Matthew Stafford said his decision to apply for a trade with the Detroit Lions, where he had spent his entire career, was “probably the toughest conversation I’ve ever had in my life.”
Stafford spoke with two Detroit media outlets – WDIV and the Detroit Free Press – in their first public comments since the Lions agreed to change their quarterback franchise to the Los Angeles Rams last month for Jared Goff and three drafts.
Stafford told Free Press that he and his wife, Kelly, began talking about the possibility of leaving Detroit before the 2020 season if there was a regime change.
“It was one of those things where, you know, we expected that, golly, come on, I hope that takes off and we play really well,” Stafford told Free Press. “But if it wasn’t like that, you just knew what would happen. They would tear it down and rebuild it.
“And every time you change GM and a head coach, you know they’re going to want to bring their own people and that will take time. And frankly, I didn’t feel like I was the right person to oversee that time.”
Stafford met with team president Rod Wood and owner Sheila Ford Hamp just after the season to hold the conversation. The Lions were open to his request and began looking for business partners after the team hired Brad Holmes to be general manager and Dan Campbell as head coach.
Stafford told Free Press that he initially thought he would head to the Indianapolis Colts, the San Francisco 49ers or the Washington Football Team, all obvious landing points in search of a quarterback. I didn’t really think the Rams would be a team that could get a big trade.
“I’m not a salary cap guru,” Stafford told Free Press. “It got to a point where I said, ‘Okay, I can’t sit there and go crazy.’ I just tried to make that happen. And LA made an aggressive leap into it.”
Stafford said he and Kelly were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when the trade took place. Just before the deal, he met Los Angeles offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth, who joked to Stafford that the Rams would “run” him.
Whitworth was right, and within 24 hours the deal was over.
“We were excited for a fresh start, excited to finish the whole process of being in the commercial block,” Stafford said. “Now we had a place. We knew where we were going. I was thrilled with their roster and their coaching staff and what they can bring to the table and their recent success.
“But at the same time, it was near the door in Detroit. At the time it was real.”
Stafford leaves Detroit as the Lions franchise record holder in all major passing categories, including yards (45,109) and touchdowns (282). He said he played last season with 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 sprain in his right ankle. .
He is now marching to Los Angeles and will begin, grateful for how the Lions handled the separation.
“Sometimes it’s not the perfect storybook that ends up in the same place,” Stafford said. “But I can get out of here knowing I gave this team all the damn it had.”