By H. Jose Bosch
The Lions have made their final decision and decided to name Matthew Stafford as the starting quarterback. Well if this was Texas hold’em and I was placing my bet before the river, I’d be going all in with everything I owned.
Yeah, I used a poker reference even though I know nothing about poker, but I’ve decided to use reckless abandon when throwing my support behind Stafford and I think all Lions fans should do the same.
I don’t base my decision on anything tangible. I don’t live in Detroit anymore so I haven’t actually seen Stafford throw a single pass. I’m behind him 100 percent because I can’t think of a good reason not to root for this kid.
He went to the same high school as Bobby Layne, the only good quarterback ever to play for the Lions. I like that kind of good karma. And he improved every season he played at Georgia and won all three bowls games he started.
You can point to Joy Harrington and claim that college success means nothing and you’d be right. But Harrington’s achievements at Oregon aren’t the same as Stafford’s at Georgia. Stafford was playing in a tougher conference.
Regardless, we can take comfort in the fact that Stafford comes from a winning program and he knows how to win in tough situations.
Finally, the decision to start Stafford fell on Jim Schwartz and the Lions top brass. Stafford should be given credit for taking the job that was dangled in front of him. If the decision is a bust, than it’s the organizations fault for rushing the kid, not Stafford’s.
So even if you hate the decision to start the No. 1 overall pick, get behind the kid. I have a feeling he’s going to be the shot in the arm Detroit football has needed for a long time.
And if you need one more reason to get excited for the Matt Stafford era, just look at this picture.
That is a true winner right there. Not only does he have the strength of ten men, he’s always willing to help a teammate out.