The NFL trade deadline has come and gone, but not without Kelly Stafford pondering a major “what if?”
During Tuesday’s installment of her podcast, “The Morning After with Kelly Stafford & Hank,” the wife of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford expanded on recent trade rumors surrounding the 36-year-old signal caller, who had been briefly linked to the Vikings.
“Matthew to the Vikings: Now, there was no legs to this, which was very interesting, because I opened up Instagram one day and, ‘Oh, do I need to start looking for a home in Minnesota?’ What’s happening?” Kelly said.
“… And that’s one thing you don’t want to text your husband, ‘Hey, have you heard if you’re getting traded?’ And that didn’t happen cause I’m not going to text him that. I also just think it is inappropriate in a way when he’s with a team for me to even bring it up unless he brings it up, cause he’s seeing it too, it’s not like he’s not seeing these rumors, correct?”
Stafford, now in his fourth season with the Rams after being dealt to Los Angeles by Detroit in January 2021, was at the center of Minnesota trade chatter in October as the Rams continued to rebound from a 1-4 start.
Now on a three-game winning streak, the Rams have improved to 4-4 and have retained another critical piece of their offense, wide receiver Cooper Kupp, also suspected to be on the trading block.
Even as the tides have turned in the Rams’ favor, Kelly questioned what would have transpired had it not.
“I was thinking about it, in our world now, what would happen if that rumor was true? What would happen if we hadn’t won a game again and Minnesota offered something for Matthew that the Rams were like, ‘Yeah, this works,’” Kelly said. “… The what-if for me was like, OK, I’ve always told myself we will never separate our family cause it’s not fair to anyone. It’s not fair to him to not be able to see his girls, it’s not fair to the girls not to see their dad, I would lose my mind without him.”
The mother of four expressed empathy for the families who have to cope with the reality of “moving in the blink of an eye” and starting anew.
“When the first rumor hit, I was like what’s happening? Obviously, I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, and to be honest, I think what, and this is what I said I would do, I would pick up, go, lease a spot for six months, put the kids in a public school there for the fall and then come back in the winter,” Kelly said.
Recognizing her daughters would be “devastated” had that been the reality, Kelly — who has been married to Stafford since 2015 — said she’d try to make the best of a challenging situation for the kids.
“You try to make it an adventure, that’s what we did for the move here, but they were way younger,” she said. “You feel for the families that are just kind of getting moved around a bunch.”
The Rams, now second in the NFC West behind the Cardinals (5-4), host the Dolphins (2-7) next Monday night.
