Calvin Johnson had broken fingers last season. Johnson said Monday that he was playing with injured fingers when he set an NFL record last season.

Johnson set the NFL's single-season receiving-yards record last season-and today, he revealed he was playing with a significant handicap. "Had a couple things here and there," Johnson told reporters, holding up his hand. "Pretty much just getting them back straight and trying to straighten those things out," Johnson added  jokingly.

Most of last season, Johnson, the Detroit Lions player, had taped fingers. He told reporters that he isn't sure when he first sustained the injuries, but he didn't have surgery to repair them.

Johnson also had nerve damage previously from an incident while he was playing against the Minnesota Vikings last September. He was hit by another player, causing his grip on the football to fumble.

Playing through injury is common in athletes, but broken fingers are commonly very painful. However, on the website, a source denied Johnson's fingers were broken.

A reporter asked if his fingers were broken on Monday, though, and Johnson said,

"I had a couple of injuries to them, yeah, but other than that it's nothing that prohibited me from doing what I needed to do."

"The thing with a lot of football players, if you have injuries, unless you know about it, you just think it's something that's hurting, so you just keep on playing," he said to reporters.

"I don't blame any drops or anything like that on it. It's just part of the game and had a heck of a season with it and just fortunate to be in that position," Johnson said.

Last season, Johnson managed to surpass Jerry Rice's NFL single-season yards receiving mark. During the second-to-last game, Johnson surpassed his record.  He finished last season with 1,964 yards from 122 receptions for the Lions. Rice, by contrast, had the previous record since 1995 with for 1,848 yards for San Francisco.