Matthew Stafford said his decision to appeal to the Detroit Lions, where he had spent his entire career, was “probably the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had in my life.”
Stafford spoke to two Detroit media outlets – WDIV and the Detroit Free Press – in his first public comments since the Lions agreed to trade in their franchise quarterback last month for the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff and three draft picks.
Stafford told the Free Press that he and his wife, Kelly, had begun to have talks about the possibility of leaving Detroit before the 2020 season if regime change came along.
“It was one of those things where, you know, we were hoping that – thank God, let’s go, I hope this thing gets off the ground and we play great,” Stafford told the Free Press. ‘But if not, you just knew what was going to happen. They would tear it down and rebuild it.
“And every time you switch GM and head coach, you know they are going to want to bring in their own people, and it will take time. And I honestly didn’t feel like I was the right person to oversee that time. “
Stafford met team chairman Rod Wood and owner Sheila Ford Hamp just after the season to have the conversation. The Lions were open to his request and started looking for trading partners after the team hired Brad Holmes as general manager and Dan Campbell as head coach.
Stafford told the Free Press that he initially thought he was going to join the Indianapolis Colts, San Francisco 49ers, or Washington Football Team – all obvious landing spots in search of a quarterback. He didn’t really think the Rams would be a team that could make a big deal.
“I’m not a salary cap guru,” Stafford told the Free Press. “It got to a point where I was like, ‘OK, I can’t sit there and go crazy.’ I just tried to make it happen. And LA jumped in aggressively. “
Stafford said he and Kelly were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when the trade took place. Just before the deal, he ran into offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth of Los Angeles, who joked to Stafford that the Rams would “run” to him.
Whitworth was right, and the deal was done within 24 hours.
“We were excited about a fresh start, excited that the whole trading bloc process was over,” said Stafford. “Now we had a place. We knew where we were going. I was excited about their selection and their technical staff and what they can bring to the table and their recent success.”
But at the same time the Detroit door was closed. At that point it was real. ‘
Stafford leaves Detroit as the Lions’ franchise record holder in every major passing category, including yards (45,109) and touchdowns (282). He said he played last season through a partially torn UCL in his right thumb, a torn UCL in his left elbow, cartilage damage to one of his ribs, a tear in the back of his left knee, and a subtalar right ankle sprain.
Now he’s leaving for Los Angeles and starting over, grateful for how the Lions handled the divorce.
“Sometimes it’s not the perfect storybook that ends in the same place,” said Stafford. “But I can leave here knowing I gave this team everything I had.”