Perhaps the most critical move the Los Angeles Rams made that determined their fate in the 2021 NFL season was the trade they pulled off that landed them Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. In exchange, the Lions got Jared Goff and some picks. There's no question who won that trade, as Sean McVay and the Rams have brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Hollywood. And it could also now be told that McVay's NSFW rant was a chief reason why the Rams' front office pulled the trigger on the said trade.
They met for drinks poolside, talking football. A bond forged over sun and booze. McVay returned to his hotel and, “a few tequilas in,” he says now, hopped on a FaceTime with Rams brass, unleashing a plea that's now legendary around the team's office. “Here's the f—ing deal, OK? We can sit here and exist, and be OK winning nine to 11 games, and losing in the f—ing divisional round and feel like, ‘Oh, everything's OK.' Or, we could let our motherf—ing nuts hang, and go trade for this f—ing quarterback, and give ourselves a chance to go win a f—ing world championship. You ready to f—ing do this or what?”
Sean McVay had been to the Super Bowl as a head coach before Matthew Stafford came to town, but they famously lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at Super Bowl 53 in which the Pats' defense perfectly neutralized what was then a high-octane, seemingly unstoppable attack.
The Rams would not be stopped in their next try. Armed with a better quarterback in Stafford and still steered by the great mind of Sean McVay, the Rams eked out a 23-20 victory over the Bengals, thus ensuring that the decision to go for Stafford will go down as one of the greatest trades ever made in the NFL.
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