NEW ORLEANS — After a year’s hiatus with the Detroit Lions, C.J. Gardner-Johnson is happy to be back with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Gardner-Johnson will play in the Super Bowl on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs for the second time in three years after spending what he called a year of “hell” with the Lions.

“It was hell,” Gardner-Johnson told the Free Press at Super Bowl 59 media availability Thursday at the New Orleans Hilton. “I got lied to, so it was, whatever. I got told, respectfully, I was going to get brought back and didn’t get brought back. And offseason went real for me, signing back here because I wasn’t really tripping on it. It all worked out.”

Gardner-Johnson left the Eagles to sign a one-year deal with the Lions in March 2023 after he was unable to land the long-term deal he was seeking in free agency.

Gardner-Johnson had 12 tackles in the Lions’ first two games last season, but tore his pectoral muscle in a Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and missed most of the rest of the year.

By the time he returned in Week 18, then-rookie Brian Branch had established himself as a cornerstone starter with his play alongside Kerby Joseph in the back end of the Lions defense and Ifeatu Melifonwu was playing well after missing time with his own injury the first half of the year.

Personally, Gardner-Johnson called his one season in Detroit “successful.”

“I got back on the field and I got to play ball,” he said.

But overall, the outspoken safety said his experience was one to forget.

“Truthfully, like in Detroit it was hell,” he said. “I went there just to — OK, when I got hurt I was like, ‘(Expletive) it.’ Truthfully. That’s why I didn’t go rehab there.”

Gardner-Johnson spent most of his rehab in Florida because he said he didn’t see a future with the Lions.

The team spent a high second-round pick on Branch and had safeties Joseph and Melifonwu on rookie contracts, too.

“I was on a one-year deal, so it was like there was no point unless they were really bringing me back,” he said. “By the time midseason came and I was getting healthy, they wasn’t trying to extend me, I’m like, ‘I’m cool.’”

Asked if, in retrospect, he should have rehabbed in Detroit to help his chances of re-signing with the Lions, Gardner-Johnson said, “I mean, to be respectfully, if I stayed there or left, the respect level wasn’t there. I’m one of the most winning safeties in football.”

Johnson said his disdain for the Lions doesn’t extend to everyone. He wished former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn well in his new job as head coach of the New York Jets and called wide receiver Jameson Williams “the best receiver on that team.”

“(I) know so,” he said. “People get caught up in the hype, but I get caught up in the truth.”

Gardner-Johnson addressed a social media post he sent last spring when he wrote he was “Tired of these Detroit fans” harassing him and said he and Williams were the only Lions that had “the streets of Detroit behind us. … All the other guys on the team was scared to go outside to kick it (with) the city.”

“It’s true,” he said. “Like, when you playing for teams like Detroit, New Orleans and Philly, you got to be able to get outside and adapt with the culture. There’s only a couple of guys in that locker room that did it. It’s not like a derogatory statement, it’s just being honest. I got so much love cause I’m actually out in the city and enjoying people, the culture, the music, the food. There’s only a couple people can do that.”

Gardner-Johnson said “everybody” in the Lions organization told him they wanted to re-sign him before changing their mind after the playoffs.

Asked specifically who lied to him about his future, he said, “Everybody.”

“It was just certain people at front office that just, business is business,” he said. “Whatever. I’m not upset.”

After fielding calls from “three legit contenders” in free agency, Gardner-Johnson decided to return to the Eagles team he helped reach Super Bowl 57 in 2022 to try and finish the job with a young nucleus he sees staying in place for a while.

This season, he started all 16 games he played for the Eagles, tied his career high with six interceptions and returned one for a touchdown for the first time.

Longtime Eagles defensive back Avonte Maddox said Gardner-Johnson, once a fan favorite in Detroit, had a big part in Philadelphia’s pass defense improving from 31st in the NFL in 2021 to No. 1 this year.

“He brings a lot of energy out there on the field and we had him two years ago and we went to the Super Bowl and he was definitely a ball of energy then and we got him back and he’s the same way,” Maddox said. “He brings a lot of excitement to the game and he brings a lot of leadership in that room as well. Us just having that and him on team is definitely a great thing.”

Gardner-Johnson said he relishes the chance to bring a championship to Philadelphia.

He wouldn’t speculate on how the Lions might have fared if he stayed healthy last year, but said he felt unfairly vilified for the way the season ended with an NFC championship game loss to the San Francisco 49ers and speculated his play in that game contributed to the team’s unwillingness to sign him last spring.

“I really felt like it was more so towards after the game they felt some way,” he said. “After like one missed tackle and a blown coverage that wasn’t on me. I guess I became the villain of the team.”

In Philadelphia now, he has the chance to be a hero, playing a good Chiefs team with the best quarterback on the planet in Patrick Mahomes.

Gardner-Johnson said Wednesday he is living a dream playing for a Super Bowl in the same city that drafted him — a dream that’s happening one season after what he said was his nightmare in Detroit.

“I got benched because Iffy (Melifonwu) took my spot. He had a good run and they thought — and he didn’t end up starting this year, which was crazy. You see where they’re at, you see where I’m at,” he said, chuckling three times.

Dave Birkett is the author of the book, “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.”