Calvin Johnson May Have Broke Receiving Record With Broken Fingers

It's one thing to break the National Football League record for most receiving yards in one season, a mark formerly held by the greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice. It's another thing entirely to do so with a disfigured hand.

But that's exactly what Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson did. Reports are now coming in that suggest he may have played with as many as many as three broken fingers for the majority of the last season.

"I had a couple of injuries but nothing that prohibited me from doing what I needed to do," Johnson said. "The thing with a lot of football players, you have injuries, but unless you know about it you just think it's something that hurts and you keep on playing." 

While it is true that all football players have to deal with nagging pains throughout the season, a receiver putting up the kind of numbers that Johnson did with a mangled hand is simply astounding. So far he has played the injury off as irrelevant to any additional success he may have had.

"I don't blame any drops or anything like that on it," Johnson said. "It's just part of the game. Had a heck of a season with it and I'm just fortunate to be in that position."

It's also possible that Johnson did not actually break his fingers at all. As one reporter has indicated upon hearing the breaking news, some people close to the situation are saying that something else has left his fingers crooked.

"While the team has not yet addressed the contention, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that Johnson actually didn't break any fingers. This doesn't change the fact that he suffered some sort of injury to the fingers on his left hand that has left them crooked," reported Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

Regardless of if the injury caused drops or not, nobody can contest the numbers Calvin Johnson put up last year. He put up a whopping 1964 yards on 122 receptions, and did so with an average run game and receiving corps supporting him.