In the wake of Matthew Stafford being traded to the Rams and the report that he didn’t want to go to the Patriots, a narrative has emerged that perhaps Stafford didn’t want to work hard enough to succeed in New England or wouldn’t be able to handle Bill Belichick’s tough coaching.
Boomer Esiason said on The Greg Hill Show that if that report was true, he wouldn’t want Stafford as his quarterback anyways. Then Tedy Bruschi said on Ordway, Merloni and Fauria on Wednesday that Stafford “wasn’t tough enough.”
“He’s not tough enough to play here. He’s just not tough enough,” Bruschi said. “I don’t think he’s tough enough to be coached hard.”
But on Dale and Keefe Thursday, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who spent three years backing up Stafford in Detroit from 2014-16, painted a very different picture of Stafford. He said the Stafford he knows is plenty tough enough and is someone who wants hard coaching, and suggested he’s not sure Stafford completely ruled out New England in the first place.
“First of all, Matthew’s one of my dear friends,” Orlovsky said. “I talked to him about this whole process often. He never once mentioned anything in terms of not wanting to go to New England to me. He was very clear with what was going on and who the teams were that were involved. He certainly had preferred destinations, but never once, like even in joking, said, ‘I ain’t going to New England.’ So he never shared that information with me.
“I think Matthew Stafford is one of the most physically and mentally toughest people I’ve ever been around. I watched him play with broken fingers and torn ligaments and hurt knees and broken ribs and dislocated ribs and separated shoulders. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And you can’t be physically tough unless you’re mentally tough.
“As far as wanting to be coached, I’ve been around him and one of his gripes was not getting coached hard enough. One of the gripes was not really getting deep into the details and diving into it. He was around some coaches when we were together who did do that and he was like, ‘This is awesome.’ I think Tedy’s a phenomenal human being, phenomenal on television, obviously incredibly accomplished, and certainly entitled to his opinion, but the Matthew that I know is a tough SOB, is mentally tough.
“I think one of the reasons why he did ask out of Detroit and wanted to go somewhere else -- and these are his words, not mine -- is he’s tired of being really good individually and not good as a team. He’s accomplished a lot individually and had good stats, and I think he wants the opportunity to play with a competent football team that can actually go win the whole dang thing. That leads itself to wanting to be coached and wanting the pressure. That’s the kind of guy and player that Matthew is.”