Matthew Stafford said his decision to request an exchange from Detroit Lions, where he 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 Detroit Free Press – in their first public comments since Lions agreed to switch their franchise quarterback to the Los Angeles Rams last month for Jared Goff and three draft choices.
Stafford told the Free Press that he and his wife, Kelly, started having talks 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 hoped – damn it, come on, I hope this thing takes off and we play well,” Stafford told Free Press. “But if not, you just knew what was going to happen. They were going to demolish it and rebuild it.
“And whenever you change GMs and coaches, you know they will want to bring in their own people, and it will take time. And, frankly, I didn’t feel like the right person to oversee that time.”
Stafford met with team president Rod Wood and owner Sheila Ford Hamp shortly after the season to have a conversation. Lions were open to your request and started looking for business 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 would go to the Indianapolis Colts, San Francisco 49ers or Washington Football Team – all obvious landing sites looking for a quarterback. In fact, he didn’t think Rams would be a team that could make a big exchange.
“I am not a salary cap guru,” Stafford told the Free Press. “It got to the point where I thought, ‘OK, I can’t sit there and go crazy.’ I just tried to make it happen. And LA aggressively went into that. “
Stafford said he and Kelly were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when the exchange took place. Just before the deal, he met Los Angeles striker Andrew Whitworth, who joked with Stafford that the Rams would “run away” from him.
Whitworth was right, and in 24 hours, the deal was closed.
“We were excited about a new beginning, excited about the end of the whole process of being in the trading bloc,” said Stafford. “Now we had a place. We knew where we were going. I was excited about the list and the coaching staff, what they can bring to the table and their recent success.
“But at the same time, it was a door shut in Detroit. At the time, it was real.”
Stafford leaves Detroit as the Lions franchise record holder in all major pass 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, damage to the cartilage in one of his ribs, a rupture in the back of his left knee and a subtalar sprain in his right ankle .
Now he leaves for Los Angeles and a fresh start, grateful for the way Lions handled the breakup.
“Sometimes it’s not the perfect storybook ending in the same place,” said Stafford. “But I can leave here knowing that I gave this team everything I had.”