Matthew Stafford knows what he’s walking into when he returns to Ford Field as an opponent Sunday.
The Rams quarterback, who spent 12 seasons with the Lions before being traded to Los Angeles, said he wants to “smell” the boos from fans at their season opener in Detroit — where the Rams also fell to the Lions in a January wild-card loss.
“I want to hear all of it,” Stafford said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I want to smell it. I want it to feel like it’s football. That’s part of football, especially going to an away game. That stuff just motivates me.”
“I feel the crowd 100 percent. Motivating factor. Love it.”
Stafford, whose wife Kelly said she won’t return to Ford Field after their four daughters were subjected to boos at the wild-card game, is more prepared to handle the hostile environment in his second game back at Ford Field.
“I’m going to obviously be one more game comfortable being an opponent in that field than I was, I guess, last year,” he said.
Stafford, who went 25-of-36 for 367 yards with two touchdowns in the Rams’ playoff loss, was booed when he took the field in January.
When asked if there is a benefit for returning to the site of his last game of the 2023 season, he explained, “Each game we play, no matter where it is or when it is, is its own singular event.
“Just because something happened a year ago doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again — good, bad or indifferent.”
The Lions, who selected the quarterback out of Georgia with the first overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, traded the two-time pro Bowler to the Rams in a blockbuster deal for Jared Goff in 2021.
Both teams enter the season with high expectations in the NFC.
The Lions are among the Super Bowl favorites, while the Rams are looking to build on a 10-7 season when most expected them to be rebuilding.
Stafford’s comments came after Kelly explained in a recent installment of her “The Morning After” podcast, that she won’t be at Sunday’s game to kick off his 16th NFL season.
“Physically, I am not [attending the game in Detroit],” Kelly said. “After our amazing, amazing live show [on Sept. 7 in Detroit], I’m going to hop on a plane and head home so I can watch it with my daughters here [in L.A.], so that’s the plan.”
Kelly explained that she’s not attending the season opener “for my mental health” after her last visit with their daughters — 7-year-old twins Sawyer and Chandler, 6-year-old Hunter and 4-year-old Tyler — didn’t go well.
“I actually asked them if they wanted to go back … and they said, ‘No.’ So, that is another reason we won’t be returning for the game,” Kelly said on the podcast. “…There’s a lot that goes into it … but I just think it’s the better decision for my mental health and for my daughters.
“My husband doesn’t want to have to hear me be, ‘Ugh,’ upset. Not that I think I would be because I also grew in that experience too. You forget that this is football and this is a huge deal in Detroit. I forgot that and I was so emotionally involved that I also forgot this is a playoff football game.
“I think I would be better at also preparing my daughters in a way but I just don’t think it’s worth it at this point … So, it’s just better this way.”