Lions receiver Calvin Johnson says a concussion isn’t necessarily going to take him out of a game.
Johnson, who took a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit from Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway two weeks ago, briefly left that game to get checked for a concussion but was able to return. That presumably means the Lions’ medical staff found that he didn’t have a concussion, although Johnson told 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit that he doesn’t think getting concussed is a good reason to leave a game.
“He rung my bell pretty good, he got me, he caught me around the chin, that was a good hit,” Johnson said. “It’s a part of football, you get concussed, you gotta keep on playing. You can’t get afraid to go across the middle any more than you were at the beginning.”
Johnson said the concussion test the Lions’ staff gave him was relatively simple.
“They come and do the little test with the finger . . . ask you what day, what game it is, stuff like that,” Johnson said.
When the process works the way the NFL says it’s supposed to work, the medical staff has the authority to keep a player off the field if he can’t pass that test. Like many players, Johnson would rather be able to make that decision himself.