I Like the Lions and Matthew Stafford

Jerry Seinfeld brilliantly pointed out that sports fans root for clothes.

Tonight, the Lions host a playoff game. It’s maybe the third or fourth playoff game in my 50 years on Earth. The most talked about storyline is this –  the Lions are facing Matthew Stafford, who played for 12 seasons in Detroit. He was well-liked by fans and former teammates. Matthew Stafford is a good person. He signed autographs. He never let any salary negotiations or trade-demands to leak. There wasn’t any controversy or scandal around Matthew Stafford. He married his college sweetheart. As far as I can tell, she’s really nice, too.

The Staffords were generous, giving, and great members of the community. Never heard a bad thing about them. Matthew Stafford mostly kept opinions to himself. His wife battled a brain tumor …quietly.

From a football standpoint, Matthew Stafford was 74-90-1. He threw for thousands of yards. He has a canon of an arm and when he really let loose, the ball could travel more than 60 yards in the air. It’s why we watch sports and marvel at players. Because, genetically, they have gifts a normal human doesn’t have (height, strength, speed, canon-arm, jumping ability, hand-eye-coordination). He played for the worst organization in pro sports. He played for terrible coaches. He didn’t hire those coaches. He didn’t have great talent around him. He didn’t draft those players.

He never complained (at least not that I remember). Many, many star players in football, and all sports, are always shooting off their mouths. Demanding trades. Speaking terribly about a city or organization through their agent via back channels on sports talk TV and radio.

Not Matthew Stafford.

Lions fans really liked him. Some loved him.

Then, the Lions and the Rams pulled off a trade. The Rams thought Stafford was the single, missing piece that could help them win the Super Bowl. They were right. The Lions felt, as good as Stafford was, they didn’t have enough pieces around him to win, so the Lions got a winning-QB (Jared Goff) in return as well as a buncha draft picks. The Lions did what countless winning teams had done in the past …cut bait and move on and try again.

Count me among the fans that rooted for him when he went to the Rams. I had no reason to hate him. He shot an emotional video back in 2021 when he left town.

Many, many, many people bought his jersey over those 12 seasons. Just like people bought Barry Sanders, Chris Spielman, Calvin Johnson, and countless other jerseys over the course of my lifetime and, just because some of those players ended their Lions careers in less than spectacular fashion, or finished their careers with other teams, we love them, still.

But for the past week (actually the last three years) there’s been controversy about whether Lions fans are allowed (or should) root for Matthew Stafford. Local establishments have banned anyone wearing a Stafford jersey and local sports talk hosts and columnists have made a case that no self-respecting Lions fan should be rooting for, or be a fan of, Matthew Stafford.

Why is this so difficult? Why is it such a sore subject? Seems pretty easy. I don’t hate Matthew Stafford. But I don’t want him to win against my Lions. If I was in the stadium, I might “boo” him but would do it sort of sarcastically. I wouldn’t cheer for him, but if someone did cheer for Matthew Stafford, well, I wouldn’t hate on that person either. As I said, Matthew Stafford was generous with his millions and gave to many causes and impacted many lives in a positive way. That’s hard not to applaud.

In Detroit, and probably all sports cities, we love our local athletes. And when the good ones, who are also “good people” leave, there’s not reason to hate.

Today, I’m rooting for the Lions. I will be heartbroken if the Lions lose tonight after what they’ve done the last season-and-a-half. I love some of these new players and hope we can build around this core and, win or lose tonight, be back in the playoffs again next year …and the year after. I love Jared Goff …a guy who was a top draft pick and landed in L.A. …an amazing place to be an NFL superstar millionaire …and then was traded because, well, he wasn’t good enough. Traded to Detroit. A terrible, losing organization. But hasn’t complained even once. Think about it. How easy would it have been for him to sulk and pout?

I don’t have any Lions jerseys. I’m not a jersey-wearing-guy because I’m a short human and jerseys look like dresses on me. But if a Stafford jersey was the only Lions attire I owned, guess what? I would wear it tonight.

The point? The Stafford-hate is silly. The can’t-like-Stafford debate shouldn’t be a debate. Lions fans root for the Lions.

Root for and enjoy sports however you want.