Kelly Stafford Courtesy of Kelly Stafford/Instagram
UPDATE — 9/9/24 at 11:54 a.m. ET: Kelly Stafford had an abrupt change of heart to kick off the NFL season.
After previously saying she would be prioritizing her “mental health” and skipping husband Matthew Stafford’s return to Detroit to see the Los Angeles Rams take on his former team on Sunday, September 8, Stafford was in the Ford Field crowd for the Sunday Night Football matchup.
Kelly, 34, shared some pictures from the game via her Instagram Stories, including sharing a post from a fan who said, “It was a pleasure sitting with y’all.”
“You too!” Kelly wrote alongside a red heart emoji.
It was her husband’s second return trip to Detroit after being traded for quarterback Jared Goff in 2021. When Stafford and her daughters attended January’s playoff game in Detroit, Kelly complained about how she was treated, saying the Ford Field crowd “booed” her family.
The Lions emerged victorious on Sunday, defeating the Rams 26-20 in overtime.
Original story:
Matthew Stafford is heading back to his family’s old stomping grounds to kick off the NFL season, but wife Kelly won’t be in attendance.
On a recent episode of her podcast The Morning After, Kelly, 34, explained why she won’t be in the crowd when Matthew and the Los Angeles Rams have their season opener against the Lions at Detroit’s Ford Field on Sunday, September 8.
“I’d rather just watch it at home and remember all the incredible times I had there,” Kelly said of Detroit, where Matthew played from 2009 to 2020. “For my daughters, I actually asked them if they wanted to go back and they said no.”
Kelly and Matthew share four daughters: 7-year-old twins Sawyer and Chandler, Hunter, 5, and Tyler, 4.
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“That is another reason we will not be returning for the game, you know?” Kelly continued. “There’s a lot that goes into it, but I think it’s the better decision for my mental health.”
Matthew Stafford Ryan Kang/Getty Images
Kelly and all four daughters were on hand in January when the Rams traveled to Detroit for a playoff showdown, Matthew’s first trip back to Motown since being traded. After the game — which the Lions won 24-23 — Kelly took to social media to complain about the treatment her family received and “the fans who booed my children.”
“My husband doesn’t want to hear me be upset or anything like that,” Kelly explained on the podcast. “Not that I think I would be, because I also grew up in that experience, too. You forget that this is football and this is a huge deal in Detroit and all these things. I forgot that. I was so emotionally involved that I forgot this is a playoff football game.”
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Kelly continued, “I think I would be better about preparing my daughters, in a way, but I just don’t think it’s worth it at this point. Flying my daughters all the way across the country is horrible in itself. As we all know, traveling with kids is not fun.”
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Kelly Stafford Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
While she won’t be in attendance at the game in Detroit, Kelly will be in town the day prior for a stop on her Morning After live podcast tour.
“After our amazing, amazing live show, I’m going to hop on a plane and head home so I can watch it with my daughters here,” Kelly told cohost Hank Winchester. “So that’s the plan.”
Matthew and the Los Angeles Rams open the season against Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions on Sunday, September 8 at 8:20 p.m. on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
