Nike Brings Calvin Johnson To Your Feet

 I am not a shoe guy, I find it hard to drop hundreds of dollars on a pair of shoes you probably will never wear, but that does not mean I do not appreciate a nice looking pair of shoes.

Nike just announced a special Calvin Johnson “Megatron” pack that they will be releasing soon, I did not see a date or price. The pack consist of three pairs of shoes, two trainers and a pair of football cleats, with similar color patterns and a Decepticon logo. One of the trainers has a glow in the dark outrigger and the cleats are clear.

In addition to the three pairs of shoes there will also be a limited edition Calvin Johnson Megatron Transformer. The figure will be included in the Megatron Rises Packs, which will be released at 21 Mercer Nike store in Queens. There will only be 81 Megatron Rises Packs released but the shoes will be sold at other Nike stores as well as their online store.

I never played with Transformers, they came around when I was hitting my teens, but they are still very cool. The Johnson piece includes a football and turns in to a B-2 Bomber. I like the purple/silver colors used but I think it would have been better to use the Lions black/blue/silver team colors.

 

Calvin Johnson Jr. Vs. The Madden Curse

On April 25^th Calvin Johnson Jr. was announced as the cover player for EA Sports Madden 13, an honor as well as a curse. Since Barry Sanders appeared in the background of Madden 2000 there has been a “curse” of sorts that affected many of the players who appeared on the box.

 

Going down the line there have been retirements, sub par seasons, injuries and broken bones, losing streaks and Vince Young (he deserves his own category when it comes to the Madden curse). Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees had decent seasons following their covers but nothing like Johnson’s season.

 

In the Lion’s loss to Atlanta Saturday night Johnson set the single season receiving yards record, previously held by Jerry Rice (1995: 1,848 yards). Megatron had a monster night with 11 receptions for 225 yards putting his season total to 1,892 yards with one game left in the season. He is now shooting for the previously unheard of 2,000 receiving yards in a season, only 108 yards away.

 

He is averaging 126 yards/game in 2012 so to hit the needed 108 yards to top the 2,000 yard plateau is quite reasonable and you can be sure that Stafford will do everything he can to get the ball to Calvin Johnson in their season finally against Chicago next week, a game at home.

 

 

Has the Madden curse finally been broken?

Will Calvin Johnson, Jr. Feel The Curse?

On March 7^th EA Sports opened up voting allowing fans to select the player for the cover of Madden 13, which will be released August 28th. What began with 64 players was whittled down to only two, Lions WR Calvin Johnson, Jr. and Panther’s QB Cam Newton. Nearly 20 million people voted over the 7 week period.

At the announcement ceremony on April 25^th in New York City’s Time Square both Newton and Johnson, Jr. stood center stage as the countdown began on the big screen overlooking the square. When the picture came up showing Johnson, Jr. Cam Newton seemed quite puzzled, he had been acting as if he had prior knowledge that he was going to win but the fans spoke differently.

Now that the cover has been selected the question of the “Curse” will begin. Since 2000, when Barry Sanders appeared in the background, there has been some sort of fall off with each player. Some have been minimal, such as the case of Sanders who retired, while others were more serious like Donovan McNabb having a sports hernia followed by tearing his ACL the next season.

Calvin Johnson, Jr. had an awesome season last year catching 96 passes for 1,681 yards and 16 touchdowns, his best season so far. I guess this is a question that will have to wait until the end of December following the Lions Dec 30^th game against the Bears.