‘Many beautiful memories here’

DETOR – On this day, the roaring crowds at Ford Field are replaced by giggling little girls cheering “go Lions”.

The normally packed stadium is essentially empty as Matthew Stafford and his family say goodbye. The now former Detroit Lions quarterback still can’t get his head around.

“It’s crazy. Obviously, I think this is probably the last time I’ll be here for a long time,” he said. “I have a lot of great memories here.

Ford Field and Detroit have been home to Matthew and his wife, Kelly Stafford, for 12 years.

Life as I know it now, you know, came to be here in Detroit, you know, married, kids. All, ”said Matthew.

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Kelly looks back and gets a little emotional too.

“I think the first time I came here I was 19, and maybe when I look at it for the last time I feel like I don’t know, I pull back a lot,” she said.

Matthew said there are games he will never forget.

“I remember playing against Chargers in 2011 and making the playoffs, bringing the playoffs here for the first time in a number of years and I will never forget the audience,” he recalls .

“Oh, there are plenty. I mean, the one that comes to mind when you say it would be right away, you know, when the Packers hit that Hail Mary on Thursday night after we won on Thanksgiving,” he said.

When we saw him fall and get up right away, just like Detroit, the city he adopted, we learned that Matthew is tough. He is resilient. We may not have always enjoyed the outcome, but humans appreciated the struggle.

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I asked him how difficult the decision to leave was for him.

Oh, probably the hardest conversation I’ve ever had in my life, you know, you know it was, it was a really tough, really tough deal. I have to give the Lions a lot of credit for the way they handled it I have all the respect in the world for the Ford family, ”he said.

I asked him if this was his decision.

“It was mutual, you know, it was something I think we were both talking about, and I think they wanted to see where my head was and I said that clearly to them and you know they got it,” he said.

Stafford’s new city is Los Angeles, and its new team is the Rams. He is still amazed at the course of the trade.

“It was honestly, you know, one of two teams that I didn’t think could do, if they even wanted to.” he said. “The fact that they wanted that was enormous, and the fact that they could, I think you should give a lot of credit to the Rams organization but also the Lions by being creative and figuring out a way to get it done.”

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Professionally, Detroit is all that Stafford has known. “The D” has become home, but it is the people and the fans who both cheer and, yes, sometimes booed, who will always hold a special place in his heart.

“Wherever we go in the community, you know it’s a people who give us good wishes and that means a lot to us,” he said.

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