Subscribe
Follow Us
Matthew Stafford is a really tough guy, and the new Los Angeles Rams quarterback detailed all the injuries he played through in 2020 with the Detroit Lions in a recent interview with Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press.
It's truly a laundry list of maladies:
“I mean, this past year was bad,” Matthew Stafford admits. “I had the partially torn UCL in my right thumb, I tore my UCL on my left elbow on the second to last play of the Houston game that nobody knew about, trying to stiff arm a guy. That's why I started wearing a sleeve on my left arm because I had all sorts of tape underneath it, just to hold it in place.
“I broke my cartilage on my eighth rib in Green Bay. I also tore something (in the back of) my left knee. And then I had a subtalar, right ankle sprain.”
Ouch.
Despite all of this and the Lions' poor record, Matthew Stafford started all 16 games this past season. He could have easily mailed it in once it was clear Detroit wasn't going to make the playoffs, but he didn't want to give up on his teammates or the franchise in general.
Stafford truly “gave this team every damn thing” he had, which is likely why the Lion were so accommodating when he went to management to ask for a trade. He poured his heart into a franchise that didn't really reward him with wins, playing through these injuries almost no matter what.
The 33-year-old will now take this toughness to the Rams, where they're hoping he'll be a better option than Jared Goff. Rams fans should appreciate Matthew Stafford's willingness to play through pain, and he's still a pretty darn good quarterback as well. He threw for 4,084 yards and 26 touchdowns to 10 interceptions in 2010.
