‘Many good memories here’

DETORIT – On this day, the loud crowd at Ford Field is replaced by laughing little girls shouting “go, lions”.

The normally crowded stadium is essentially empty when Matthew Stafford and his family come to say goodbye. The now ex-Detroit Lions quarterback still doesn’t understand this.

“It’s crazy. Obviously, you know, thinking that this will probably be the last time I’ve been here for at least a long time,” he said. “I have a lot of good memories here. A lot of hard ones too.”

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

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

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Kelly is looking back and getting a little emotional as well.

“I think the first time I came here I was 19 years old and, looking at it, possibly for the last time, I feel like I don’t know, I’m backing off a lot,” she said.

Matthew said there are games he will never forget.

“I still remember, we played against Chargers in 2011 and made it to the playoffs, we won the playoffs here at home for the first time in many years and I will never forget the crowd,” he recalled.

“Oh, there are many of them. I mean, the one that comes to mind when you say it would be, you know, when the Packers hit that Ave Maria on Thursday night, after we won on Thanksgiving, ”he said.

When we saw him fall and rise, as did Detroit, the city he adopted, we found that Matthew is tough. He’s resilient. We may not have always liked the result, but man, we enjoyed the fight.

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I asked him how difficult the decision to leave was.

“Oh, probably the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had in my life, you know, you know it was, it was a very difficult, very difficult business. I have to give 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 if that was your decision.

“It was mutual, you know, it was something we both talked about, and I think they wanted to see where my head was and I obviously expressed it to them and you know they understood,” he said.

The new city of Stafford is Los Angeles and its new team is the Rams. He is still surprised at how the trade worked.

“It was honestly, you know, one of two teams that I didn’t think I would be able to make happen, if they wanted to.” he said. “The fact that they wanted it was huge, and the fact that they were able to, I think you have to give a lot of credit to the Rams organization, but also to the Lions, for being creative and finding a way to get it done. “

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Professionally, Detroit is everything Stafford knew. “The D” has become home, but it is the people and the fans who applauded and, yes, sometimes booed, who will always have a special place in their hearts.

“Everywhere we go in the community, you know that it is a people that wishes us happiness and that means a lot to us,” he said.

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