Over his 12 years with the Detroit Lions, Matthew Stafford failed to win a single playoff game despite posting gaudy numbers for much of that stretch. Now, in his first season with the Los Angeles Rams, Stafford is only 60 minutes away from a Super Bowl victory.
Some Lions fans – who haven’t seen their team reach an NFL Championship Game since 1957 – seem to be riding the Stafford bandwagon.
A Detroit sports memorabilia store began selling “Detroit Rams” gear before Los Angeles battles the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday. The gear features Detroit’s signature Honolulu blue with a logo of a lion’s body and a ram’s head.
While the gear is reportedly “flying off the shelves,” Detroiters aren’t universally embracing it. Former Lions guard T.J. Lang tweeted fans should be “embarrassed” to take part.
The Lions’ No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, Stafford left Detroit as the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards (45,109) and touchdowns (282). What’s more impressive: he has 29,399 more yards and 164 more touchdowns than the next-best player in each statistic, Bobby Layne, who played in the 1950s.
Stafford joined the Rams via trade last January in exchange for quarterback Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-round pick. The Georgia product has mostly lived up to his sky-high ceiling in Los Angeles, bringing the Rams to a Super Bowl after tossing 41 touchdowns – tied for a career-high – in the regular season.
Super Bowl LVI begins Sunday at 6:30 p.m. in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, giving Lions fans a little less than two days to grab their Detroit Rams gear.
