As the trade rumors swirled, Matthew Stafford’s daughters came home from school to ask him about the questions their friends had pepped them with regarding his future.
The Rams wanted him back, but at their price. The Giants and Raiders wanted him badly, but that would require uprooting the family of six.
It made for a stressful few weeks for the 37-year-old quarterback.
“Three weeks of that uncertainty is never fun, whether that’s in a job or life or whatever it is,” Stafford said on the newest episode of wife Kelly’s “The Morning After” podcast. “You gotta find things to occupy your time. I played a lot of golf, tried to work out, just things to kind of keep your mind off it cause you sit there and think about all those uncertainties all day you go crazy.”
Ultimately, the Staffords got what they wanted with the Rams reworking the Super Bowl-winning quarterback’s contract to keep him in Los Angeles.
The Giants offered Stafford a contract worth $90-$100 million, but he took less money to stay with the NFC West champions and potential Super Bowl contenders.
He said he’s “fired up to be back.”
“I was talking to Kelly the other day just about this process and how it can sometimes feel like such a negative, it’s a tough thing, you’re going through all these things, but at the same time was talking to somebody and they kind of gave me the perspective of like, ‘Man, this is such a positive time in your life. You’re 37 years old going into your 17th season and somebody still wants you to be on their team,’” Stafford said in his first public comments since opting to remain with the Rams. “That’s a rare occurrence and something I don’t take for granted and take lightly.
“It’s still a humbling thing to have teams and, most importantly, the team I’m playing for in the Rams excited about me being a part of their team and leading the way. It’s a cool thing and hopefully we have a great season and get to figure it out again next year and continue to keep playing, we’ll see.”
The possibility of Stafford leaving the Rams centered around his future, with the Rams having their limits for where they would go in a contract and Stafford attempting to be paid like other top quarterbacks.
His original contract had him slated to earn $27 million this season, a fair amount less than most top-level quarterbacks. Even with his new deal, he’ll earn roughly $15 million less than he would have had the Rams sent him to lead the Giants, according to NFL insider Peter Schrager.
Stafford called it a “unique situation” but noted how he and head coach Sean McVay stayed in communication throughout the process.
He knew his coach wanted him to stay and McVay knew Stafford didn’t want to leave.
While Stafford did not name any teams that pursued him, Kelly said she’s sure that Giants and Raiders fans are bummed out to have not landed him.
The former Georgia star called the interest “humbling.”
“There wasn’t a whole lot going on other than some of the combine stuff, but it’s kind of a dead period in the NFL and so, anytime those things happen, people are going to pick it up and run with it and I understand it,” Stafford said. “But I had great communication with Sean the whole time, not all of it was things I wanted to hear and I think not all of it were things he wanted to hear.
“We had grownup conversations because he and I have known each other and gone through a lot together, so, all of that was positive and good, in the end, especially, getting to the point where I know that I’m extremely excited to be back, I know (Kelly is) extremely excited to be back, we’re just in a really good place and happy to be playing for the Rams for another season.”
Stafford said he was more concerned about his family during the whole process, and appreciates that the ordeal is over faster than his last contract negotiation with the team last year when the sides agreed to a reworked deal right before training camp opened in the summer.
He and his wife both agreed that should a similar situation arise next offseason, the plan is it for to be even shorter.
“I don’t want to sell myself short, I don’t want to promise anything,” Stafford said. “Obviously, I can’t do that. But I do feel good and feel I’m playing decent.”
