AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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The NFL has turned to a big gun in the social justice game to defend itself from the attacks of Brian Flores and his attorneys. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:
The NFL faces a significant and historic lawsuit from former Dolphins coach Brian Flores. It has hired a former United States Attorney General to represent its interests.
Via Victor J. Blue of BloombergLaw.com, Lorretta Lynch will represent the league, along with Brad Karp. They work with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
The Dolphins and majority owner Stephen Ross will be represented by William Burck of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Per the repot, minority owner Bruce Beal has hired his own counsel for the proceedings; he hold a right of first refusal on the equity owned by Ross. If the allegations that Ross offered Flores $100,000 per loss in 2019 as part of a tanking effort force Ross to sell, Beal would presumably step in.
The Broncos and Giants also have been sued. They presumably will have their own lawyers, too. As reported during the Super Bowl pregame show on NBC, the Texans will eventually be joined as a defendant, under the argument that they failed to hire Flores in retaliation for the lawsuit he filed 15 days ago. Once the Texans are joined, they’ll likely also hire their own counsel.
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NFC NORTH
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DETROIT
This:
@HonoluluBlues_·
Did the 2014 Detroit Lions have 3 future Hall of Famers on the team?
Calvin Johnson
Matthew Stafford
Ndamukong Suh
Actually that would be the 2010 to 2014 Lions.
And for two years, ’13 and ’14, the Lions had CB DARIUS SLAY. We’re seeing a lot of favorable comparisons for him to CB Richard Sherman.
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GREEN BAY
QB AARON RODGERS is once again a free agent in the game of love. This from Nicole Auerbach:
@NicoleAuerbach
Aaron Rodgers, still searching for that second ring
TMZ.com with the details:
It’s over between Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley — the power couple has called off their engagement after less than 2 years together.
The 38-year-old NFL MVP and actress, 30, have reportedly ended things for good … months after they were rumored to have split
The couple started seeing each other shortly after the quarterback’s split from racing superstar Danica Patrick in July 2020 … and their engagement was announced in Feb. 2021.
Rodgers credited the personal update with being one of the biggest highlights of his year.
Rodgers and Woodley were inseparable for months … packing on PDA during trips to Disneyland and Mexico.
Things got so serious between the two, Rodgers said in an interview in March 2021 he was looking forward to parenthood with Woodley.
“I just think it’d be so fun,” Rodgers said at the time. “I’ve dreamt about what that would be like and I’m really excited about that chapter whenever that comes.”
Woodley was nothing but supportive of Rodgers as he faced criticism during his COVID-19 vaccine drama back in November … but talks of a split escalated back in December.
Word is Rodgers was getting “cold feet” and prioritized his football career … with the report adding Woodley felt “neglected” during the relationship.
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MINNESOTA
Kevin O’Connell is formally announced, if not yet presented, as the coach of the Vikings. Eric Edholm of YahooSports.com:
The Minnesota Vikings officially announced the hiring of Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell as the team’s next head coach.
The move was roundly expected, but it officially put to bed any speculation that O’Connell might stay in Los Angeles. Rams head coach Sean McVay’s unclear future at least opened the possibility of O’Connell pulling an about face.
Instead, he’ll become the 10th head coach in franchise history and will be introduced on Thursday. The Vikings were believed to have agreed to terms with O’Connell prior to the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory because of league rules on the matter.
A first-time head coach, the 36-year-old O’Connell will replace Mike Zimmer, who was fired after eight seasons in Minnesota.
The Vikings had interviewed four finalists for the job, along with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, former New York Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and O’Connell. Harbaugh was believed to be offered the job and close to accepting before announcing his return to Michigan.
Vikings co-owner and president Mark Wilf said in a statement that O’Connell is “a strong leader, an innovative coach and an excellent communicator.”
Added Vikings co-owner and chairman Zygi Wilf: “Beyond the Xs and Os, everyone we spoke with throughout this search process spoke highly of Kevin’s ability to motivate players, coaches and staff.”
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
ESPN.com has a long story, detailing allegations against longtime Cowboys PR executive Rich Dalrymple from 2015. Here is the shortened version from Mike Florio ofProFootballTalk.com:
Why is the NFL keeping the results of the Washington investigation so secret? Because other owners fear that they could find themselves in a similar mess.
Case in point — the Dallas Cowboys. While owner Jerry Jones faces no specific allegations against him (for now), a new report from Don Van Natta, Jr. of ESPN.com contends that the team owned and operated by Jones paid $2.4 million to settle claims made by four members of the team’s cheerleading squad. They claimed that former P.R. executive Rich Dalrymple secretly recorded them with an iPhone while they changed clothes in connection with a 2015 event at AT&T Stadium.
Dalrymple, per the report, also was accused by a fan who watched an online stream from the team’s draft room in 2015 of taking “upskirt” photos of Charlotte Jones Anderson, the daughter of Jerry Jones and an executive with the Cowboys.
“People who know me, co-workers, the media and colleagues, know who I am and what I’m about,” Dalrymple said in a statement issued to ESPN.com. “I understand the very serious nature of these claims and do not take them lightly. The accusations are, however, false. One was accidental and the other simply did not happen. Everything that was alleged was thoroughly investigated years ago, and I cooperated fully.”
The team issued a statement to ESPN.com as well, from communications consultant Jim Wilkinson.
“The organization took these allegations extremely seriously and moved immediately to thoroughly investigate this matter,” Wilkinson said. “The investigation was handled consistent with best legal and HR practices and the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. . . . If any wrongdoing had been found, Rich would have been terminated immediately. Everyone involved felt just terrible about this unfortunate incident.”
But, obviously, enough of something was found to result in $2.4 million changing hands. The money was paid pursuant to non-disclosure agreements. And someone disclosed at least one of the agreements; Van Natta obtained it.
Dalrymple recently retired. Van Natta writes that the move came “several weeks after ESPN began interviewing people about the alleged incidents and just days after ESPN contacted attorneys involved in the settlement.” Dalrymple, in his statement, said that the allegations “had nothing to do with my retirement from a long and fulfilling career, and I was only contacted about this story after I had retired.”
We’ll see whether and to what extent this mushrooms for the Cowboys. The timeline is curious, to say the least. And with Congress currently pressuring the league over the Washington Commanders situation, it could be a matter of time before the House Committee on Oversight & Reform targets the Cowboys, too.
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NFC SOUTH
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ATLANTA
The 3rd overall pick of the 2015 draft is once again on the street. Michael Rothstein ofESPN.com:
The Atlanta Falcons released Dante Fowler Jr. on Wednesday, moving on from the outside linebacker with one year left on his contract.
Fowler had taken a pay cut entering the 2021 season as part of a reconfigured contract and then failed to hit any of the incentives that were placed in the deal, playing in 14 games — starting six — and finishing with 4.5 sacks.
The 27-year-old had incentive markers in his contract — $1 million bonuses starting at five sacks. As part of the reworked contract entering 2021, it meant his cap hit would be more than $29 million — something that likely would have been untenable for Atlanta.
Now, instead of figuring that out, the team released him after two seasons with the club in which he played a combined 28 games, starting 19 of them and registering 59 tackles and 7.5 sacks. By the end of the season, Fowler’s playing time had become inconsistent. In some games he would play more than 50% of the snaps; in others he’d play under 40%.
Fowler led the Falcons with 4.5 sacks, but Atlanta was last in the NFL in sacks with 18.
In 2021, he had more than one quarterback hit in a game only once — Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he had a sack and a forced fumble. After a knee injury knocked him out of three games in late October and early November, Fowler started only one other game — at the Carolina Panthers — registering a sack and a season-high three solo tackles.
It was the last sack he’d have with the Falcons.
“Dante, like a lot of our guys, gives everything he’s got,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said in January. “He’s a tough football player and fun to get to know him, to work with him.”
Cutting Fowler will leave the Falcons with $4,666,668 in dead money for 2022 on their books but will free the club from the majority of an inflated deal.
The No. 3 overall pick out of Florida by Jacksonville in the 2015 draft, Fowler has played in 91 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Los Angeles Rams and the Falcons, starting 40 of them. His most productive season was with the Rams in 2019, when he had 11.5 sacks — the only time in his career he hit double-digit sacks.
Releasing Fowler means the Falcons have only Ade Ogundeji, James Vaughters and John Cominsky on the 2022 roster as far as outside linebacker contributors last season.
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NFC WEST
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LOS ANGELES RAMS
With dozens of Rams fans cheering them on, both Coach Sean McVay and DT AARON DONALD seem to be saying they are on-board for a title defense – if “run it back” means “do it again.” Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
Despite talk that coach Sean McVay and superstar defensive lineman Aaron Donald could both retire off their Super Bowl championship, both men said they plan to “run it back” in 2022.
McVay was chanting “Run it back! Run it back!” as Rams fans cheered. He then turned to Donald, and encouraged him to address the fans.
“We built a super team. We’re gonna bring a super team back! Why not run it back? We can be world champions again,” Donald said.
Although it’s always possible that McVay and Donald could make an announcement during the offseason that they won’t be back, they both certainly seemed enthusiastic about the possibility that they will be back with the Rams for the 2022 season — and back in the Super Bowl a year from now.
COO Kevin Demhoff heard it that way. Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:
Later, Rams COO Kevin Demoff met with beat reporters and was asked about McVay’s future.
“You saw Sean on stage today. He’s ready to go defend our title,” Demoff said, via multiple reports.
McVay, 36, is 55-26 in the regular season and 7-3 in the postseason in his five seasons with the Rams. The team has won two NFC championships in the past four seasons.
He acknowledged Monday that winning a title makes it easier to hang up his whistle. That followed a report that ESPN would pursue McVay for Monday Night Football if he decides to leave coaching.
While basking in the franchise’s championship Wednesday, though, McVay sounded as if he is ready to try to help the Rams become the first team to repeat since the 2004 Patriots.
– – –
We saw this nugget:
@JKBOGEN
It appears that Matthew Stafford is indeed the only QB in NFL history to throw for 6,000 yards, 50 touchdowns and win a Super Bowl in a full season (including playoffs).
In case you were wondering, there are six extended seasons where someone threw for 6,000 yards, and seven more where the passer was within 300 yards of 6,000. Stafford is the only one who played 21 games, but as you look at the table below, an extra game played wouldn’t have added very many people to the list.
Three others have had the 6,000/50 TD threshold without winning the SB.
Two besides Stafford – Ryan in 2017 and Mahomes in 2021 – could have gotten to 6,000/50 with one more regular season game.
Surprisingly, it is ELI Manning in 2011 who is the only other QB with the 6,000 yards passing and Super Bowl win double.
Yards TDs Games
Drew Brees 2011 6404 53 18
Peyton Manning 2013 6387 60 19
Eli Manning 2011 6152 38 20
Tom Brady 2011 6113 47 19
Dan Marino 1984 6085 56 19
Matthew Stafford 2021 6074 50 21
Matt Ryan 2016 5958 47 19
Tom Brady 2021 5916 46 19
Patrick Mahomes 2021 5896 48 20
Kurt Warner 2008 5730 41 20
Drew Brees 2013 5721 41 18
Joe Burrow 2021 5716 39 20
Tom Brady 2017 5709 40 19
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AFC NORTH
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CINCINNATI
The Bengals have given Coach Zac Taylor a four-year extension in the aftermath of 2021. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
A Super Bowl appearance warranted a new contract for Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor.
The team announced Wednesday they signed Taylor to a contract extension through the 2026 season.
“Zac has come into the league and worked to develop the foundations for a winning program that can be successful over time,” Bengals president Mike Brown said in a statement. “The fruits of Zac’s efforts were seen this year, and Zac is well-regarded by our players and coaches. I know the effort and passion Zac brings to the building and to our team, and I am pleased by his approach. And I think the city of Cincinnati sees him the way the players and I do. He’s brought excitement to the town and deserves credit and recognition for that.”
Taylor had one year left on his original contract signed in 2019.
After a wobbly start to his coaching career, which saw the Bengals go 6-25-1 in Taylor’s first two seasons, Cincy took off in 2021. Taylor led his team to a 10-7 record and its first AFC North title since 2015. The Bengals finally got over the playoff hump, earning their first postseason victory in 31 years en route to a Super Bowl LVI appearance.
Losing the Lombardi Trophy to the Los Angeles Rams stings, but the building blocks are in place for Cincinnati to remain a contender for years to come.
Last year at this time, Taylor was on the hot seat. Now he has a deserved fat new contract.
Give Taylor credit for explaining why RB SAMAJE PERRINE packed the mail on the most critical play of the season. Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
On Samaje Perine carrying the ball on third-and one in the last drive and not Joe Mixon:
“We were in 2-minute mode and Samaje has done a great job. His role has really been as a protecting back and a lot of the things that come with that, off of that. It’s one of those situations where I called the play a little later on the clock. And so, I was the one that said leave him in there. Justin Hill, our running backs coach, asked if we wanted to make a change. I said, just leave Samaje in there.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out for us. Whether Joe is in there or not, he’s certainly deserving of the opportunity in a key moment in a key game to try to get it for us as our featured back. But again, that’s just one of the decisions you make in the moment and you’ve got to move forward with it. There’s other things I certainly could have done over the course of the game that would have put us in a better position. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done.”
One could see that sending in Mixon in that package would have provided a clue to the Rams that it was going to be a run when the element of surprise might have been what the Bengas were seeking to make the play work.
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AFC SOUTH
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HOUSTON
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com hears that the Buccaneers and Vikings are now on the dance card of QB DESHAUN WATSON:
The Texans quarterback, who spent the 2021 season on the team’s active roster but did not play, has begun evaluating potential fits for his services in 2022, with the Buccaneers and Vikings among teams on his radar.
One source noted that Watson — who has a no-trade clause — is still early in the evaluation process, but he’s looking for the right blend of offensive system, coaching, talent and, most importantly, the chance to win.
Watson preferred the Dolphins before last November’s trade deadline, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, but talks didn’t result in a deal, and Miami appears committed to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa playing under new coach Mike McDaniel.
Watson is the defendant in 22 civil cases filed by women in four states alleging sexual assault or inappropriate behavior during massage sessions. His legal issues remain unresolved, and whether the league suspends him under the personal conduct policy is uncertain. The expectation leaguewide, however, is that the Texans will once again explore trade options for Watson, possibly around the start of the new league year March 16 or the NFL draft in late April.
The Buccaneers will exhaust all options to resolve their quarterback situation after the retirement of Tom Brady, per sources. The goal is to maximize the championship window instead of rebuild. Second-round pick Kyle Trask and veteran Blaine Gabbert remain in the fold, but big-name quarterbacks such as Watson or Russell Wilson could be options Tampa Bay at least explores.
The Vikings have intriguing young pieces in Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook, and they face a decision on the contract of Kirk Cousins, a 2023 free agent who has a $45 million cap hit in 2022. New coach Kevin O’Connell, however, conveyed a strong belief in Cousins during his interview process with Minnesota, relaying a vision for maximizing his skill set.
The 26-year-old Watson first requested a trade in January 2021 because of issues with the Houston franchise. He has four years left on a deal that pays $35 million in base salary in 2022. The Houston Police Department is investigating complaints against Watson by 10 women. Depositions have begun, but Watson cannot be deposed before Feb. 22.
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INDIANAPOLIS
Peter King on further confirmation that QB CARSON WENTZ is one and done in Indianapolis:
My first reaction when I heard Chris Mortensen’s report that the Colts would try to trade Wentz in the next month: There’s something bubbling beneath the surface here. Wentz failed down the stretch for Indianapolis, but the play itself (middling .624 accuracy rate, 27 TDs, seven picks, 94.7 rating) wasn’t bad enough for the Colts and coach/mentor Frank Reich to give up on a player they spent first- and third-round picks to acquire.
A couple of things to consider here. Late in his Eagles’ tenure, Wentz did some immature things—got ticked off about the team drafting Jalen Hurts in the second round in 2020, reportedly stopped talking to coach Doug Pederson for a period. He got benched for poor play down the stretch of the season, leading to his trade to Indy. Reich loved him in Philadelphia. My guess is something happened here, something other than a 9-8 record, that led to this moment. Attitude, an incident, work ethic, loss of trust. Something. I don’t know what.
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AFC EAST
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MIAMI
Peter King says the allegations that Stephen Ross wanted to play to lose are the most viral part of the suit of Brian Flores:
Focus from the people I talked to here was mostly on the charge by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores that owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per game in 2019 to lose, so as to earn a better draft position to take the best quarterback they could. Ross vehemently denied the charge. We’ll see where it goes. One club president told me, “The league will not be wishy-washy on this. I haven’t talked to anyone who isn’t extremely upset over this, even though we don’t know if it’s true or false. I feel sure it’s going to be investigated independently and thoroughly.” That’s a certainty. The Flores suit could delay the investigation, seeing as though the accusation is a material part of his case.
The DB is not exactly sure why the purported desires of Ross – and perhaps his subsequent falling out with Flores because the coach won too much – fall into a lawsuit that is focused on the failure of NFL teams to hire minority coaches.
It may be a legal action of some sort with damages for Flores. But we remain perplexed as to how this ties into some sort of cause of action across the NFL as a league, rather than between two individuals who had a contractual relationship.
It sounds serious, unethical and unsavory. But it is unclear why the racial makeup of Flores is in any way related to it.
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THIS AND THAT
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MATTHEW STAFFORD AND THE HALL OF FAME DEBATE
As it is for about six other QBs, the is he worthy of the Hall of Fame debate for MATTHEW STAFFORD is both stupid and interesting.
It is stupid because, the debate is often framed as yes or no, when in reality it becomes is he among the five players most worthy of enshrinement in a particular year against a field of other players? And if he doesn’t make it in 2031, on it rolls until 2032.
Now one can make a list of the pending QBs and rank them as to who you would vote for first. Here is such a list from Kevin Cole of ProFootballFocus:
@KevinColePFFMy not currently in the Hall of Fame QB worthiness rankings:
Brady
Brees
Rodgers
Roethlisberger
Rivers
Wilson
Ryan
Mahomes
Romo
Stafford
Eli
Now, we can quibble about the list – if PATRICK MAHOMES did nothing else is he a Hall of Famer yet? Probably not.
Take the others and do your own list. With nothing else accomplished the DB would proably be Eli, Ryan, Wilson, Stafford, Romo.
Someday, the first four will be in and Wilson, Ryan, Romo, Stafford and Eli might all be up for consideration – against other worthies like J.J. Watt and Aaron Donald and Travis Kelce. And the voters will have to decide.
And if they vote in that specific year for Wilson, that doesn’t mean the others are a “no.”
Has Matthew Stafford helped himself in 2020 – of course he has? Can someone now like him more than his friend Matt Ryan? Sure.
Instead of waiting 10 years, he now might wait five. But it is not a “yes or no” until his final year of eligibility.
But let’s see what others are saying. Scooby Axson of USA TODAY:
Now that Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has that elusive Super Bowl championship, cue the talk about his Pro Football Hall of Fame chances.
No sooner than the clock struck triple zeroes at SoFi Stadium after the Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20, the talk about whether Stafford belongs in Canton started.
It began early Monday morning when analysts from both the NFL Network and ESPN decided whether Stafford had done enough to get a gold jacket.
“Yes he’s a gold jacket, ABSOLUTELY. The ultimate team goal, to win a Lombardi, Matthew Stafford actually has, and he was a huge part of winning this Super Bowl,” said former NFL fullback Michael Robinson.
Former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who was Stafford’s teammate with the Detroit Lions, even wore a T-shirt on air during ESPN’s “Get Up” that said “Matthew Freakin’ Stafford.”
Orlovsky came up with this rationale for Stafford’s potential induction: “I honestly believe it’s one of, if not the most clutch stretch of postseason performances by a QB EVER!”
But cornerback Richard Sherman, who won a Super Bowl title with the Seattle Seahawks and is a three-time All-Pro, said not so fast.
“There is no measuring stick that makes Stafford a hall of famer other than playing in the most passer happy decade in NFL history,” Sherman said on social media. “Inflated numbers make ever QB that starts 10+ years a “hof”
Sherman noted that Stafford has made one Pro Bowl, has not been named an All-Pro and has never won MVP.
Stafford, 34, has a career record of 86-95-1 as a starting quarterback with 49,995 yards with 323 touchdowns and 161 interceptions.
Alex Kirshner of Slate.com:
The trouble here is that Stafford’s career is poorly suited for traditional evaluation. He’s spent most of his NFL tenure in a no-win situation with the Detroit Lions, who took him with the first draft pick in 2009, got a decade of mostly quality play out of him, and never supplemented their roster enough to give him a championship shot (or even a playoff shot most of the time). Stafford was not entirely helpless in these years, as he did have all-time-great receiver Calvin Johnson from his rookie year through 2015. But both of them had few chances to win big, and Stafford had to muddle along in a golden era of QBs, all of whom had better supporting casts. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning ruled the league, while Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and Philip Rivers made playoff appearance after playoff appearance. The Hall of Fame has little room for QBs without playoff résumés to speak of, and Stafford played only three postseason games (all losses) in his 12 years in Detroit. It did not help that the franchise fired his lone successful head coach, Jim Caldwell, after three winning seasons in four years. The Rams, conversely, traded for Stafford and won it all in his first year in L.A. with a roster that was built to win immediately at any cost.
Stafford’s triumph points to two issues with how the media and the public assess quarterbacks. For one, we base a lot of our assessments on factors only somewhat within the QB’s control. For another, we take a wide view of their careers when, sometimes, tunnel vision gives us a more useful picture.
Even now, no one would argue that Stafford is the best quarterback in the NFL. But it’s not wrong to say that, at his best this season, he operated at the position’s peak. The Rams’ game-winning drive against the Cincinnati Bengals turned on a few key plays. One of them was Stafford’s no-look completion to his record-breaking wideout, Cooper Kupp. Stafford used his eyes to con the Bengals’ Vonn Bell, leaving the safety helplessly late.
There are only a few people on Earth who can do that, and Stafford pulled it out of his bag in the biggest moment of his career. He and Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP, connected for the game-winning touchdown a few plays later, capping a year in which the two of them worked in tandem on a higher plane than arguably any QB-receiver duo ever. The Rams’ divisional round win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came down to the two of them connecting on a deep route that Stafford until he noticed a hole in the Bucs’ defense mid-play. Their connections all season were a product not just of athleticism but of Stafford and Kupp processing defenses at an absurd rate even by NFL standards, like on this play:
Stafford finished the regular season fourth in ESPN’s Total QBR, behind only Rodgers, Brady, and Justin Herbert, a second-year QB who many think could join those two in Canton one day. Stafford finished ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, at least one of whom if not both will be there eventually, too. At least for a year, Stafford showed that, given a non-Lions roster, he has the stuff to hang with legends.
He’s always been a talent. Before playing his college football at Georgia, he was one of the most touted recruits ever. He was a No. 1 overall draft pick. But for the first 12 seasons of his career, it was hard for him to show what he could do. Even now, he’s thrown a majority of his career passes while trailing, and his career record is 86-95-1. The simplest reason Stafford doesn’t have much of a Hall of Fame case is that the Hall of Fame is light on quarterbacks who lose more games than they win. On a better team, he’d have a much better case, whether that’d be enough to get him over the hump or not.
You might argue that the greatest quarterbacks lift their teams up, and that Stafford’s inability to carry the Lions is a strike against him. But Stafford is an outlier in how much his team failed him. From 2009 through 2020, 16 quarterbacks started at least 50 games and posted a losing record. Stafford played more games than any of them and was (along with Kirk Cousins, Colin Kaepernick, and Derek Carr) at the top of just about every statistical category for that group. His peers among losing QBs all played for regular, reasonably functional NFL franchises, at least once Cousins exited Washington for Minnesota. Stafford, on one of the worst teams in the NFL run by one of the least competent front offices in the league, routinely outperformed Eli Manning, who had a nearly identical sub-.500 record in those years but sprinkled in two Cinderella Super Bowl runs.
If Stafford can win another Super Bowl—and at 34, he might have a few more chances—he’ll have a straightforward route to Canton. But should he need it? Is it productive to evaluate athletes on championships won, even when they’ve already won one? Some people call the obsession with championships “rings culture,” and it’s a big deal not just in the NFL, but in the NBA. Hockey does the same thing with Stanley Cups. On the one hand, every athlete plays to win things. On the other hand, there are much more compelling ways to think about Stafford than to spend hours pushing and pulling over how much he deserves to be graded on a curve because he spent so much time as a Lion. You could learn more about Stafford’s ability by watching a replay of Sunday’s win than by watching hundreds of his passes in Detroit. If that’s irrelevant to the Hall of Fame discussion, fine, but in that case why should we care about that discussion at all?
Halls of fame are not designed to commemorate great moments or even great talent. They are built to memorialize careers, to be monuments to the durable excellence of players who delivered over the long haul. That’s all fine and worth celebrating, but it means that great seasons, even statistically historic ones, run the risk of falling through the cracks. Stafford’s connection with Kupp in 2021 was more prolific than anything two players have ever conjured. His no-look pass in the Super Bowl was an iconic play. His aggressive, sometimes sloppy playing style was fun chaos. Throwing 17 interceptions in a regular season and finding a way to work around them and still win a Super Bowl, as Stafford did, is awesome. (Only one QB, Eli Manning with 20 in 2007, threw more picks in a Super Bowl–winning season this century.)
I wish there could be a “2021 Matthew Stafford” bust that bronzed this single amazing year. In this version of the Hall, maybe Joe Montana would have 10 of them. But this is not the way sports world deification works. This way of doing business paints over incredible achievements if the player who made them can’t replicate them. It makes for apples-to-oranges comparisons between players in dramatically different circumstances. But that’s the point, I suppose: Unknowable debates are how a lot of people in sports pay the bills, and few things are harder to know than how many Super Bowls Stafford and Ben Roethlisberger would’ve won if they got drafted by the Steelers and Lions respectively.
Such as it is now, Stafford will not get the immortality that comes with the Hall of Fame. Instead, he’ll get a different kind: the type that comes from people watching that no-look pass over and over again, and being surprised over and over at how cool it was. Maybe that isn’t a more valuable currency than a bust in Canton, but maybe it should be.
This from Sam Monson of ProFootballFocus.com:
@PFF_Sam
I’d be in support of a HoF standard that excluded ALL of Stafford, Big Ben, Eli Manning, Rivers, Romo and Matt Ryan.
The issue is that the standard has already been set lower than that, which makes it inherently unfair to start drawing the line there right now.
Wife, Kelly Stafford with the final word:
“Can yall just let him enjoy this?! It went from Matthew can’t win, to Matthew can’t win against winning teams, to Matthew can’t win big games, to Matthew can’t win playoff games, to Matthew can’t win it all. And now…the debate on the HOF? We shouldn’t be talking about the HOF because he isn’t done playing this game. If you don’t believe he is a HOFer…I can’t wait for him to prove you wrong in his remaining years!”
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