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Detroit Lions starting quarterback Matthew Stafford spoke to reporters on Thursday via Zoom video conferencing. In various accounts of the call, reporters provided details from Stafford on a wide range of topics. Michael Rothstein at ESPN led with the fact that the veteran was not bothered by rumors earlier in the year that the team was shopping him for a trade, nor by the possibility that Detroit could draft Tua Tagovailoa from Alabama.
Justin Rogers at the Detroit News highlighted the family time and travel done by the Staffords prior to heightened restrictions. Noting the family’s return to their offseason home in Georgia where Stafford spent his college career, both Kyle Meinke from MLive and Dave Birkett at the Detroit Free Press wrote about bonus practice sessions the quarterback has done with teammates. Meinke pointed out Stafford’s appreciation for the wide array of tools fellow Georgia Bulldog D’Andre Swift brings to the offense.
There were also a few nuggets that did not make the officially filed articles, but remind us what a funny guy Stafford can be:
Stafford on the challenges of zoom meetings: In person, you go over it, then go out and work on it together. Now, the call ends and I'm chasing three kids and Danny Amendola's doing yoga in his underwear or whatever.
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) May 14, 2020
Matthew Stafford on Chase Daniel joining a QB room that also returns David Blough: "It's three Dallas kids from about 10 miles away from each other, so everyone else is going to have a hell of a time listening to our freaking high school football stories. But it'll be fun."
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) May 14, 2020
The official team social media accounts posted part of the call, which you can watch on YouTube:
Wheels is feeling great and hoping we can all have a safe 2020 season, which we all expect him to be around for in Detroit. With that, we now move on to the rest of today’s Notes:
- Dave Birkett at the Detroit Free Press had a piece yesterday on Australian UDFA Arryn Siposs, who will be competing for the now-vacant punting job on the Lions.
- The Lions finalized their preseason schedule on Friday:
Preseason schedule ✅ pic.twitter.com/KKcQYPn3wp
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) May 15, 2020
If you're interested, former Lions S Glover Quin now has a YouTube channel: https://t.co/jkYSfwjkzh
— Michael Rothstein (@mikerothstein) May 14, 2020
- The Detroit Lions Cheerleaders are proceeding with their selection process for the upcoming season’s squad, and released a list of 49 finalists who advanced past the virtual auditions which were held in April.
- Joe Buck told Andy Cohen on Sirius XM that Fox and the NFL may end up putting fake crowd noise into broadcasts if the games take place without fans: