When the Detroit Lions selected Matthew Stafford with the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the hope was that he would lead them to multiple playoff wins and even a Super Bowl.
Unfortunately, that was not the case as Stafford was the quarterback of the Lions for 12 seasons without winning a single playoff game.
Now Stafford is moving on with his career as he will be traded to the Los Angeles Rams as soon as the new NFL league year begins in March. But before leaving town, Stafford spoke to Detroit Free Press writer Mitch Albom and revealed his best wins and his worst losses as a Detroit Lion.
From Detroit Free Press:
What was the worst Lions’ loss for you?
The worst losses are the playoff losses, just because the immediacy of the season ending. You feel like you’re every time you get in, you had a chance to go win it.
And the best win?
There were some good ones, some fun ones. Beating Oakland in 2011, on the road, down 13, seven minutes left after I just fumbled and the No. 2 pick from my NFL draft year recovered it for Raiders touchdown. I’ll never forget Ben Graham, our punter from Australia that year, came up to me with that great accent and said, “If anybody in this damn world can do it, you can.” It kind of got me going and we went 71 yards on that drive and I think 98 on the next one to win it. And that gave us a chance at the playoffs.
And the next week we played San Diego at home. Philip Rivers. Antonio Gates. If we beat them, we were going to go to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. It was Christmas Eve and we won that game at home. Clinching the playoff berth in front of our home fans was a really cool experience.
It really is sad that a quarterback as talented as Matthew Stafford does not have a single playoff win to speak of in 12 seasons. Hopefully, he gets a few with the Rams…as long as it does not come at the expense of the Lions!
