Matthew Stafford has been a leader since he stepped foot in the NFL as the No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Lions in 2009, maintaining his status as a captain through his current tenure with the Los Angeles Rams. He’s a humble player who doesn’t use social media or like to talk about himself, but he’s earned the respect of teammates and opponents every step of the way.
Just listen to this story from former Lions quarterback David Blough, who backed up Stafford in Detroit. While on Ari Meirov’s podcast, Blough shared the story of the time Stafford paid for Blough’s wife to fly from Qatar to the U.S. during the bye week, just so they could be together for a brief time while the Lions were off.
The best part is that Stafford only knew Blough for a month because he had just gotten traded from the Browns to the Lions in late August.
“My wife was running internationally. In 2019, she was running at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. And I hadn’t seen her since she went on the international circuit. Our bye week was after Week 4 and I had known Matthew for a whole month. That’s it. Just one month. … And he basically says to me – her season was over, she had finished in the quarterfinals – and he says, ‘How come she can’t fly home? How come she can’t come home for the bye week? You need to see her. It’s a long season.’ She wasn’t able to fly back yet and he called me on the Tuesday of our bye week, knowing we had Thursday through Sunday off, and he calls me and says, ‘Hey, can she get on a flight tomorrow night from Doha to Chicago? You can pick her up there. I’ll pay for it. I’ll fly your wife home for you. I had known him for a month, and he is doing this for me.”
Stafford typically keeps to himself and goes about his business, so it’s awesome to hear stories like this one from his illustrious career. We all know how talented he is on the field, but he’s also a special person off it.
It’s why he’s built such strong connections with Sean McVay, Cooper Kupp and others. He’s even the godfather to Dominic Raiola’s son, Dylan, who now plays at Oregon.
Stafford went out of his way to make life a little bit better for an undrafted rookie, and it’s something Blough will probably never forget. And Blough, now the offensive coordinator for the Commanders, uses that gesture by Stafford to help him relate to his players and other coaches.
“What I learned in that moment was he was trying to make every single person’s experience in the NFL special, whether it was a janitor, whether it was a chef, one of his teammates who was in and out of the building for a week on the practice squad,” Blough said. “He didn’t know if I was going to be there later that season. Undrafted, had just been traded there. He was trying to make my experience in the NFL special.
“Now I can go forward as a coach and think, I don’t know if this player will make our 53-man roster or be here in training camp, but I can make his experience special with how I treat him – just because I saw that in Matthew.”
Stafford truly is one of one.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Former Lions QB tells story of Matthew Stafford’s incredibly kind gesture in 2019
Reporting by Cameron DaSilva, Rams Wire / Rams Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cameron DaSilva, Rams Wire | USA TODAY Network
