When recently inducted Hall-of-Fame Receiver Calvin Johnson decided to retire at 29 years old, the entire sports world was shocked. Johnson cited health and a difficult situation in Detroit as the reasons for his retirement.
He has since revealed that in his final seasons, he would smoke marijuana after every game to recover and manage the pain that comes with a high-impact sport like football. Former NFL Guard and teammate of Johnson’s, Rob Sims, says he often used cannabis as well, pointing out that marijuana is “safer than painkillers.”
Sims and Johnson were teammates in Detroit from 2010-2014 and have been business partners with their cannabis company Primitiv since 2019.
“Our vision is we’re trying to change the stigma around cannabis,” Sims said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “We don’t call it bud. We call it medicine.”
Johnson and Sims teamed up on plenty of other ventures before settling into the cannabis industry in 2019, including youth football, real estate, and even franchising the famous pretzel store, Auntie Anne’s.
After recreational marijuana use was made legal in Michigan in 2018, the duo officially received their license in February of 2019.
In the coming months, Johnson and Sims plan to open their first Primitiv dispensary in Niles, Michigan.
