There are plenty of plotlines to follow in Sunday’s Super Wild Card Weekend match between the NFC North champion Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams.
Finding the connections doesn’t require going too far in the past or looking any further down the roster than the quarterback.
The 2021 deal that sent Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles, where he won a Super Bowl at the end of the season, and Jared Goff to Detroit has permanently linked the two.
Goff hasn’t forgotten the bargain that changed his life, or the disdain that accompanied it, for sure.
Goff responded to ESPN on Wednesday, “Of course.” “I think it’ll never leave me, and I think that’s a good thing.”
In return for Stafford, the Rams sent Goff and draft picks to Detroit. This trade resulted in an immediate (and essential) improvement under center,
giving Rams head coach Sean McVay the seasoned quarterback he so much wanted after realizing he would never win a championship with Goff.
Prior to their wild-card clash, McVay acknowledged that Los Angeles’ eastward transfer of QB Goff wasn’t the cleanest. Enable Javascript so that you can see this content.
In search of a title, it was more or less an emotionless dumping of Goff.
“The thing that I’ll never run away from are mistakes that I’ve made in previous instances,” McVay told ESPN.
“However, when you reflect, you’re grateful for those four years and all of our wonderful memories.
And when you finally decide to make a change, that proved to be challenging. And could I have done a better job handling it? Indeed.
And I will never flee from that.However, the more you try to distance yourself from it, the more you strive to develop into the man, the person, and the leader you want to be.
He was entitled to a better outcome than what transpired. I will accept that. I believe he is also aware of that.
And while I have no problem owning up to those things, I believe it benefits all of us to be able to reflect on them. And as time goes on, I do appreciate him more and more.
” In Super Bowl LVI, McVay led an all-in Rams team to football glory and earned the title he had been chasing with Stafford.
McVay paid a heavy price for the nightmare season that ensued, but a year later, he’s guided the Rams back to the postseason with a healthy Stafford,
who’s playing some of the greatest ball of his 12-year career, which started in Detroit.
