. Detroit Lions, they're 4-3 entering the game. They win this game to go 5-3, and they finish 7-9. Holy shit. They were in contention at the time.

They were second in their division. I think they were in contention at the time they were second in their their division i think they were a half game out i mean that's they didn't finish right on that one coached by jim schwartz schwartzy as coach would always call him yeah coach together a bunch he was fired at the end of the year because you can't finish you can't finish like that added reggie bush in the off season they had calvin johnson and young matthew stafford who you know we talk about stafford like this is where he you know he struggled in detroit and he's a super bowl champion now i mean this is where he he came into who he was as a quarterback yeah this is a part of his story and his foundation i mean if you watch these games games, he's the ultimate gunslinger.

Yes. And he just went around throwing that thing. Didn't matter what coverage it was a lot of time. When you have a guy like Calvin Johnson, it's going to work. But the thing that impressed me the absolute most is where he would throw a ball, and you're like, man, why is he throwing that ball into a team meeting? would he would throw a ball and you're like man why is he throwing that ball into a team meeting and he'd throw you know a pick and then maybe another pick and things are going crappy but then he had the ability to have a short memory yeah like it didn't matter

at the end of the game you were still gonna get great performances out of matthew stafford whether they were winning or losing like the guy could just turn it on and off and you saw it in this game for sure you saw that in this game and you saw it with la rams this past year winning the super bowl there were times where people like oh matthew stafford he's not gonna be able to do it he's not there and what do you do he let his team down two minute drives all the time and he learned how to do that in these early years in detroit going through tough defenses in that on that road to the super bowl too definitely yeah niners i mean that that that was a great defense i mean those guys the bucks yeah i mean when they need a crucial play he made them yeah no doubt um no i'ma consume do you think he's a dirty player i mean i don't

yeah probably what do you think i can't read minds but i can read mannerisms and there's been a few of those things where you're like holy fuck i don't know that's probably not allowed uh in uh medieval fucking gridiron type shit. You know what I mean? That ain't even allowed in the arena back in the Greek days. Yeah. But he was always a good player. I think he grew up, though. He's grown up.

Yeah. He's a stud. He's the type of guy you want on your team, though. At this time of his career, too, he was a fucking monster. A lot of talent on this Lions team. I mean, they were a decent football team. Yeah. They just-

They fell apart. They fell apart. They fell apart. Excuse me. Wow, that was a quiet sneeze. I like to hold them in. It gives you like a little head high. Wow. It's weird. Are you doing whippets off your sneezes? I do. I do. It's like, ah, ah, ah.

And, you know, I don't want to spread germs. I try to put them back into my body and let my body defend the germs. Respect. Now let's get to the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. They were 4-3 entering this game, figuring themselves out. Finished 8-8, coached by Jason Garrett.

Missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year. I mean, crazy. Tony Romo's eighth year as a starter in Dallas. Dez Bryant caught 93 passes in 2013, which is a career high, even though we saw there was definitely some friction on the sidelines at times with him, and it seemed like probably 35% of the team. Yeah, he's like Amber Heard. I mean, I'm sure the sex was great, but he's a lot.

They had pro bowlers Des Bryant, defensive tackle Jason Hatcher, running back DeMarco Murray. Yeah, wow. He was a beast. Yeah. Left tackle Tyron Smith and the Jason Witten tight end leader guy. Great tight end. I mean, so many years of the Giants fan just watching him run all over us. A great player.

He's a consummate pro. And you saw in a lot of these clips of this game, he's always trying to settle everything down. Sure. And it takes more than just one guy, a leader. I think that that has a lot to do. There's a lot more to that picture, that macro. I don't know how to explain this, but is it going in the right way?

Yeah, I think so. I'm using my hands right now. I don't know how to explain this, but is it going in the right way? Yeah, I think so. You know, I'm using my hands right now, and I know this is a podcast, but 2013 narrative for these Cowboys. Romo signs a six-year, $108 million contract coming off an 8-8 season. Clearly, he was the guy of the future. Hadn't made the playoffs in three season they were the team looking to get over the hump they were always close especially in that afc east there's always those teams they're beating each other up each and every year yeah uh romo took a beat most of

the season he had a bunch of injuries he started hurting his back um and are they still america's team at this point the cowboys yeah i mean statistically and off of winning probably not no they're not uh you know the parody of the league right now is really good but uh when you see in in in person how they travel their fans i mean there's a lot of people that love the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, yeah, huge stadium. It's a huge stadium, but, like, everywhere, like, in the country. I remember they came and played us, I think it was this year, or it could have been 2000, it was 2019.

One of these years, we went out there, whatever. They came to Foxborough, and they had, like, probably 30% of our stadium, and no one comes into Fox probably 30% of our stadium, and no one comes into Foxborough getting any of our passes usually or tickets. Wow. It was gnarly. I remember hearing, you could hear cowboy chants. Was a lot of dudes our age who were Cowboys fans because of the 90s Cowboys,

because of Emmett, because of Troy, because of Irvin and Dion. I mean, there's a lot of dudes our age who are like, well, I just like the Cowboys because they won all the time. Yeah, and then you get a lot of the old-timers with the 70s. Of course. Those 70s Cowboys with Stahlbach and, you know, what was his running? Tony Dorsett. Tony Dorsett.

And, I mean, the countless players that they had. Geez, brain fart there. Tony Dorsett. And, I mean, the countless players that they had. Geez, brain fart there. He was a stud. Yeah. But, yeah, the Cowboys, they've had a lot of tradition of winning. It's kind of like we need to start seeing it here in the modern day, here soon, you know. They got to get something going.

They got to make changes, or they got to do something. Yeah. I don't know what it is, but Cowboys being good and Cowboys doing it, I mean, the league needs that. They do. It's like the Giants. The Giants need to be good. I'm with you, man.

I'm with you. We need a New York team to be good. For sure. The Rangers, the Yankees, they're looking all right. We're on the up and up. I know. We'll see. It's early. It's early.

It's early. So, all right. This game, this is a week eight matchup between four and three teams. As we said, Calvin Johnson was in the middle of a historic run at wide receiver. Six Pro Bowls in a row. I mean, insane. I don't know what that feels like, right? Thanks, Sam.

Well, you know what Super Bowls feel like. Yeah. We'll see if he'd want to switch places with you. I don't know what that feels like right well you know what Super Bowls feel like we'll see if he'd want to switch places with you I don't know you've said it before you wouldn't trade these Super Bowls for anything right so that's you know things we remember rings and things bro

Calvin John said 329 yards in this game which is as you said video game shit what is this nfl blitz i mean jesus christ great game i mean yeah he was getting stopped on the one yard line but he was making like these crazy catches bow routes deep posts and then they played way off of me get these soft like 30 yard chunk plays catching runs incredible play like he could do it all and and that's what you saw year in and year out but what you also saw in these games man like he's so damn big these dudes they they

threw to him so much he caught 14 balls these guys are tattooing them yeah there's so much surface area to hit and he's playing hurt already as we know he's always hurt his back is messed up right he was he was a little banged up i don't know it was jack was he banged up in this game i don't know said he has been struggling with back stuff since he was young probably i mean when you're that big and and like your your energy output is just like it's it's fucking crazy like your your human body's not supposed to do what he's probably done yeah you know what i mean and then things we may have forgotten i mean we forgot des bryant's one-handed td catch which was fucking amazing over there in the red area yeah you know that

got probably outshined by how he acted on the sideline yeah you know and because it was in a losing fashion i used to say all the time you know know, in big, big games that like, you know, a player would look at me like, oh, you know, we're doing good here. Well, no one's going to remember shit if we lose the game. Right. You know, they're going to remember the dumb shit, the bad shit. So like, let's go out and win this fucking game and then we'll talk about it. For sure. Come back in the last minute, you know, vintage Matthew Stafford playing gutsy at the end of a game, doing an improv play, fake clock, jump over the pile, score touchdown, win game.

Like pretty cool. It was fucking it was a pretty exciting game. Young Matthew Stafford with a just as you said short memory mature pretty cool which brings us sam to the gaming corner presented by win bet our favorite sponsor love gambling dude gambling is so fucking cool if you do it responsibly yeah if you're responsible same with drinking responsibly you know bud light seltzer i like to pound like five or six of those are they sponsoring us i don't know but maybe we don't know yet so maybe we like bud light seltzer maybe not maybe we don't keep you guessing i don't know we're gonna keep you

guessing who knows it's up to you if we like you we don't know yet do we we don't know i don't so how many the prop bet with calvin is how many compliments can you give to detroit i'm telling you i fucking love detroit i like detroit and you love detroit i love detroit because i went there in like 2007 for like mac media day we went to like what do they have greek town some some casino was like my first time going to a casino in detroit then we went to like the mgm or something met up with some other guys larry larry larry english on northern illinois was there who he was a first round pick and we've always talked about just the fun stories we had in detroit and and like we went there and stayed in detroit uh and practiced training camp out there like a few

years back and we went to like the ford museum which is like one of the biggest square foot museums indoor under a roof or something they had everything from like all the president assassinated cars that presidents were assassinated in they had the the rosa parks bus they had like the bench that fucking like i think like abraham lincoln like sat in or they had the chair that he got shot at like they had so many crazy fucking things which as a kid like you hear about and learn all about this stuff you're like oh that's cool but like when you get older you start to appreciate stuff so i experienced that the pizza as we talked about great pizza phenomenal i mean we've already this is how many compliments do we have uh yeah how many

compliments also i should say that you did tear your ACL in Detroit. So it's not all bad. Fucking terrible field. Okay. Okay. So is that a negative one for the compliments? All right. You know what? Like, I fuck with Detroit, but the plane surface. Yeah.

You know, I was going to sue. I was going to sue. How are we a professional? This is a multi-billion dollar company and we got a fucking sticky surface would it be a bad look for our people though if you if you were the only wide receiver to sue yeah it'd probably bad yes it would i mean i'm not saying you shouldn't have done it i i i and i just say that because that's you know you get emotional after sure something like that in a fucking preseason game.

It was actually the trip I went to the Ford Museum. I actually got to meet Mrs. Ford, too. That was a huge honor. That was crazy. Being a mechanic's son and meeting one of the cornerstones of the automotive world. Amazing. But yeah, the fucking field. I don't think it was safe.

Well, and that's where Calvin had to play. Yeah, and I would retire too. I would have retired after fucking two years in that place. Detroit Lions, figure it out, guys. But the people in Detroit is fucking sick. The people are cool. I've played them many times in the comic. I love the people in Detroit. And one other thing, you know, the tip of the cap to detroit

you drive on those those streets you drive on the freeways all you see is american-made cars respect i i had grown up in california i'd never seen that in my life yeah i i was like what wait a minute there's no hondas no toyota it's like ford gm chrysler jeep and that's it i don't know why i saw my dad's a mechanic so i always see that kind of shit you know what i mean i can't drive really so i i respect anyone who can drive well you can't catch either because i threw you the bathroom key i didn't think we'd bring that up on air let me tell you something i felt terrible julian tosses me the bathroom key. It's a weird shape.

It's disc-like. I fumbled it. I thought about diving it like you in the Super Bowl, but that would have looked weird to dive for a bathroom key. Probably would have took out a camera. We would have yelled that. What if I cost us like 20 grand diving for a bathroom key? If you made the catch, I think it'd be worth it. I'm never going to live this down.

This is like Julian told a story on this drop in a pass from Tom Brady early on. So it gives me hope that I can regain Julian's respect. That's a terrible pass. That was a... Come on. I mean, you got to be on your toes. That was over here. Hey.

Can't say that to Brady. I don't know, man. I never said that to... You can never blame the quarterback. Did it touch you? It touched over here. Did it touch? It skimmed my jacket.

All right. We got a skimmer. Fuck. All right. Enough of these antics. Let's get Calvin Johnson on this. But before then, let's take a quick break. Jackie, we got something?

Yeah, what do we want to set this prop bet number at? Oh, I'm going five. 4.5. Yeah, we got to set this prop bet. Four and a half. Yeah. All right, four and a half it is. Four and a half. All right, let's hear from Calvin Johnson. But before that, let's take a quick break. Calvin. What's happening? How you doing, Julian? I'm doing good, man. How are you? I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me on. Dude, I just got a little nervous. When I started going, when I started balling, he was like already the guy forever, like the best. Appreciate it, man. All right. Welcome, Calvin Johnson, to Games with Names presented by Winbet. Now, this is a special treat, okay?

We got a guy that caught, not a guy, a goat that caught 731 receptions, 1,100 yards, 83 tuds, 6'5", 230 pounds, second overall pick behind Jamarcus Russell, which that was a complete bust. I bet you the Raiders are probably saying we should have got him first. Spent his entire career in the beautiful, the great, I love Detroit, Rock City, Hall of Famer, six-time Pro Bowler. You throw it up, they call them 50 50 balls no that's that's 90 10 balls to to to calvin those are 90 10 balls those are those halfway jump balls they call them

megatron megatron megatron one of the coolest nicknames of all time megatron thank you for joining us bro ready here ready to be here, man. Looking forward to it. Man. Well, we're over here. We're talking about the fake spike game over in 2013. You just so happened to set a record on that game. I know it's called the fake spike game.

You just so happened to go for 14, 329 yards. And one touchdown, but you could have had like five. For some reason, they kept getting you like in motion at the three or at the one. You were like this close to getting, having like a five touchdown game. Yeah, yeah. I got tackled at the one a couple times. How's retirement life treating you? Man, you know, been a lot more busy than I thought I'd be. You know, having your own business out here, you know, it's just an? Man, you know, been a lot more busy than I thought I'd be. You know, having your own business out here, you know, it's just an everyday thing, you know, just dealing with your people, your culture, your numbers on a daily basis. You know, I meet more than I do now than we did when I played ball.

I know. It's crazy. It's almost like you can say yes now. You know, when you were playing, it was like, I can't do it. I got ball. I got, you know when you were playing it was like i can't do it i got ball i got you know not yet i'm not now you now like they're like you're not playing so what else you want you know what i mean so it's it's it's a crazy dynamic um roy williams he's the one who nickname came up with megatron like what do you think of this nickname it's probably one who nickname came up with Megatron. Like, what do you think of this nickname?

It's probably one of the sweetest, craziest, dopest nicknames that I, uh, I parlayed off a little nickname off of, you know, just, but just the fact that it was the dopest nickname.

Yeah. I have to say, man, it's, it's one of the coldest ones out there, man. Uh, when it,

you know, when it happened, it didn't catch on in 2007. That's when Roy gave me the nickname. And it didn't really catch on until 2008, really, when I really had a pretty good year, my second year in the league. But the name Megatron, yeah, it's – I can't really say what other name. Give me another name out there. I mean, what other nickname?

Give me some more nicknames in sports that are like just as good. I mean, the Mamba, that's dope. Yeah, Kobe and Black Mamba. We had Paul Pierce on here. The Truth. The Truth is a good one. The Truth is dope. The Truth is.

He's up here with all those good ones, man. Allen, The Answer. Iverson is pretty damn cool. The Answer. Love AI, yeah. You know, Tom Brady, the GOAT. Yeah, the GOAT. So I got to ask you this, Calvin.

Have you heard this, that Julian, during one of his breakout seasons, was referred to as Minitron? You know what? Prior to Julian just saying that before, I've heard that before. You know, you were an animal out there, and i appreciated the work ethic more than anything but then you got there making plays for the goat man that was dope man so i commend you bro because that was a you i saw i watched you i saw you out there you can't help but see you and you're in freaking you're up there playing with the goat but man you did your fucking thing up there excuse my language no it's you can you're a

detroit guy if you don't say fuck at least one time you lose money so hey how good is the pizza in detroit man there's so many options you know one of my business partners i feel like he eats pizza like five days a week just because he has so many options but yeah we have great pieces up here you don't know you don't even touch all the national change because we have so many local spots that just do a great job it's it's unbelievable great restaurants it's coming from calvin himself michigan i'm telling you man michigan has everything dude you can do in summertime you got beaches in the wintertime you can snowboard and there's everything else in between boating everything beautiful vacation area are you still in detroit right now i love michigan you know i'm not in

detroit i'm just outside of detroit but um yeah i mean detroit michigan is this home for me now i thought one of the dopest things about calvin johnson was when he was in college he rocked 22 as a receiver to rock 22 like like that's so fucking dope. Think of like Emmett Smith. You don't think of a wide receiver, right? It's 21. It's 21.

I play 21, 21. Yeah. But, uh, the fact that he wore that, it was because it was a triple option, right?

You guys ran the triple option and then they would just throw it deep. That's what everybody thinks. Like when I was there, I had Chan Gailey as my head coach. So like two years after I left um with paul johnson he was the guy that brought the triple option from navy and demarius thomas i guess he was the one that was highlighted in that in that offense because you know every time it was third down everybody knew who the ball was going to but you couldn't stop it they do it up dt and just couldn't do nothing about it. But I was fortunate enough to have Chan Gailey.

He had a pro-style offense. He coached Eggman and those guys out in Dallas back in the day. Dude, that's low-key receiver you, Georgia Tech. That's insane. Demarius Thomas, Calvin Johnson. You guys had a couple others, no? Yeah, we had a couple others. Shoot, Jason. What was Jason's last name? He went to New York. johnson you guys had a couple others no yeah we had a couple others um shoot jason um what was

jason's last night he went to new york uh he went to the jets i think while we're um the tight end out on what you call it uh raiders came out of there too but um i can't say i can't i can't claim wide receiver you anymore after they uh kind of blew up the program with the triple option i know i know what was uh What was it like playing with a gunslinger like Stafford? You guys had really good chemistry. It was dope, man. To have somebody that can put the ball anywhere on the field

at any time, you know, Stafford was that guy. As we saw this year, you know, the great thing about what he did, man, was the fact that we all knew as teammates, you know, people in Detroit, we knew he could do that. But it's just really just putting all the pieces around. And that's what, you know, L.A. did.

They fully invested in their team. They had a great defense. And they were missing that one piece of quarterback. And they went and got it. And we see where it took them. Yeah. I mean, I agree completely with you. I remember Stafford would go out to Long Beach, and he would throw with Tom House and Adam over at that little camp, and I threw with him one time.

And I've gone out there and thrown with a bunch of quarterbacks, and sometimes their timing's off or they miss you on a deep ball. They can't track you. They don't know your speed. They get all weird out of in and out of cuts. Me and Matthew Stafford went like 44 for 44. Never met him, never did anything. Does it feel like you're cheating on Tom when you do this?

It actually does. It does. And then he asked me to go have beers with him. Oh, my God. That's the cool thing about Matthew Stafford. Then he kissed your neck, and you're like, what? What the hell? This team also, hey, Reggie Bush.

Reggie was balling this year. You guys had a pretty good team. We had a great team. We had a squad, man. We just couldn't put it together. I mean, I think – did we go to the playoffs that year? No. Not that.

What year was that? What year were we talking about? 2013. Yeah. Yeah, man. You started pretty high. I think you were 5'3". We started high, and then we fell off, I guess, yeah.

We should have. We had some pieces there, just not all of them. Was that frustrating? I mean, you're such a great wide receiver. Was it frustrating to not be part of a culture that put it together for you guys? You know, the funny thing is that, you know, when you're there, in the time that I was there in Detroit, you don't know what you do. Well, you know what you have, but you don't know what you don't have.

And, you know, until you go to another team or until some other guys come from other teams and they're like, why is this this way? And why is this that way? I'm just like, well, this is all I know. What's an example. And I'll have to say like when I, when I retired, I was able to go to visit some of my other coaches that are other teams and, you know, just try to impart some wisdom on the receiver groups.

And, you know, you just see the different, the differences in the programs and how they maybe take care of their players or the things that maybe administration and management might do for their players, you know, to affect them, you know, with their business careers after the game, you know, you might, those are just things that were just like, wow, I didn't know that this was done in other places because we didn't get that in Detroit.

Yeah. things that were just like wow i didn't know that this was done in other places because we didn't get that in the truck yeah well i'm i got the complete different opposite perspective of that i'm sorry to have to figure it out it's all good i'm happy for you it's all good no but it's you know it's true but it's also like you don't know like i don't i don't know how it is at other places when you play all your career at one place. And, you know, you get kind of like institutionalized almost. It's kind of hard to say, but you're like, hey, well, this is how it goes, I guess. I get it. Where are you coming from? Let's get into this game. So first draw, or you hit the dart route.

Was that a dart route, a called pass where you go for like 80, 7? Oh, okay. Yeah, that was just a slant. Slant route? Was it a built-in slant with a run play called? Yeah, it was. I believe that was. That might have been a kill call.

It could have been a run play action. Not play action, but a run and play option there i remember uh if we had the one on the one high look with the with the single coverage that we're going to go where he's going to come to me with the slant it's just automatic you know and uh it's press coverage that's what we like you know it slants i love it and uh with brandon though brandon like to play a little uh leverage, so it makes it a little bit harder. You know, either I have to get his shoulders turned, and with Brandon, I really had to push him down and feel like almost 10 yards to get his shoulders turned because he's aggressive, but he plays a little catch technique.

So I had to really get him running, but I don't have the time to push downfield, you know, seven, eight yards to get his shoulders turned. So with Brandon, I just wanted to get a little – use his aggressiveness against him, get into his shoulders and just use my shoulder pads to bounce off of him at contact. And at the point of contact, you know, be ready to stick that foot in the ground and separate. And basically that's exactly what happened.

And that's what separated Calvin. Like, what do I call you? We don't really know each other. Is it Calvin? Do I call you Megatron? Do I call you i i we don't really know each other is it calvin do you want to call you megatron do i call you john you know what's funny i'm not even sure like a lot of people really know my name because they just call me megatron all the time but calvin's cool all right maybe cal megatron is better than like chief or bub though if you forget someone's name that's at least a cool replacement but uh i mean you're balling out already.

Do you, do you know when it's going to be a hot game for you? Do you just feel like, Oh, they can't hold me. Do you just know this day? Yeah. When I went for that one,

I was like, okay, this is easy. This is easy. 200 yard game. I don't have to do much to get 200. I wasn't thinking about going for three of that. Cause I haven't done three before,

but 200, I had a couple of those and I was like, yeah, this is a 200 yard game. And you, and you say something to Matt matt like they can't hold me something like that no when when matt no it's just like a feeling when matt's hitting me we're hot and we're going like one for one two for two then it's just that kind of day that okay where he's just going to keep feeding me until he can't and and the crazy thing is

which which makes it outrageous to me, you guys turned the ball over a bunch. Four times. It was the first time, like, it was like one of, like, 32 times that it's ever happened that a team with four turnovers won a game. And it's because of pretty much you. You able to go out and get all these explosion plays like to keep this keep the game close like when you're when you're balling out

like that and and you feel this what are you thinking do you are you going to matt in the huddle just saying like if they're off hit me if they're not let me hit me on that bow route if it's too high just put it high i can't get it no one can get it like you guys are just in a motion it's just you know a lot of our routes have like whether it's a conversions or a lot of routes i'm on or just have they have coverage beaters so with two different coverages there's always an option you know and that's the kind of situation that coach had to put me in just give me a lot of options on my routes and um because every time I mean every time every game we play I'm always either I'm in a triangle I got double coverage um too high the whole game too man the whole game

um they had to find options and for me to be to, you know, have variances in my routes. And it really, at that point, it's just myself and Matthew practicing this during the week. And, you know, for me, you know, all the stuff that happened during the, on game days, all those things happened during the week. You know, all those players places, I had to get those reps. I know that those were going to be the players called,

and I wasn't satisfied during the week, unless I got, had a good rep at least probably a couple of times at all those plays. So, yeah. Well, and this last minute drive, you're down 30 to 24 Stafford hits you for 17 Stafford hits you for 22. You get down to the one yard line.

Are you expecting, is this a play this fake spike that you tried a bunch of times? Are you expecting him to do it play, this fake spike, that you tried a bunch of times? Are you expecting him to do it? That was just Matthew, man. I think Matthew might have done that one other time, I noticed, early in his career. I think he did it maybe his rookie year or something similar.

But, yeah, nobody – that was not a – you know, I don't know. Coach could have told him to do it on the thing, on the overhead, but I doubt it. That might have just been – that could have just been all Matthew. I know, you know, I never sat back and asked on, on, on the overhead, but I doubt it. That might've just been, that could have just been all Matthew. I know, you know, I never sat back and asked Matthew, like, Hey, did somebody tell you to do that? Just cause he was just, I guess we're just so overtaken in the moment. We just came back and, and, and we just never had that conversation, but I was over there tired as crap.

I was a little bit concussed because I just got my bell wrong on the one. I'm just over there. Just, I just not even had my foot on that, on that yard, on the one yard line. so I'm one size. And Matthew's going to spike it. And then Reggie's going to come out here and pound it in or they're going to throw me a fade, you know. So, you know, I did not expect it.

And it was a great way to end the game. I don't even remember how much time was left on the clock during that moment. You had a couple seconds. I think you had a kick, like a little kickoff maybe and kind of ended or something. I don't think it was a walk-off, but it was close. Yeah.

Now, you know, another premier receiver on the other side, Dallas Cowboys, Des Bryant. You guys are kind of like probably a little opposite, but did you see or did you guys know or hear, did you ever like look at the matchups whenever you're playing on a ball or receiver? Of course, of course. Couldn't help it, man. Cause I always felt like every week we're playing against, I mean,

every team has, has their, has their, has their style of receiver, you know? So, I mean, my division had green beige, you know, so you, you had, you know, yeah, yeah. You had a great Jennings, you had Donald driver at the beginning, you had Jordan Nelson. We had, you know, you had Greg Jennings. You had Donald Driver at the beginning. You had Jordan Nelson. We had, you know, the Vikings. You know, Greg went over there as well. I'm trying to think who else the Vikings had at the beginning.

I forget who they had at the beginning. The Bears had Brandon Marshall. So there's always some top-tier talent that was on the other side of the field that, you know, you always want to compete. Yeah, you're competing against the defense, but at the same time, you definitely want to have a better game than that guy on the other side too. Could you sense the frustration on the other sideline from Dez or anything like that?

You could always peep over there. You ever sense – That Dallas game, man, because there was some stuff said in the paper before the game. I don't let this stuff bother me at all. But, I mean, when people are just talking reckless, like one of the Orion brothers, I think he was a B coordinator at the time. I think Dez was over there talking reckless.

You know, it gives you a little more edge, a little bit more juice, you know, go out there and really want to, you know, inflict some damage on the other team. and I think it was funny just seeing because we were able to literally see uh Dez on the other side you know his little pissed off he was going through it over there oh Dez and Jason Whitten look like Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and you guys are having a great time on your side you know I mean it was uh it was crazy what was it like seeing Stafford get the ring with the Rams? Are you guys still close?

Yeah, man. I talked to Matthew during the season. It's funny. I had talked to him right before they hit that little lull in the middle of the season. And I was like, bro, man, this is like you got everything you need to win the championship. And, you know, from that point on, we talked a couple more times. I didn't really like the I don't know. I didn't bother him too much during this playoff run, but I had to keep in contact with him just like, hey man, because like when they're going to that law, just, you

know, just encourage him. Now you all got everything you need on that team to win. Take it all. And for us, all his brothers back here in Detroit, all his old teammates, I can't, I'm pretty sure everybody's was ecstatic that he was able to do it. I think just in the fashion that he did it in that first year that he brought him out here to do exactly what they wanted

him to do. So that was pretty sweet. Matthew Stafford, Brett Favre, who's more gunslingery? Favre, get out that pocket. Favre likes to use his legs a lot. You know, that's one thing where I like Matthew, man, you use your legs a little bit more. You might win you one or two more.

But because Matthew's always going to look downfield, but I was like, Matthew, like, he's not the biggest. He's not going to use his legs just to use them. Brett Favre will break that pocket and definitely be ready to run down the field a little bit more probably than matt but as far as the arm man i can't say i haven't seen i mean shoot aaron rogers probably probably right there i'd say aaron rogers and and matthew are like kind of the same tier as far as firepower you know but matthew probably throws a little bit faster because i got the

fingers to prove it. Wow. Jeez. How hard was it to walk away at 30 when you're still a great player? You're still a pro bowler. How difficult was that? It wasn't difficult. I told myself at the beginning, I had goals. I wanted to play 10. I wanted to have like 10,000 yards and really just have a huge impact.

And I was able to do most of those things except for play to 10. But at the end of the day, it's about quality of life for me and for me just going out another year and having to put in all the work it just wasn't really worth it you know and it wasn't not that it wasn't worth it i didn't feel like fighting through the pain to do what i had to do to get myself ready to go back and play a whole another season and you know honestly when i told coach caldwell, that was the hardest thing, trying to figure out how I was going to tell him. The whole year I knew, you know,

I would tell dropping hints to my homies in the locker room, like, man, I'm going to retire like Kobe did because the same year that he had announced his, I'm out of here like Kobe. They didn't believe me. But I was kind of, I was, it was straight authentic. And finally told the coach, you know, at the end of the season in our checkout, whatever you call them, exit physicals. And I told Coach Caldwell and he asked me if I was sure. And he just one time because, you know, he could see, you know, the weight lifted off the shoulders immediately.

You know, I just felt like a free man almost. You know, I don't know if I don't know how to describe it. I always describe that feeling, you know, just the weight off the shoulders. And now I'm free to do what I want to do. And and I thought, you know, just I wanted to just go sit down and do nothing for a while to play ball. But that didn't last long. That last like two weeks. You know, we got we're so built off that just, you know, we're

we've lived structured lives for so long. Being athletes, creatures have always. Yes, exactly. Creatures that have and we're just looking for that next thing to do, next thing to accomplish. And so it didn't take me long to really put on the business hat and figure out what I really wanted to do. Who's the DB that you think could play you the best? Or who did you respect the most?

I love playing against Pat P. I was playing against Pat Peterson in Arizona his rookie year, and I feel like I don't understand why the heck why we play Arizona at Arizona for like every year for like, it was like a five-year stretch. Like we're going to Arizona, Arizona, Arizona. I'm like, damn, do they really just want to see this matchup? Because I really don't want to play him because I hate playing this dude

because he's a big guy. He's not, I mean, when I say big guy,'s like what how long is Pat like six foot six to one as a corner he's a big guy as far as he's long he's powerful and he's fast you know and that for me uh he played he varied his technique you know sometimes he'll be you'll be up in your face jam sometimes he'll catch sometimes he'll play off off. And just for me as a receiver, just giving me all the different – just keeping me, you know, trying to keep me off my toes a little bit, you know, getting me thinking a little bit, that was probably – that wasn't a bad thing.

You know, he didn't just dig in and say, I'm going to play this way or that way. You know, he switched it up based off of what I was doing, what the situation was. So, just an all-around smart player, physical player. And, you know, I respect the hell out of his game because we had some good battles there. He won some, I won some. How about wideouts that you're liking in today's NFL?

Man, you know, I don't want to – don't feel like anybody gets any shade because, you know, I mentioned everybody. But, you know, I love – right now i love them kids from uh them boys who came out of uh lsu the last you know several uh years we got uh my man in uh uh minnesota uh jefferson jefferson and then we have my man in cincinnati the new boys i just love the way they catch the ball with their hands, the way they run with the ball after, the way they run their routes. You know, I mean, I love it all. I love everything about their game.

Guys like, you know, I always try to, you know, pick out guys that are like my size too, like DKs of the world, Chase Claypool, Knucklehead. I'm trying to think who else out there. I always like to see those guys and what they're doing, you know. So, you know, those big guys, I guess DK is probably having the most success. You know, I hate to see that he lost his quarterback last year in Russell. I thought that might have been a great fit for a little while.

But, yeah. Who do y'all got? Who do you got? I watched a lot of jamar chase jamar chase to cincinnati he's incredible he he's dude his his routes are explosive he's fast he's quick he's sneakily big he's about like a six one and he he runs away from people like his yak is just it's insane but like very much you, just you were so much bigger than everyone. He's doing it on every route.

You know, he's going up Moss and dude, he's getting the one-on-one. He never, I think he's getting, they started, you know, putting that coverage safety over that too high over him a lot more coming, you know, at the end of the season. But, you know, when he got those one-on-ones, he would make people pay. And, you know And I love that. Another thing I love that I'm seeing right now is the quarterback and the receiver combo from college.

You're going to see a little bit of that. So that chemistry, I mean, I expect those guys to be dangerous for a while. And just the evolution of the receiver. These receivers are picking it up so much quicker now, and I think it has to do with the fact that there's so much information out there now. You know, hey, you can watch how your favorite receiver trains. He's on Instagram. He's doing a story.

He's doing this. And when you're a little kid and you're sitting, you practice every single thing. You know, little gym rats, guys that shoot. You know what I mean? It's just the evolution. You're getting this information, how to take care of your body, and the game's, you know, a little safer now. And, you know, it's just crazy because there's a lot of young receivers.

Jamar Chase, prime example, last year. I mean, this dude put up some crazy, crazy numbers. Right. It doesn't seem like he's a rookie. Yeah, and that goes to your point with, you know, having his college quarterback in Joe Burrow. That connection, that chemistry, that goes to your point with having his college quarterback in Joe Burrow. That connection, that chemistry, that goes a long way as well.

But you're seeing that chemistry develop a lot sooner, I think, because also at the college level, the games turn into the college game, so it's similar type of offenses, spread, shred, you know what I mean? One-word terms, let's play fast, match up. I mean, you think about a lot of people when they go to college, they want to know what is this program going to be doing to help my son or his kid, what's going to help me to do to get to the next level? You know, are you doing things that are going to help, you know,

translate to the next level? You know, running the triple option is not things that's going to help translate to the next level. Running the triple option is not things that's going to help translate to the next level. But some of these programs, they're starting to evolve, like you say, in that way so that those kids can have success at an earlier age because they're doing some of the same things. Well, why don't you educate this new generation on primitive and why they should probably be looking into this

to potentially get their athletic performance to the best possible factor, make their body feel good. Electrolytes, vitamins. What is this? Yeah, I'll give you a little background. Primitive. Well, our name is primitive because we truly believe in plant medicines. And we see we know that plant medicines were the natural healers from the earliest of ages. People were using plant medicines long time, long and long times ago. And for me personally, anything natural, anything of this earth can go into my body. Really. I try

to keep things that are not, that are synthetic away because those things produce a lot of toxins. So that comes, that goes the same from my food to how I medicate myself. And that's where plant medicines come, come into play. And that's why we call ourselves Primitive because this is a way of, this is a primitive way of healing people that we're just trying to add innovation to, to give people new applications. And specifically in talking about cannabis

and what we're doing in that space, we're going to be providing a new nano emulsion and nanotechnology and cannabis is kind of new. You see it a little bit on the West coast, but when it comes to cannabis, it just allows the user to have more bioavailability with the product that they're consuming. Meaning that if you took an edible, just for instance, you had an edible, take the edible 45 minutes to an hour to really,

you know, take its effect. It should hit you any minute now. Okay. Whereas that nano edible is going to hit you within five to 15 minutes. And why does it do that? Because it's able to bypass the intestinal tract and go straight into your bloodstream. In our visits, you know, we have some relationships with Harvard, UPenn, John Hopkins, and they're part of this International Phytomedicine Institute. And what this is just a way of finding better health care practices around the world is kind of get rid of some of the disparities when it comes to the cost of

health care. And so just to be a part of a platform like that, you're able to see what they are, how they're advancing plant medicine today, and how they're already using what they're called drones, which is this nanotechnology. And they call them drones because they're able to go specifically where they want it to go. And that's because it's able to go through the intestinal tract

and get right into the bloodstream and in turn infecting the part of the body that we need it to. But more specifically, when it comes to Primitive, we're coming out with a new product line called from Performance, and that's going to feature this nanotechnology that we're coming out with a new product line called performance and that's going to feature this uh nanotechnology that we're talking about uh we're going to have an oral rehydration solution uh with your vitamins you know your vitamin b's but it's some of them will

have thc and there will be a cbd component as well so that we can go straight to e-commerce and provide this to those who are just looking to elevate their wellness on a daily basis well this sounds amazing i've also heard it can cure COVID, so get on it right now. No, this stuff sounds awesome, so definitely check this out. It's really cool work you're doing. Yeah. Thank you very much. When you started saying nano, I don't know why,

but it instantly put me in the mindset of nano. What was it, the Pagachi? Remember those little things that you used to play with? Tamagotchi? Tamagotchi. I felt like there was like a nano egg or a nano brain. Oh, you're talking about... I don't know why.

That's where my mind instantly goes. That's funny. I remember those things. It's crazy. But this sounds amazing, dude, man. It sounds like you got things going just like you did on the field. This was an unbelievable game. I remember this game back in 2013,

throwing on the box score after we played a game, seeing what the fuck? 329 yards. What's 14 catches? I think I got that in like five, six, seven games. I mean, what's this guy doing? He must be on that primitive. I love it.

No, hey. Great talking to you, Calvin. Hey, man, you're so insightful. I could tell by the way you talk about coverage, technique, catch, that this guy wasn't just a freak, wasn't just a fucking just straight monster out there because of his size, speed, able to catch in traffic, all that. It was because he studied the game.

He loved the game. It was unfortunate that the beautiful city of Detroit couldn't give you what you deserved because you're a generational-type, talent-type player on and off the field. I look forward to seeing you succeed. It was the Lions. It wasn't the city of Detroit. It was the Lions it wasn't the city of Detroit it was the Lions I love the city of Detroit

I know you really love it my dad was a mechanic right my dad's a mechanic that's why I'm wearing a Pontiac hat worked on American made cars your dad's from there? no he's not from there but Detroit is like a big part of you know our lives because you know Motor City he fixed American-made cars.

So I just – Detroit, man. Detroit is a good city. It's a great place, man. Yeah. They revamped the city the last handful of years. It's a great place. Anything else we forget about the fake tuck game? Any last things?

The fake spike game? The fake spike game? The fake spike game. Oh, man. Matthew. Do you like, should we call it a different name? Oh, man. Just call it 329, man. 329.

I mean, Flipper Anderson had more than 329, but it's only because they went into overtime. So in official time, that's the most in official time. It's pretty dope. But Jamar Chase might break it the way he's playing out here. Got me out here nervous. You should have told him to miss the extra points, so you should have gone for 400.

You know more than anyone. Now, Jamar Chase, he had an unbelievable year, but those fucking coaches are scheming up things in his division. Everyone's going to be looking, hey, we're going to take this guy out. And that's what even makes it even better, that Calvin Johnson still going in every year was just fucking a monster. Thank you, bro, for coming out. Oh, man, good to see you, man.

You got to send me some primitive. Oh, it's already happening. Already happening. Good. I can't wait. I want those nanograms in me. Already. We're going to take care of both of y'all.

Thanks for having me on, fellas. Thank you, Calvin. It was good. Thanks, bro. Appreciate it. Well, I mean, he's a sweetheart. He's awesome. The Lions, he deserved more from them.

I know he had an amazing career. I know he made a ton of money. I know his stats are insane. I just wish he was in the playoffs more. I wish he was part of an organization that took better care of him. Yeah. I mean, when you get to know guys like that that literally did things the right way, worked his tail off, he was probably a guy that didn't say much in the facility,

but showed a lot to younger football players through example of practicing hard, performing each and every week at a consistently high, high, high level and not being a distraction. I mean, you root for those guys. For sure. And also the way he kind of just said, you know, you see how other organizations do things. And we know the types of organizations he's talking about.

You played for one. Yeah. You know, it's always, you know, like when you got a guy that's just an absolute monster and every like physical attribute you can have plus brains, like, and he's not a dickhead yeah like that's a goat yeah those are those are guys like and there's asshole goats don't get me wrong but like he's just a fucking cool ass dude that you root for for sure you know and he's got it looks like he's got his post-life going crazy and you know what quality of life is something and he probably has a great life yeah i got yeah i i get that

you know like he didn't have the motivation to going out and you know hey we're gonna go play and for a super bowl this year and they know they were planning golf trips you know after the thanksgiving game that they had to play on you know but that's that's that's football man it's crazy what what uh how many times did we did we how do we do that on the prop bet jack jack did we how was our prop bet i hope you guys at home had the under we came in at four oh and we hit it five we needed five damn i thought i had it jack are you sure you threw one down at the end for sure but correction we needed four and a half came in at four so you i think a couple of those back to backers i may have blended into one i mean you can't it's a debatable the count ended at four

in my book i'm sorry damn for all the overbetters out there you know jack he don't make the law he just he just practices and enforces it it's like one of hitler's soldiers a little foot soldier yeah no we uh i guess you hit the under man i mean but you look no one could deny you do love detroit it's a cool spot, man. I enjoy Detroit. I fucking love Kid Rock. I love Eminem. Yeah. You know?

Tim Allen. Tim Allen? Galaxy Quest was a classic. Tim Allen? They're making a new Buzz Lightyear movie. And he's not in it. Is he? He's not in it?

No, it's Chris Evans. I like Chris. Chris is great. I like Chris. I like Chrisris captain america i know he's a boston guy i mean chris no we're actually pretty friendly with each other yeah not like that what was that i don't know but you know it's still i grew up with you know reddit's having a field day with this chris evans and julian edelman have had gay sex he had socks on okay i'm joking so he had two

playoff appearances uh calvin johnson 731 total receptions you heard the stats before 83 touchdowns two playoff games he should have and look i, those numbers for someone who retired at 30 are insane. Yeah, it is. But we've already gone over this. It's the motivation factor, the quality of life. That is. I mean, I love Detroit, but it's hard to play there. How hard is it to walk away from the game?

Someone in your situation versus someone in his? I think it's, I left every, I mean, it sounds equally the same. He felt like he left everything on the field and he chose that. I mean, I felt like I had nothing else to play for. He felt like he, same, same thing, you know. It's the energy output, but you're going to get out of it. And you know what, you just, you break you're gonna get out of it and and you know at that you just you break down you get old you you smarten up you know it doesn't feel great to not be able to walk until thursday and he was you know getting beat up every week he didn't miss

many games well we're talking about guys who got beat up like another guy like terrell davis you know unbelievable unbelievable career short and then you have guys who thri Davis, you know, unbelievable, unbelievable career short. And then you have guys who thrived on, you know, longevity. Oh, Barry Sanders, another one, by the way, longevity, durability, guys like Frank Gore. Like what, what do you make the difference of those? A lot of it's luck. A lot of it's, you know, some guys are wired different. Yeah. You know, there's guys that are Frank Gore just loves to compete. That guy just loves to play football. And he's not really like human, especially when you're a running back, taking the hits that he did for as long as he has.

And then some guys are different. Just people are different, and you never know where that competitive – because once he said he started talking about it, when you start talking about retirement, you're done. and that's what everyone says in the locker room when you don't don't start talking about it hey don't don't don't don't start talking when you start talking about it you're done you're gone because you mentally get out of it you can't be half in half out at that game because it doesn't matter how big how fast whatever if you're not fully committed to like going in and working your ass off and doing everything you have like that's how you get hurt of course you know it's

not you can't it's not i don't know how other sports are didn't play professionally in other sports but like you have to be on all the time and when you're not that's usually when bad shit happens absolutely the top wide receivers of all time nfl's top 100 rankings has calvin johnson number eight where do you put megatron does that look right to you do you think you should be higher or lower what do you think that's tough so many great receivers they have jerry rice one don hudson two randy moss three uh lance allworth at four. Steve Largent, T.O. at six. Larry Fitz at seven. I mean, so many great.

Marvin Harrison's nine. Yeah, you know, it's with the receiver position for me, you know number one. It's got to be Jerry. It's Jerry. What do you think about putting Randy two or no? See, I have to watch more don hudson i yeah i don't really know anything about you know and that could be recent like what is it recency bias yeah yeah you know just because steve largent was awesome and i don't know i don't i gotta lie i gotta watch more uh allworth you know but the guy i mean randy's randy was pretty insane too you know and he did

it with the vikings vikings pats he had he set a record yeah you know the raiders he was good for a little bit and then he you know but you know randy moss was absolute freak and i have a bias because i saw in practice how he was so of course you know would you take how about to or calvin johnson who would you want on your team i'm taking calvin johnson and it's not just because of athletic performance or or size speed numbers this you know like we never heard about anything bad about him right you know you're you're gonna get an insane receiver and no drama and and no drama you're not you know what i mean and that's a big thing and that's what i've been that's what i that's what i was around you know that's what i've been brainwashed into because of you know the the organization i played for like i

was always taught distractions will fucking murder you and we had so many goddamn distractions from gate this gate that fucking that for sure like we had so many goddamn distractions from gate this, gate that, fucking that. For sure. We always had distractions. You didn't need that. Because there's always going to be a distraction. The more you can eliminate them, the more you can worry about football.

You know what I mean? So I don't know. No drama. Roman Polanski's a great director. Might sleep with a minor. Give me Steven Spielberg. That's what I say. Guaranteed product.

You know what it's going to be. It's going to be a big box office. For sure. You know, it's, yeah. Best nickname in the NFL. We got Megatron, the refrigerator. Sweetness. That's a good one.

Broadway Joe is so good. Primetime is good. The bus is a good one. Minotron's a damn good one. That wasn't like my real one, though. Minotron's kind of fun. It was kind of like a parody. I was like, you know what that's kind of like?

What? It's kind of like when Swayze and Farley, they did the like Chippendales thing. And like, it's a fucking joke, all right? That's what that is. Minotron is a joke. It's not a joke. You were a machine, man.

I got to vote Broadway Joe as a New Yorker. it's not a joke you you were you were a machine man i i gotta i gotta vote broadway joe is in new york or it's just so iconic you know i i loved sweetness i thought that was always pretty cool and then also i loved prime time prime time you can't go wrong with prime time prime i mean that's that's what everyone wants to play you i You love... I mean, he was one of your guys growing up, too. He was one of my guys, bro. I used to have his shoes. I used to have his jersey. Two-sport guy, too. Two-sport guy.

The fact that Deion and Bo Jackson played two sports well... I think Deion played, in the same day, an NFL game and a baseball game, I think. Is that... Jack, do we get a little... Deion and... Didn't he play... Didn't he helicopter i believe he did and i made a 30 for 30 about it are they allowed are you allowed to do that

anymore absolutely not probably that's insane unless you're that good if you're that good where you could say worst nickname oj the juice i'd go with uh oj the murderer is a worse nickname than the juice oh jack what do we forget let's see here um we mentioned the harlem shake early on that uh the meme dance that gained popularity in 2013 that is nothing to do with the original harlem shake developed in the 80s to me that's the real harlem shake um we mentioned michael d Shake developed in the 80s. To me, that's the real Harlem Shake. We mentioned Michael Douglas in the game that did indeed take place in San Francisco. Thank you, Drew.

The Ford Museum, largest indoor-outdoor museum complex in the world out there in Dearborn. Yeah. I'll correct myself, Calvin Johnson, 21, not 22. I'm sorry. I gave you a wrong answer. I should have known that, though. That one's on me, brother. We mentioned Patrick Peterson.

He's a long six-foot-one. Calvin hated going up against him. They also played six times over the course of Calvin's career. Detroit lost all six, unfortunately. Oh, damn. And then, oh, we were talking Nano. The Tamagotchi Nano, released in 2010. Well done.

See, I knew there was a Tamagotchi. You're right. Never thought we'd bring up Tamagotchi, but this is a podcast where we reminisce. We think back of old times, weird trends, movies, games, music. I love it. And then one last one here, Julian.

We mentioned Diva Tactics from Wide Receivers earlier. I got to ask ask you what's your biggest diva tactic mine was always like behind the scenes like in the facility at work if i if i knew like i could always tell on wednesday just through the game plan through personnel groups who they were trying to get the ball to and who they weren't and you're a competitor you want the fucking rock and so sometimes you know chatty would have to ring me back be like hey bro you can't be fucking doing this chad o'shea he's he's a coach over in cleveland right now and uh you know but like that's that that gives you an example of having the ecosystem of coaches and shit like,

hey, this isn't going to cut it. If the big man sees you're acting like this, they're going to get you the fuck out of here. He's doing it for you. He's doing it for me. He put me in my place to let me. And then it would recalibrate me. You know what I mean?

Like, all right, my bad, Cody. But I didn't do anything really on the field. Yeah, that's not too bad yeah yeah that's it sounds to me just like your competitor that's pretty healthy on tom would always he'd always say other shit it's like what if jewel doesn't get the ball in the first quarter like i have to see these little fucking faces from him like all right bro i don't know we have to maybe maybe if tom comes on and does our podcast i mean we got both manning guys we got bruski i mean we can't tom he's busy he's busy he's busy you're very busy you're still playing but we'd like to see you on this podcast he's prepping for

calling games right now he's prepping for a season he's. He's prepping for a season. He's got Brady Brand. What better way to prep than to do broadcasting with his old teammate, Julian Edelman? You know what? I don't know. I could be his weatherman or something. That'd be a great gig. Yeah. Let's name this game.

Yeah. I think it's a 3-2-9 game. He said it. He said it. 3-2-9. Regular time. Most in a game.2-9 game. He said it. He said it. 3-2-9, regular time. Most in a game. Yeah.

No overtime. Just 3-2-9. Let's score it. Stakes. Low stakes. It's a regular season game. Yeah, it's a five stakes. Even five is kind of...

Yeah. I go 3.5. 3-5. Low stakes. 3-5. Star of power. I mean, we got... We got Calvin. We got Stafford. We got Roma. We got Dez. 3-5. Star of Power. I mean, we got... We got Calvin.

We got Stafford. We got Roma. We got Dez. Jason Witten. We got some big names here. Yeah, Reggie Bush is a star. But who's going to be Hall of Famers there? Matt Stafford, Megatron.

Witten? Witten will be probably one. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so Star of Power, what? Tyron Smith, maybe. Who? Tyron Smith, maybe who tyron smith tyron smith they got some linemen too over in those cowboys teams that are you know you got to give some shout out to the

hogs so we do what do we do we always start power six six gameplay it's good i mean anytime someone goes for 329 and it ends like this you got to get props to the game and anytime you got matthew stafford fake spiking jumping in no one in the arena knows he's doing it he goes full rogue rogue one over here and fucking pulls pulls that trick underrated star wars flick to rogue one it's honestly one of the better new ones it's the best new one yeah i would have to agree for sure don't you think guys am i wrong all right i haven't seen it jack you haven't seen it no it's solid it's a good movie i'm not a big star wars guy yeah star trek guy or no you don't like stars you like uh lord of rings i like reality role play reality bdsm I like Shigman in reality. Role play, BDSM. You know. Back to gameplay.

We'll give it a seven. The name, 329. I think like a six. Six. What do you think? 6.8, 6.8. Really, this is an excuse to celebrate the great Megatron more than anything. Calvin.

So the name Megatron, I'll give a high-ass score to, but the name of the 329 is not as, yeah. Yeah. So what's that come out to, Jackie? 5.825. 5.9. All right. Well, it was a good one,

and he was great. He was great. And that's all for this episode of Games with Names presented by Winbet. Thank you guys for listening. Hopefully we're entertaining you by now. Hopefully we got some good shit going.

I think we're doing a good job. Yeah. Thank you to our sponsors. You guys make this thing go. Make sure to follow us on all the social platforms. At Games with Names. Write a review. Click, like, swipe, whatever they do, do.

Do it all. I'm Julian Edelman. I'm Sam Morrell. Thanks for listening, guys. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation

expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese.

People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or

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