Instagram outbursts, flying pretzels, and that time Leonardo DiCaprio licked someone's ear.
Who knew the life of an NFL quarterback's wife was so topsy turvy?? We did! All that and more ahead.
In April 2019, Kelly Stafford announced on Instagram
that she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She explained in the post:
"Within the last year, I began to notice things that I thought was just me getting
older [...] Things that I had been doing my entire life were now, all of a sudden, difficult."
These symptoms led Stafford to go to the ER to get an MRI – a
procedure that revealed the worst possible news.
"This nice little lady, she had my MRI pulled up
and kind of was just like, 'Okay, well here is your brain tumor.'"
Stafford admitted that she was "terrified" of the surgery and,
quote, "the guilt [she] might feel of being absent from [her] kids for too long."
Fortunately, the surgery went well, and Stafford made a full recovery. Six months later,
she penned an essay for ESPN about her journey and life after her 12-hour surgery, writing:
"These days, I feel pretty good. Days are longer. Some days are hard — some mornings
I wake up a little foggy, and know I have to take the day a little slower."
At the time, Stafford revealed that she may require the use of a hearing aid,
but was just happy to be alive, saying:
"The doctors said it would take about a year for
me to feel symptom-free and have the same energy I had before."
In that same essay for ESPN, Stafford recalled how she struggled with dizziness and felt
"off" for months. She revealed how she initially brushed her symptoms off as signs of "aging."
She wasn't even 30 yet, but as she wrote, she had more important things to focus on.
"As a mom, you're always on the run. You're chasing after your kids or
worrying about your family. You tend to put yourself on the back burner,
so I didn't feel the urgency to go to the doctor."
When she did finally seek medical help, she initially refused an MRI because she didn't
think she had time for it. But once she got her diagnosis and was faced with surgery,
the fear and worry she felt wasn't for herself. She wrote:
"What if this thing gets taken out and something goes wrong? What if something happens before that?
My biggest fear is not being here, and not being here to raise my girls."
Her post-op recovery was also all about her kids. Jump to April 2021,
and Kelly Stafford celebrated a "clean 2-year scan" on Instagram.
On November 15, 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer tweeted notice of an emergency order
issued by the state's Department of Health and Human Services to pause "indoor social gatherings
and other group activities" to help fight her state's rising COVID-19 cases and infection rates.
Kelly Stafford didn't appreciate this. She posted an Instagram Story letting her thoughts be known.
"I'm over living in a dictatorship that we call Michigan."
She had a lot more to get off her chest in the since-deleted rant. She went on to say.
"I understand there's a pandemic [...] But, shutting down all these small businesses,
things that people have worked their life for, shutting them down again
is not the answer. Because they will not make it. So, once we are able to leave our house,
once this dictatorship decides to let us have some freedom, there will be nothing left."
She later apologized in another since-deleted video, saying in part:
"I'm really sorry. I was in the heat of the moment. I have a friend losing their business,
and it's just getting to me a little bit, so I apologize for calling it a dictatorship."
On August 1, 2020, Matthew Stafford was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list after
testing positive for the novel coronavirus. However, he was removed three days later after
it was determined the test was a false positive. He later said in a statement:
"I know everybody is doing the best that they possibly can. I'm glad it happened to
me at this point, and the league is trying to change and make sure it doesn't happen again."
Kelly Stafford, on the other hand, didn't take it as well. In a lengthy
Instagram post that tagged the NFL no less than three times, she wrote:
"I have been losing my mind because of how my Family has been treated
since my husband was put on the Covid-IR list."
She claimed that even after the news that it had been a false positive was released,
the family was subject to harassment from people claiming they were endangering the
public for doing things like grocery shopping and playing on a playground.
Kelly went on to directly blame the league and its "test sites" for everything that happened.
"Kelly Stafford called her life a living nightmare for what she says her family has endured
ever since her husband was very publicly put on that list."
To its credit, the NFL then took steps to prevent such false positives from happening again.
However, Matthew was placed on the reserve list again in November 2020
after being exposed to the virus, but tested negative. Kelly took to Instagram to write:
"Here we go again. Thank you again NFL for throwing
my family out there when no one is positive."
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem
in protest of police brutality became a divisive issue across the country. The
outspoken Kelly Stafford certainly had her own opinion on the matter. In a 2017 Instagram post,
she shared a quote that stated, in part, that "the anthem is not the national police song."
Kelly then suggested the only way to show unity was to stand, saying:
"Let's stand united against terrorists, against racism, against white supremacists,
against killing of cops, against police brutality,
against sex slave trafficking…against anything that is not the ideal for this country."
Three years later, she admitted that she missed the point of Kaepernick's protest. She wrote:
"When Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, I had strong feelings about it.
Even when he kept saying it had nothing to do with the flag or military, I didn't listen.
I kept not listening to him or anyone else and let the political rhetoric
persuade me that him kneeling was disrespectful to our military."
Her change of heart was communicated in yet
another Instagram post that revealed she and her husband were donating
$350,000 to "a social justice program for University of Georgia Athletics."
Matthew Stafford had been the Detroit Lions' starting quarterback since 2009,
but after only three playoff games in 12 seasons and $226.5 million in career earnings,
the trade rumors began in 2020 when he entered the final year of his contract.
And nothing fanned the flames of those rumors more than when the Staffords
listed their $6.5 million lakefront mansion in a Detroit suburb for sale.
However, Kelly Stafford quickly put those trade rumors to rest and explained the selling of
their house had nothing to do with her husband being shipped off. The reason for the move?
A parental decision. Kelly explained in a now-deleted Instagram video:
"No speculation is needed. We're about to have our fourth child and I personally do not want
to live on a lake or have a pool with four children under the age of a little over 3.
So that is the reason that it's on the market."
She added that while the whole family was sad about leaving the house,
it was all about the kids' safety.
"[It] just makes us feel better knowing that there's no real dangers of having tiny
ones running around all the bodies of water, so that is the reason."
As far as the trade rumors went, Matthew said,
"I pay less attention to them than my wife does."
Of course, by January 2021, the Lions' longtime QB was traded to the Los Angeles Rams.
"You know nothing would have made me happier than bringing a Lombardi trophy home to Detroit.
That's not the way it's going to end, but I still have a ton of great memories."
If anybody comes for Matthew Stafford with any semblance of criticism, you can be sure that
Kelly Stafford will have something to say about it. One of the most staunch defenders of her
husband's play, Kelly didn't shy away from slamming a Detroit Free Press reporter who
blamed Stafford for the Lions' humiliating 41-21 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in November 2020.
Posting a screencap of the article's headline, which claimed "Stafford deserves
most of the blame for loss to Colts," Kelly blasted the outlet in her Instagram Story,
calling the criticism proof that, quote, "they have zero idea what they are talking about."
Jump to November 2021, when, according to TMZ, Kelly was at a Rams vs. 49ers game and
threw a soft pretzel at a 49ers fan who was trash talking behind her.
The incident was dubbed "pretzelgate," and Stafford eventually apologized. She
conceded that was "zero excuse" for her behavior and noted, quote, "I'm an idiot."
Kelly added she'll always stand up for the people she loves,
but admitted that throwing food probably wasn't the best way to do it.
For his part, Matthew took both incidents in stride.
After hearing about his wife pegging the fan with a pretzel hail mary,
he apparently laughed it off and joked about his own performance at that game.
"He said, 'Well, I wish I was as accurate as you were,
but I guess only one person in the family was accurate that night."
Kelly Stafford talks about everything on her podcast, "The Morning After with Kelly Stafford,"
but one of the most incredible stories she's shared to date was about her run-in with
Leonardo DiCaprio. As revealed in a January 2022 episode, she and Matthew Stafford were
vacationing at the Bahamas' Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club — a members-only "luxurious,
secluded island retreat" — with Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and his wife,
Sara. The two couples were invited to a special dinner where their table guests were DiCaprio,
his model girlfriend, Nina Agdal, and two of their friends. Stafford & Co. played it cool
and even scored an invite to play beach volleyball with the actor the next day.
After that, DiCaprio apparently suggested ultimate frisbee be next on their list. Things became even
more unbelievable when they launched a drinking game called Picolo. After they'd been playing
for long enough to get, quote, "hammered," DiCaprio got a strange challenge from the game.
"Leo gets the phone and it says, 'Leo, lick Sara's ear four times or drink six sips.'"
Kelly was sure he'd drink, but instead, Oscar winner Leonardo
DiCaprio accepted the challenge of licking the ear of another man's wife.
"And he like squats slowly – I wish I could really
act this out for you guys – and just goes after Sara's ear."
Talk about memorable.
It was September 2021 when Matthew Stafford made his big debut with the Los Angeles Rams,
helping the team score a 34-14 victory over the Chicago Bears. And as Yahoo! Sports reported,
the excitement may have been a bit too much for a "Sunday Night Football" staffer.
Amidst all the action, NBC zoomed in on someone who was not Kelly Stafford and proudly labeled her
as Kelly Stafford. As Yahoo! Sports noted, the mysterious Rams fan had blonde hair,
but the resemblance ended there, making it a "perplexing mistake." Announcer Al
Michaels quickly set things right as the camera found the real Kelly Stafford.
Kelly had fun with it. Posting a snap of herself and the other blonde to her Instagram Stories,
she wrote "Wife one" next to herself and "Wife 2" next to the mystery blonde. Making the mix-up even
more noteworthy was the fact that they not only knew each other but that they're real-life BFFs.
Turns out her name is Ali Chapas and she and Kelly were high school best friends.
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