Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford spent the majority of his NFL career hearing cheers from Detroit Lions fans. Those cheers turned into jeers on Sunday night.
Stafford ran out of the tunnel at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. to a chorus of boos from the Lions faithful ahead of the NFC Wild Card playoff game between the teams on Sunday night.
Warm welcome for Stafford 😏 #SuperWildCard
📺: #LARvsDET — 8pm ET on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/xZTK9nbane— NFL (@NFL) January 15, 2024
Big boos from the Detroit faithful as Matthew Stafford takes the field: pic.twitter.com/M5UUk0GyYa
— Kyle Yates (@thekyleyates) January 15, 2024
Stafford’s greeting could not have been more different from the one Jared Goff received. The current Lions QB heard his name being chanted from all sides of the stadium.
A friend just sent me this video from Ford Field…
🗣DETROIT IS READY #BNL pic.twitter.com/bLvQTuittW
— Evan Fox (@evanfoxy) January 15, 2024
The two quarterbacks will forever be linked by the 2021 Rams-Lions trade that swapped one for the other. Stafford went to the Rams and won a Super Bowl after more than a decade of postseason futility in Detroit.
Matthew Stafford makes his return to Detroit, taking in Ford Field. pic.twitter.com/0Lbb26SAhv
— Jeanna Trotman (@JeannaTrotmanTV) January 14, 2024
This season, Goff was able to give Lions fans something that Stafford never did in his 12 seasons with the team — a home playoff game. Stafford’s first game back at Ford Field since the trade just so happened to be the first Lions postseason contest on home soil in three decades.
Under different circumstances, Stafford might have been afforded a more pleasant welcome in his return. But Lions fans had no plans of making an opposing quarterback feel comfortable in a playoff game — even one they used to cheer for.
