Matthew Stafford is one of the classier athletes in the NFL, so getting any type of reaction out of the quarterback after a tasteless video mocking him and the Detroit Lions probably wasn’t going to happen.
As such, Stafford was asked about a poor attempt at humor this week as it relates to the video which made the rounds on the internet, and he didn’t have much to say. In fact, he burned the video with his own epic response in his own epic way.
“I didn’t see it. Somebody disrespecting us? Nobody mentioned it to me. Do I need to check it out?,” Stafford said to the media this week when told of the video. When a reporter then offers the video to Stafford on his phone, he turns it down and laughs it off.
“I’ll not look at it some other time,” Stafford says with a laugh. Consider the video sufficiently burned and buried.
For those who hadn’t seen, Bleacher Report put out another installment of their Gridiron Heights parody series, and Stafford was the target. The video profiles Stafford while showing several of the other quarterbacks and personalities of the NFC North and is a parody of the Joker movie with Stafford detailing several of his career failings through the years.
Stafford, along with many Lions fans, simply wasn’t in the mood to laugh about something so ridiculous.
Not That Funny
Stafford is referred to as “Pad Statford” in the video, is mocked for “almost beating the Kansas City Chiefs,” and is finally shown concluding the Lions are a “comedy, not a tragedy.”
The video, while intending to be funny and parody a current film, seems a bit over the top at this very moment. The Lions are 2-1-1 and have actually been a revelation thus far this NFL season for their solid play. Stafford himself is off to a nice start with 6 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions thus far this season. He’s also had to deal with some scary health problems of his wife along with his young family.
There’s a time and a place to poke fun at an athlete or a team. For Stafford and the Lions, this probably isn’t it.
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Kerryon Johnson Defends Stafford
While Stafford wasn’t willing to even so much as comment much on the video, his running back was. Johnson jumped to his quarterback’s defense and said that even though Stafford was going to take the high road, he wasn’t going to be simply ignoring the video and it’s message attacking his quarterback.
Johnson sounded off in a big way on the video when pressed by the media on his pointed comments on the short movie.
“I don’t watch that stuff often, but I work with Stafford every single day. And I know Stafford’s not going to care, he probably hasn’t even seen it, he doesn’t watch any of that crap,” Johnson told reporters including Will Burchfield of CBS Detroit. “But for me, it’s one thing to attack Detroit, don’t care, but when you attack a specific person who’s been in this league and been one of the best since he came in the league, kept his head down, all he cares about is trying to win, all he cares about is trying to be a good teammate, that’s why I had a problem with it.”
Clearly, the locker room is in lock step behind Stafford, which is nice to see early in the season. The 2019 Lions feel closer than ever, as evidence of this response.
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Lions’ Matthew Stafford Reacts to Bleacher Report Video