Lions Praise Megatron For DWTS Debut (As For "Those White Pants...")
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Glover Quin had never seen Calvin Johnson smile so much.
"Most of the time I see him, he's up here and he's working, and he's on the practice field and he's working. He worked very hard and you don't really get to see him let his hair down – well, I guess he doesn't have that much hair," Quin laughed.
No, but Johnson certainly has some dance moves, as he proved in his much-anticipated debut on Dancing with the Stars on Monday night.
"He looked like he was having fun," Quin said. "He looked worry-free, stress-free, like he was just living life. For a guy that's done what he's done, he deserves to do that, so I'm happy for him."
The Lions were initially pessimistic about Megatron's chances on the dance floor – "he's going to do awful," Ameer Abdullah had said – but their former teammate rose to the occasion.
He's got a knack for that.
"I thought he did a good job," said Johnson's close friend Golden Tate. "I thought he showed his personality, he obviously has a great smile and I think he had fun."
After the Lions' win over the Colts on Sunday, Tate had some people over to his house for a viewing party the following night. They took in Monday Night Football and then nervously turned their attention to the evening's main event.
"We had a little victory Monday. We watched the football games and then taped Dancing with the Stars and watched Calvin, so we had a house full of folks cheering Calvin on so that was pretty fun. I thought he did well," Tate said.
Johnson's DWTS partner is professional ballroom dancer Lindsay Arnold. The two showed good chemistry on Monday night, evoking the rhythm that Megatron used to share with Matthew Stafford.
His former quarterback approved.
"I have had contact with him, told him it was a good job, he texted me back right away," Stafford said. "I think he's having a blast. He looked like he was having a lot of fun out there so I was happy for him."
Jim Caldwell didn't watch Johnson's entire performance but he found a clip of it on the internet. He wasn't surprised by what he saw.
"Just like anything else, one thing you find out very quickly about him, he doesn't talk much but he does things well. We had bowling contests here and he ends up being one of the top two or three bowlers. Obviously, we know what he can do on the field. I'm not certain he couldn't play baseball, athletes are pretty versatile and he's proven to be a pretty versatile guy," Caldwell said.
For all the positivity surrounding Johnson's DWTS debut, there was one thing that left Quin a bit perplexed.
"He looked really tall in those white pants," Quin chuckled. "Oh God, I thought he was at least seven foot."
