The Los Angeles Rams are counting on Matthew Stafford to lead them for at least one more season, but apparently the veteran quarterback is finding it a bit difficult to do that as Week 1 quickly approaches.
During the latest episode of her “The Morning After with Kelly Stafford” podcast, Stafford’s wife Kelly spoke about some issues her husband has been having with the Rams’ roster. Kelly said Matthew is struggling to connect with rookies and young players because they are always on their phones.
“They have a lot of rookies on their team, they’re very young,” Kelly Stafford said, as transcribed by Kenneth Arthur of Turf Show Times. “But he’s like, ‘I feel like I can’t connect.’ In the old days you’d come out of practice, you’d shower, and people would be playing cards, interacting. Who knows what they’re doing but they’re doing something together. Playing ping pong, they have a tournament going on. They’d at least be talking.
“But now they get out of practice, and meetings during training camp, and they go straight to their phones. No one looks up from their phones. Matthew’s like, ‘I don’t know, am I the dad? Do I take their phones? What do I do here?’”
Kelly said Matthew is having such a difficult time getting to know the younger players in L.A. that he had an equipment staffer print out a book with all of the younger players’ faces and names.
“I think Matthew feels it the most because he’s so old and like a leader on the team,” she added. “But he’s like, ‘I don’t know how to lead people I have no connection with. I have to somehow find a way to connect with them.’”
If Stafford is having that problem, you can bet a lot of other veteran players around the NFL are as well. One of the more underrated qualities that legendary quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning possessed was their ability to connect with young teammates even late in their careers. It sounds as though Stafford feels technology has made that much more challenging.
There were rumors this offseason that the Rams tried to trade Stafford, but head coach Sean McVay recently had a strong response to those. The Rams still believe Stafford can play at a high level. The 35-year-old just might have to find a way to connect with his teammates on TikTok in order to accomplish that.
