THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is trying to make this week as normal as possible.
Good luck with it.
Stafford will return to Detroit on Sunday night as the city hosts its first playoff game in three decades for the 10-7 Rams' wild-card game against the 12-5 Lions.
Detroit selected Stafford No. 1 overall in 2009, and he served as the Lions' quarterback for the next 12 seasons before the Rams traded him in 2021. Stafford played in three away playoff games, all losses, while he was with the Lions, but led the Rams to a championship the same year he was traded.
On Wednesday, he was asked what kind of reception he expected from the Detroit fan base.
“To be honest, I don’t expect anything,” Stafford said. “I've been asked this question a few times by friends and family. I think the biggest thing for me is having the experience, whatever that experience is going to be.
“I understand what the people of Detroit and the city of Detroit meant to me and my time and my career and what they meant to my family. I hope they feel that back. At the same time, I'm no stranger to the situation and I know that I'm the bad guy coming to town. I’m on the other team and they don’t want success for me.”
Stafford and his wife, Kelly, have four young daughters, all born in Detroit when he played for the Lions.
“It's an amazing city. “It’s a great group of fans,” Stafford said. “The organization does an excellent job. I know they will be excited. It's going to be a great atmosphere, probably one of the best we've played in for a long time. It's a group of people who, in my experience, love the Lions. Wanted the best for her. And now they're playing really good football and have a chance to host a playoff game. You deserve this chance.
“It will be a cool experience for these people. … It will be difficult to play there. It will be loud. It will be difficult for us to communicate as an offense and we understand that.”
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The Rams practice their quiet rhythm all week, even during walkthroughs. The booming sound of their outdoor speakers penetrates the walls of their practice rooms.
“You know the atmosphere and environment is going to be great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said Wednesday, “so that's absolutely something we're going to work on all week and we've got to deal with it.”
What McVay is less worried about is Stafford's ability to manage his emotional state before the start of a game that plays out like a Hollywood script, he said.
“I think you wouldn't be human if you didn't feel a lot of different emotions,” McVay said, “but he put our team in a position to play a meaningful game.” He has a story there. I think it's real to feel these things. But once you get into the game, let's completely immerse ourselves in the moment (and) we have a lot of confidence in him. I want him to be able to just get going and play with his teammates.”
Sunday's game is rich with Rams/Lions connections beyond Stafford and the city where he spent 12 years.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes and assistant GM Ray Agnew both worked under Rams GM Les Snead in Los Angeles. Aubrey Pleasant, the Rams' defensive backs coach, coached briefly for Detroit. Receiver Josh Reynolds and long snapper Jake McQuaide are former Rams.
And of course, Jared Goff — whom the Rams drafted with their No. 1 pick in 2016 and sent to Detroit via the same trade that brought them Stafford — is the Lions' quarterback.
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The deteriorating working relationship between Goff and McVay and his departure from Los Angeles are now an infamous part of player and coach history.
Goff helped lead the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance in the 2018 season, his second year with McVay.
McVay felt he needed to go in a different direction after a disappointing 2020 season with a team he believed was poised to return to the Super Bowl and pushed hard to trade for Stafford while Goff was quickly included in the transaction.
“The thing I will never run away from are mistakes I made in previous cases,” McVay said of the more personal aspects of the trade. “When you look back, the gratitude for those four years (with Goff), all the good memories we had – and then when you make a change at the end, it ends up being difficult.
“Could it have been handled better on my part? Absolutely. I will never run away from this. But the further you get away from that, the more you try to grow as a man, as a person, as the leader you want to become.
“He deserved better than the way everything went down. I admit that, and I think he knows it too. I'm not afraid to admit these things. But I think it's better for all of us to look back on these things, and I have more and more appreciation for him as time goes on.”
Goff became a team captain and central leader for the Lions over the next three years.
On Wednesday in Detroit, Goff was asked about his relationship with McVay and his feelings toward McVay.
“Yeah, Sean and I are fine. I think he’s a great coach,” Goff said. “Of course we had our differences at the end, but he is a great coach. He’s done a lot of great things and he’s a guy who’s taught me a lot.”
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(Photo: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)