Matthew Stafford Opens Up About Competing Against the Lions

Matthew Stafford was the quarterback for the Detroit Lions for more than a decade, so it had to be awkward to go head-to-head with his old team in Los Angeles last weekend. For me, the analogy that comes to mind is running into an ex-boyfriend. Awkward, times two!

Stafford says he's glad the big Lions game is behind him.

“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind,” Stafford told Sports Illustrated. “I’m just trying to make sure I’m as prepared as I can every day to come in and help us win. Am I happy it’s over with? Yeah. I’ve got a lot of great friends, people that I care about that are on that team and are from that city. Just glad to have this one over with and put the storylines away and just go out and play football the rest of the year.”

He also talked about seeing Detroit Lions fans at SoFi Stadium wearing Lions jerseys.

“It was humbling,” Stafford said. “It was really nice to see. Driving into the stadium today, I saw a few (Lions jerseys) walking around and thought to myself that it was good to see. I really appreciated it. I’ve said it a bunch of times, and I truly mean it, I loved my time there.”