SAN FRANCISCO — In an age when many professional athletes ride off into the sunset, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford accomplished something for the first time in his career Thursday at the NFL Honors ceremony.
Seventeen years into the most remarkable quarterback game in league history, the 37-year-old Stafford received his first MVP award. He did it with a big vote, worthy of the career year he just produced, throwing for a league-leading 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns with eight interceptions.
The 46 touchdowns are a Rams record and second most by a quarterback age 37 or older.
He is the third player in league history to throw at least 45 touchdowns and have fewer than 10 interceptions in a season.
In the process, he led the Rams to a 12-5 record and the brink of another Super Bowl berth. The Seahawks denied Stafford and the Rams that opportunity, but losing in the NFC Championship game is not what Stafford accomplished this year.
The question now is, will Stafford use the award as his swan song and call it a career? Or will he use it as a testament to the incredible level of play he’s established and turn it into fuel for a run at another MVP award and perhaps a Super Bowl championship for the Rams?
Stafford is not the oldest player to win the NFL MVP award. But he joins the very select company of quarterback greats who have received honors late in their careers.
Tom Brady became the oldest player to win the award at age 40 in 2017. Aaron Rodgers received the honor at ages 38 and 37 in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Peyton Manning, Rich Gannon and YA Tittle were each 37 years old when they won MVP awards in 2013, 2002 and 1963, respectively.
He did it all despite missing much of training camp while recovering from a herniated disc in his back — an injury that some said could cost him the season. And while he was in a Rams uniform there were no guarantees he would have made it this time last year.
With Stafford and the club having a contract dispute last February, the Rams allowed Stafford to talk to other teams about a trade. That led to formal talks with the Raiders and Giants, both of whom offered Stafford a contract worth more than $100 million.
Stafford and the Rams eventually agreed to a restructured contract, but injuries and the near-term nature of the trade made for one of the most unlikely starts to an MVP season in league history.
“There were some critical moments. It was touch-and-go there a little bit,” Stafford said last month during the Rams’ playoff game.
Long discussions with the Rams’ coaching staff, led by Reggie Scott, senior vice president of sports medicine and performance, and Rams coach Sean McVay helped craft a season-long plan to get Stafford in the offseason.
“And they’re just trying to figure out what’s best,” Stafford said. “A lot of treatments and things I did to try to help me get to this point. I didn’t know if I was going to get there, but I went out there and it was like wait and see, let’s see what happens. Luckily, it turned out great.”
Thursday’s honor continued one of the most unique careers in sports history – and a testament to just how many twists and turns some careers can take. That it happened on the eve of Sam Darnold’s improbable run to the Super Bowl, from the high-flying and throwing quarterback of the Jets and Panthers to one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and the Seahawks, seems entirely fitting.
Stafford was never considered a bust as he was unlucky.
The top pick in the 2009 draft out of Georgia, Stafford had a right arm that seemed blessed with ball power, positional intelligence few have at that point in their careers, and a body built for longevity.
Everything about him screamed home draft pick, destined to do great things.
Eighteen years later, everything has come to fruition. Only with a very delayed reaction, at least according to the group’s goals.
Stafford has had the misfortune of being drafted by the bad Lions, as mediocre a franchise as any in sports.
Stafford was good to be sure, throwing for more than 4,000 yards seven times in his first 12 seasons and consistently ranking among the NFL’s best stats. But he wasn’t good enough to overcome the Lions’ perennial trend of bad coaching, poor planning and poor leadership.
Year after year went by as Stafford did his best at quarterback, only to come up short play after play. Sure, there were the occasional winning season — four to be exact in his 12 years in Detroit. But the Lions were 74-90-1 during Stafford’s time under center, and you’ll find nary an NFL personnel executive who blamed Stafford.
In fact, it was only a pity that he was stuck in such a dire situation.
It also made Stafford reevaluate praising and blaming quarterbacks as long as they’re based on the results of the game.
“I think quarterback wins is an interesting statistic,” Stafford said recently. “It takes everybody. There are some games where I don’t play well, but we win the game. Or some games where I feel like I played really well, and we don’t win the game. It’s not always about the defender.”
He is living proof that it takes a village to build a winning program.
“Obviously, I want to play as well as I can, but I can equate that to our coach leading the way and our team playing good football at the right time,” Stafford said.
AP
That was never more evident during his time in Detroit or the five years now in Los Angeles after the Rams traded him in 2020.
Stafford doesn’t do more or less than he did at Motown from a stat standpoint – except for the career-high 46 TDs he threw this year. He just does what he does surrounded by better coaches and teammates.
“Obviously, I’m doing my best to try to play at a high level or lead guys the right way and find a way to win a football game,” Stafford said. “There’s no question about that, but I didn’t win those games by myself, and I didn’t lose by myself, we play as a team, we win as a team and we lose as a team.”
