The Lions are cheap as hell for making Frank Ragnow pay back his signing bonus

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 18: Quarterback Jared Goff #16 of the Detroit Lions interacts with center Frank Ragnow #77 during an NFL football divisional playoff game against the Washington Commanders, at Ford Field on January 18, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images) | Getty Images There is nothing more pathetic than NFL teams crying poor, and the Detroit Lions continue to lead the league in this regard when it comes to screwing over their franchise legends. It took almost a decade for the Lions to mend fences with Calvin Johnson after demanding he return $1.

6M of his signing bonus after retiring due to injury in 2016. It’s a jerk move they made with Barry Sanders, and now they’re doing it once again. In a carbon copy of their Megatron beef, the Lions demanded that legendary center Frank Ragnow return a portion of his signing bonus after he also retired at 29-years-old.

The #Lions made Frank Ragnow return part of his signing bonus after retiring early, continuing a franchise policy that dates back to Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson, per President Rod Wood, via @DaveBirkett : “Our precedent goes all the way back to Barry Sanders… And I think… pic. twitter. com/NTLvGjX3tH — Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) March 31, 2026 The team’s pathetic justification is that they expect players to return money they were paid for “in advance” without them “rendering services.

” It’s the kind of corporate speak that’s designed to sound reasonable to people working ordinary jobs, but it ignores the entire nature of NFL contracts often being structured in team-friendly ways, regardless of how the money is getting to players. Signing bonuses and guaranteed money have been the safest way for allow for salary cap tinkering by teams. It allows for agents to present large contracts, like in Ragnow’s case, the four-year, $54M extension he signed in 2021 — while the deal itself only had an average of $3.