Matthew Stafford wants the smoke. Ahead of his second return to Ford Field for Sunday night's opener between the Lions and Rams, Stafford called the hostility and boos he heard last year a "motivating factor."
“Love it," he said. "I’m one of the guys that walks into the opposing stadium, everybody has their headphones on, I don’t. I want to hear all of it. I want to smell it. I want to feel like it’s football, and that’s part of football, especially going to an away game. That stuff just motivates me.”
Sean McVay is looking forward to it, too. The Rams head coach raved about the atmosphere at Ford Field after the Lions knocked the Rams out of the playoffs last season, and echoed those sentiments Wednesday.
"It was rocking," he said. "It's a real credit to that city, those fans and what that team has earned based on what they've done."
Asked about the vitriol from the fans, McVay smiled and echoed Stafford: "I think it's great. I love it."
"It's awesome because they're passionate about their football team," he said. "They said some things (last time) that you better have some thick skin to be able to handle. Hopefully they don't mean them personally, but I thought it was an incredibly cool example of a football city rooting for their team.
"I'm still a fan of this game. Even though you're the enemy going in there, you walk away saying, ton of respect for the type of environment and atmosphere that those fans created and that that team has earned."
Sunday's game should be another good one after the Lions clipped the Rams 24-23 in the wild card round on a night that both Stafford and Jared Goff were at their best. Dan Campbell said this week that the Rams are a better team than they were last year. McVay, likewise, called the Lions an "excellent" opponent.
"They're great in all three phases, they've got great personnel, they're incredibly well-coached and it's going to be a great atmosphere," said McVay. "They've made some great additions to their personnel, I know they'll have some good things schematically, so it's a great opportunity for us to start the season against what you know is going to be an incredibly quality opponent."