I highly doubt that he would retire now. Luck had even worse injuries than Stafford, and I don’t think he had quite the same passion for football. If he did retire though I definitely would not blame him.
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Could you imagine if he did?
Barry, Calvin and Barry all retiring early…wow
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We need to make some sense of the injury.
Last year he played with broken bones in his back.
This year they’re back.
How?
Why?
Given this is a condition that is worsening, I want to know how and if he can return to 100%.
If he misses time next year for the same thing, it will be his last in the NFL.
Stafford isn’t even close to the same class of Barry and Calvin. Those guys are generational and HOF players. But it says something about the luck of the Lions.
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I agree that fans underestimate his fire and competitiveness. But back injuries have a way of ending careers short.
They didn’t retire early, they gave 10 years and were sick of losing. Patricia and Quin are the latest In a Long line of losers . Quin ended the careers of Calvin and Stafford with no division crown.
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I’ll take no Fing way for 4,000 Alex .
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Quinn didn’t end the career of Calvin. Calvin said he almost retired before the 2015 season but decided to play one more. Stafford is injured, he is not retired.
Honestly, I hope Stafford retires… this team needs a meltdown again,
I’d rather see him get a ring somewhere, but I get what you’re saying, Rick.
I disagree. With a competent offensive coordinator and a bit better skill position players this year it is plain to see there was no QB playing better than him this season. And he was still doing this with a subpar running game and relatively average offensive line play. If the team had even an average defense they might have went 8-0.
It’s not Stafford’s fault the team has no defense this year. Throughout his entire career the Lions have NEVER been able to give Stafford anything even approaching an average running game - never in the top 20 running the ball!! The protection from the offensive line has mostly been bad to awful as well.
Stafford is a generational talent that the Lions have never come close to putting a complete team (players and coaches) around.
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Well this was the 2nd time in his career where there was serious discussion of him being the MVP of the league prior to injury. So yeah… he’s just collecting a check on another team with an absolute bottom of the NFL level rushing attack and Defense at the same time.
Didn’t he just surpass Joe Montana in Passing Yards? He had Roger Craig, Ricky Watters and an All Star offensive line with the Greatest WR in history and an All Pro TE to boot. Guess Joe Montana wasn’t a generational player either. He sure as hell had infinitely better teams around him his entire career.
It will be interesting to see how things work out with Stafford in the Hall of Fame. The NFL Hall of Fame committee seems to reward quote unquote compilers due to longevity at the running back position, but not the quarterback or wide receiver position. Jerome Bettis is pretty questionable and Curtis Martin is not a Hall of Famer level Talent. Frank Gore will probably get in as well under the same Banner, but there are some really great wide receivers like Henry Ellard who aren’t in and plenty more like Harold Carmichael and Charlie Joiner and Andre Rison Etc who took a lot longer than they should have. If Stafford plays for 15 or 16 years which is very conceivable, even when you account for the fact the passing game has gone wackadoodle in comparison to past eras, he will get some serious consideration just because of the career totals. He will also suffer because the team around him has been alternately trash and snake bit through his entire ride
Most post wasn’t meant to be a knock on Stafford. Just an observation.