Whenever I encounter a football fan who knows I’m a native Detroiter who covers the NFL for a living, it never takes long for them to eventually ask the same question:
“So, um … what do you think of Matthew Stafford?”
At which point I inevitably shrug, sigh and do some live-action version of the Alonzo Mourning Meme. How do you explain watching an incredibly gifted player take a starring role in the most frustrating fan experience in football?
Eventually, I settled on this: Watching Stafford — who was just reportedly dealt to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff, two first-round draft picks and a third-rounder — in Detroit was the football equivalent of seeing Ben Affleck, a gifted actor, slog his way through “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.