NFL star Matthew Stafford isn’t too concerned about his wife Kelly Stafford’s recent comments about the Los Angeles Rams’ team dynamic.
During an August episode of her “The Morning After” podcast, Kelly, 34, claimed that her husband, 35, was having difficulty connecting with the team’s younger players. “I’m not too worried about it. Nobody in the locker room’s too worried about it, I can promise you that,” Matthew said during a Wednesday, September 6, press conference, according to ESPN.
“We’ve completely moved on,” he added. “Not that we’ve ever really stopped to think about it, to be honest with you, but yeah, I’m not too worried about it.”
Matthew began the conversation by poking fun at his age. “I was gonna come out here with a newspaper under my arm and some spectacles just to kind of set the mood,” he joked to reporters. “But it turns out, you can’t even find a newspaper around here, so I couldn’t do that. I was gonna try to have some fun with it.”
The quarterback went on to note that he “definitely” feels connected to his fellow players. “I think those guys understand where I’m coming from,” he shared. “They see me come in this building every single day and know how I go to work, know how I interact with everybody, and we didn’t really think too much about it, to be honest with you.”
Matthew continued: “We happen to have a lot of young guys on our team, a lot of rookies that have come in and done a heck of a job and earned roles on our football team, are going to be big parts of our season. And that’s exciting. But every season, every team is different.”
On her podcast, Kelly informed listeners that Matthew — whom she wed in 2015 — “had the equipment guy get a book printed of all their faces, and all their names, because he’s like, ‘I need to know their names.’”
Kelly later apologized for her comments, calling it “the worst thing” she’s ever done “when it comes” to Matthew. “I spoke on a topic that … [is] relatable, to the fact that it’s hard to relate to someone who is 10 years younger than you,” she told Detroit news outlet Local4 last month. “And I do think that’s entirely true. But I’m not in an NFL locker room, I’m not spending every day with these teammates.”
Rams coach Sean McVay, for his part, told reporters that he took Kelly’s claims as a joke. “I know Kelly well enough to know that she was probably taking a good old rib at the old man as her husband’s getting older playing, but this guy’s done a phenomenal job, and I know how much he loves his teammates and how much they love him,” he stated.
Kelly has made headlines multiple times over the years, from selling her tickets to one of Matthew’s games to criticizing the NFL’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to being thrown out of a Rams game for chucking a pretzel at a San Francisco 49ers fan.
In April, she defended the couple’s decision not to bring their youngest daughter, Tyler, 3, on a family trip to Hawaii. “Knew it would happen. People already shaming us for not bringing Tyler,” she wrote via Instagram. “We make decisions for our kids that benefit them … not that we need to explain ourselves.” (The pair also share twins Chandler and Sawyer, 7, and daughter Hunter, 5.)