Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was recently placed by the NFL on its COVID-IR list. However, it turned out to be a mere false alarm after his testing sequences for the pre-entry period appeared to be negative, negative, false positive – then the next three tests were all negative. The Lions eventually excluded his name from the dreaded list.
The Pro Bowler's wife Kelly Stafford voiced her disappointment on a lengthy Instagram post:
“I have been losing my mind because of how my family has been treated since my husband was put on COVID-IR.”
“Even after we knew it was false positive, our school told us they were not allowed back, I was approached in a grocery store and told I was ‘endangering others,’ my kids were harassed and kicked off a playground, I was told I needed to wait in my car when trying to pick up food, and people closest to us had to get tested just so they could go back to work.. and that's just to name a few things,” she said. “I don't blame these scenarios on any of the people directly involved.. I understand where they are coming from, but I do blame the @NFL. I blame the @NFL for not holding themselves accountable. These are people's lives and livelihoods that are in those results in THEIR test sites. Maybe we should be absolutely positive a person has covid before releasing that info to the world.”
After having a superb collegiate career playing for the Georgia Bulldogs, Stafford became the top overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. He has been the starting quarterback since then and has never looked back.
Despite several years now at the helm, his 2019 campaign didn't turn out the way he wanted it to be due to an injury. On November 10, Matthew Stafford missed his first game since 2010 thereby ending his long streak of 136 consecutive regular-season starts. He was eventually diagnosed with non-displaced fractures in his spine which limited him to appear in only 8 games last season.
His significant absence eventually led to a disappointing 3-12 record for the Lions. Now that he has already fully recovered from his injury, he is looking forward to providing stability for his team's offense and contributing to more wins in 2020.
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