EverythingTop10 is proud to present, “The Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Matthew Stafford!”
#10. Stafford was a high school quarterback phenom at Highland Park High School
and plenty of football onlookers knew the Texan would be a star someday.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. was so impressed with Stafford while the quarterback was in high school,
that the football pundit stated the future Rams signal caller would be a No. 1 draft pick in the
NFL. Stafford fulfilled Kiper’s prediction in 2009 when the Detroit Lions selected him first overall.
#9. Every season, Stafford purchases his offensive linemen and fellow quarterbacks a gift.
It is Stafford’s way of saying thank you for protecting me. In 2014, while playing for
the Lions, Stafford bought the team’s linemen and quarterbacks each a Big Green Egg Grill.
Not only did Stafford buy each member of the team’s O-line a Big Green Egg Grill,
but he purchased them for the Lions’ practice squad offensive linemen too.
He bought over 12 of the expensive grills that season for his teammates.
#8. When Stafford was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in 2021,
it gave him the opportunity to reconnect with his childhood friend Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw is one of Major League Baseball’s top pitchers and he most recently played for the
LA Dodgers. Stafford and Kershaw grew up in Texas and the pair played sports together. At one time,
Kershaw played center while Stafford was the quarterback for their high school football team.
Kershaw chose baseball over football because he didn’t like playing on the offensive line.
According to Kershaw, he didn’t have the skillset to play anywhere else on the football team.
#7. Stafford committed to the Georgia Bulldogs football program in May of 2005.
Coming out of Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas,
Stafford was ranked No. 2 in the state of Texas in the 2006 college recruiting class. Big things
were expected from the quarterback as Stafford was ranked No. 6 overall in the country. Which
players ranked higher than Stafford nationally in the 2006 recruiting class? Andre Smith,
Percy Harvin, Vidal Hazelton, Sergio Kindle, and Myron Rolle all ranked higher than him. Stafford
is the only one of the top-six from that year’s recruiting class to still be playing in the NFL.
#6. Georgia was not the only major university interested in Stafford.
Florida State, Oklahoma, and Michigan were on the quarterback’s radar. Stafford chose Georgia
because it gave him the opportunity to play in a pro-style offensive system. In addition,
Georgia was willing to play Stafford from the day he stepped onto the campus in Athens.
Although Stafford had plenty of ups and downs early on with the Bulldogs, the opportunity to
play from the beginning of his Georgia career led to his final decision to play for the university.
#5. In 2009, Stafford was the NFL’s first overall draft pick. His selection as the No. 1 pick came
just months after leading Georgia to a 24 to 12 Orange Bowl win over Michigan State and
being named the MVP of the game. The Detroit Lions selected Stafford with the hope that
the quarterback would transform the franchise into a Super Bowl contender. However, after
12 seasons with the Lions, Stafford felt like the franchise was as far as ever from the Super Bowl.
Just four of Stafford’s seasons in Detroit finished with the Lions having a winning record.
The Lions made the playoffs in just three of those four winning seasons.
After the end of the NFL’s 2020 season and a 5-11 record in Detroit, Stafford and the Lions decided
it was time to move on. Stafford claims he never wanted to leave Detroit, but the appeal of winning
the Super Bowl was too great to turn down a trade. #4. In 2015, Stafford married girlfriend Kelly
Hall. She is the sister of former NFL wide receiver Chad Hall. Chad played for
the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, and Kansas City Chiefs between 2010 and 2013.
Kelly was born on August 5, 1989, and met Stafford while the two attended the University of Georgia.
She was a cheerleader for the Georgia Bulldogs. Currently, Kelly hosts her own podcast,
The Morning After with Kelly Stafford. The couple has four daughters.
#3. Stafford’s wife, Kelly, wanted to ensure the LA Rams had home-field advantage over
their archrivals, the San Francisco 49ers, in the NFC Championship Game at SoFi Stadium in
January of 2022. The 70,000-plus seat stadium is regularly packed to the heavens for Rams games.
Yet, there was plenty of worries that the 49ers supporters would be able to buy up tickets
courtesy of outlets such as Ticketmaster and second-hand sellers. To keep San Francisco fans
out of SoFi Stadium, Kelly bought up a number of tickets from Ticketmaster. She posted on
social media that hardcore Rams fans, regular Rams fans, veterans, active military members,
public servants, and individuals in similar jobs could e-mail her for tickets. On Kelly’s
The Morning After podcast, she claimed to have purchased 240 tickets for fans. Although Kelly
didn’t say exactly how much money she spent on the tickets, she said the tickets ranged in price from
$850 to $1,200 each. It is believed Kelly spent between $139,820 and $287,650 on tickets for fans.
Don’t feel bad for the Staffords, however. Matt Stafford is worth an estimated $80 million.
#2. In November of 2021, Kelly Stafford made headlines around the NFL after an
incident inside the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium. Kelly allegedly threw a pretzel at a 49ers fan.
The incident occurred after Kelly became upset over the way in which a group of 49ers fans were
treating a tour crew member. On her podcast, Kelly apologized and stated she attempted to
buy food and drinks for the people she threw the pretzel at, but they refused her offer. Kelly also
claimed she wouldn’t attend 49ers games anymore. #1. The Staffords experienced a very scary moment
in 2019 when a tumor was detected in Kelly’s head. She had been suffering from vertigo for several
months when an MRI found a tumor on her cranial nerve. Kelly’s official diagnosis was “acoustic
neuroma or vestibular schwannoma.” Kelly underwent surgery that was supposed to take six hours, but
the operation’s duration was 12 hours in total to remove the tumor. It was a successful operation.
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