‘Very good memories here’

DETORIT On this day, the roaring crowds at Ford Field are replaced by giggling girls cheering ‘go Lions’.

The stadium, which is normally packed, is essentially empty because Matthew Stafford and his family have come to say goodbye. The now former quarterback of Detroit Lions still cannot fold his head over it.

“It’s crazy. It’s clear you know it’s probably the last time I’ll be here at least a long time,” he said. “I have very good memories here. Very difficult people too.”

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

‘Life as I know it now, you know, came here in Detroit, you know, married, kids. All this, ”said Matthew.

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Kelly looks back and also gets a little emotional.

“I think I was 19 when I first came here, and to look at it for the last time feels like I do not know, I pull back a lot,” she said.

Matthew said there are games he will never forget.

“I still remember that we played the Chargers in 2011, and reached the play-off rounds, for the first time in a number of years, we won the play-off matches here at home and I will never forget the crowd,” he recalled.

‘Oh, there are many of the. “I mean, the one that comes to mind when you say it’s going to be right away, you know, when the Packers beat that Hail Mary that Thursday night after we won on Thanksgiving,” he said.

When we saw him fall and get up again, just like Detroit, the city he adopted, we learned that Matthew is tough. He is resilient. We may not have always liked the result, but we appreciated the fight.

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I asked him how difficult the decision to leave was on him.

‘Oh, probably the hardest conversation I’ve had in my life, you know, it was a very difficult, very difficult matter. I have to give the 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 him if that was his decision.

“It was reciprocal, you know, it was something I think we both talked about, and I think they wanted to see where my head was, and I’ve expressed it to them, of course, and you know they understand,” he said. he said.

Stafford’s new city is Los Angeles, and his new team is the Rams. He is still amazed at how the trade worked out.

“It was honest, one of the two teams I did not think could happen if they wanted to.” he said. ‘The fact that they wanted to was great, and the fact that they could succeed, 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 do it. to get done. ”

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Professionally, Detroit is all Stafford knew. ‘The D’ has become at home, but it is the people and the fans who have both cheered and, yes, sometimes cheered, who will always occupy a special place in his heart.

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

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