Former Lions Calvin Johnson, Rob Sims Discuss Their Cannabis Company

Calvin Johnson is one of the greatest receivers of all time. He played with the Detroit Lions for his full, nine-year career, before retiring from football in 2016.

Now, Johnson is getting honored. He'll be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, John Lynch and more members of the Class of 2021.

Johnson is also a cannabis enthusiast. He co-founded Primitiv, a Michigan-based cannabis company, in 2019 with his former NFL teammate Rob Sims.

Primitiv's cultivation facility is located in Webberville, Michigan.

"Our vision is we're trying to change the stigma around cannabis," Sims told Sports Illustrated. "We don't call it bud. We call it medicine."

Johnson tells Sports Illustrated that by the end of his run with the Lions, he used cannabis following every game and sometimes during the week to help lessen the "daily drag to get up out of bed in the morning, just really inflammation at the end of the day."

Johnson and Sims think cannabis is a safer alternative to painkillers.

"There are a lot of untold stories about this, and to be quite frank, a player is going to have to deal with pain either way it goes. There's a safer way," Sims told the publication. "There's an alternative that can help guys and that is safe, you know what I mean? It's not something that guys can get all messed up on and it's a lot to lose.

"What do you do when you're done playing the game and you need painkillers and you can't get them as easy as you could when you played? What do you do? What's the answer for that?"