Matthew Stafford went from fake franchise star to Super Bowl Champion and NFL MVP (Patreon)

Winning a Super Bowl changes everything. Yeah, sounds simple enough, but Matthew Stafford’s career could have looked a whole lot different without it. For a little over a decade, Stafford spent his days wasting away with the Detroit Lions, tossing up ridiculous record-breaking numbers with no success to show for it. They nicknamed the dude “Pat Statford” after all. Someone for sureeee cooked with that nickname, but the point is he was mostly known for empty stats with no important wins to back them up. At least he had good stats. Because early in his career, he couldn’t even claim those. Known mostly as an often-injured quarterback that the Lions blew a number one pick on. His own teammates called him a china doll. He looked like a bust. A fake franchise star meant to save a struggling team. Then, in 2021, he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams, and in his first season he earned a shiny new Super Bowl ring, shedding years of doubt.

A new environment can change everything. In Detroit, Stafford showed the quarterback he could be. A fearless leader with a penchant for late-game heroics, but his team overall just couldn’t win anything. In LA, surrounded by a new cast and an organization a QB away from winning a title, he stepped in and led his new team to glory. Stafford rewrote his history. Because before that, he was set to go down as an injury-prone, stat-padding loser. See, a Super Bowl can change everything.