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Just when you thought the Matthew Stafford trade rumors had finally died when Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn told both the media and Stafford himself, “We’re not trading you, period,” the rumor evolved, thanks to NFL reporter MIke Silver.
On Friday afternoon, Silver threw out the theory that Stafford himself was the one initiating trade talks, thinking that the Lions franchise quarterback wanted his way out of Detroit. Per Silver, the source of this theory was “some GMs and coaches around the league” that believed this was the case with Stafford and the Lions.
Of course, anyone who had paid any attention to the situation with Stafford and Detroit immediately laughed off this “interesting twist,” as Silver wrote. Not only did Bob Quinn specifically say this week that Stafford told him “I don’t want to go anywhere,” but the Staffords have long expressed their love of the city of Detroit and their allegiance to the team.
Take, for example, this message from Kelly Stafford’s Instagram during the 2019 season:
“He wants a championship for this city as much as y’all do.. this is our home too.. they’ll have to ship him out if they don’t want him. He isn’t going anywhere by choice.”
Seems pretty definitive, but Kelly wanted to put the rumor to bed for good on Friday night. So she addressed the newly-spawned rumors again on her instagram:
Has the carousel finally stopped? pic.twitter.com/UAhIQUZizl
— Justin Rogers (@Justin_Rogers) February 29, 2020
She followed up the post with this message:
“Nor has that ever been a thought. He loves detroit and the Lions organization.. and so do i. (Not that anyone cares about me but this is my Insta so).. anyways, back to the combine please.”
And just in case you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, of course she’d say that. There’s no reason to trash Detroit, especially if the team refuses to trade him,” well, our friend Mike Silver drove the final stake through his own flimsy rumor just eight hours after throwing it out there:
Update: Stafford's agent, Tom Condon, told me conclusively that Stafford does not want out of Detroit. Thus, the chatter among other coaches/GMs is apparently just chatter. Carry on. https://t.co/ObFqdEPFCG
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) February 29, 2020
While I believe Silver was telling the truth that some general manager and coaches were throwing this theory against the wall, that hardly means it’s true. And when you have access to Matthew Stafford’s agent, maybe talk to him before throwing out a rumor that was so obviously false from the beginning.
Are we done with this yet?