Cris Carter stuck his foot in his mouth last year when he was asked to name the elite receivers in the NFL and didn’t include Calvin Johnson on his list, saying that Johnson is good in video games but not in real football. It didn’t take long for Carter to commence backtracking from those comments, and he backtracked further today.
Asked on ESPN’s NFL Live to name the most dynamic duo in the NFL (ESPN is stretching to tie its football content into The Dark Knight Rises, even though Robin doesn’t appear in the Christopher Nolan Batman universe and therefore the Dynamic Duo has nothing to do with the current Batman films), Carter said the best combination in the league is Johnson teamed with Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.
“When you have a young quarterback, under the age of 25, coming off a 5,000-yard season, and you have the most dangerous weapon in the National Football League in Calvin Johnson, that’s why, this duo, to me, is the absolute best,” Carter said. “Franchise quarterback with the No. 1 big-play wide receiver in the NFL.”
Carter has taken a lot of heat in Detroit for his previous comments about Johnson, with everyone from Stafford to Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham to Lions owner Bill Ford Jr. taking shots at him. Maybe if Carter keeps lavishing praise on Megatron, the folks in Detroit will start to give him a break.