‘Megatron’ Named Finalist for Pro Football Hall of Fame

Sure he's a Hall of Famer, but that's a Hall of Fame nickname, too. "Megatron". Nicknames don't get much better than that. (He got that from teammate Roy Williams.)

The National Football League has announced that retired Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson has made the short list for possible induction into its Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Those voted in will be announced Super Bowl weekend, and inducted this August.

Johnson is joined by Peyton Manning, former Michigan star Charles Woodson and former Minnesota Viking Jared Allen on the list of finalists who are eligible for the first time.

A second-overall draft pick in 2007, Johnson's career was marked by excellence, but like Barry Sanders, his career was also doomed, being stuck on some truly awful Lions teams, including the record-setting winless 0-16 team in 2008, and a 2-14 record the following season. In his career, he only played in two wild-card playoff games, which were the only two winning seasons the Lions had during his career.

Still, arguably with this 6'5" frame and wingspan, he was the best receiver in football, and 2012 was maybe his best season. According to wikipedia, "on December 22, 2012, Johnson broke Jerry Rice's single-season record of 1,848 receiving yards, and finished the 2012 season with 1,964 yards, an average of almost 123 yards per game.[5][6] In that same game versus the Atlanta Falcons, Johnson also set the NFL records for consecutive 100-yard games (8, later tied by Adam Thielen) and consecutive games with 10 or more receptions (4). He tied Michael Irvin's record for most 100-yard games in a season with 11."

While Johnson never made it to the Super Bowl, he finished third on Dancing with the Stars in 2016.