Calvin Johnson's "Dancing With the Stars" debut was a hit in the Detroit Lions' locker room.
A few weeks after one of Johnson's former teammates worried that "he's going to do awful" on the ABC television series, several Lions said Johnson was impressive cha-chaing his way across a Lions-themed dance floor.
"I thought he did good," safety Glover Quin said. "It was a side of Calvin I've never seen. He looked really tall in those white pants. Oh, my gosh. I thought he was at least 7 foot. But he looked like he was having fun. He looked worry-free, stress-free, like he was just living life. And a guy that's done what he's done, he deserves to do that."
Johnson scored a 26 out of 40 in his DWTS debut and seems like a good possibility to advance to the next round.
Both Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Golden Tate said they recorded Johnson's performance and watched it during Monday Night Football.
"(I) told him it was a good job," Stafford said. "He texted me back right away. 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."
Tate, who worried that Johnson was too "stiff" to excel as a dancer, said Johnson's performance was "about what I expected."
"We actually had, like, a little Victory Monday, and so we watched the football games and then we taped it and watched Calvin, so we had a house full of folks cheering Calvin on. That was pretty fun," Tate said. "I thought he did well."
Lions coach Jim Caldwell said he didn't watch Johnson live, but he did hit the Internet to watch a portion of Johnson's routine.
"One thing you find out pretty quickly about him: He doesn't talk much, but he does things well," Caldwell said. "When we had bowling contests here, he ends up being one of the top two or three bowlers. Obviously, we know what he can do on the field. He can play baseball. Athletes are pretty versatile, and he's proven to be a pretty versatile guy."
