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Standing by her man. Kelly Stafford opened up about husband Matthew Stafford being put on concussion protocol — and the dangers that come with playing professional football.
“If you follow NFL, you just heard Matthew got put into concussion protocol,” Kelly, 31, wrote via her “Morning After” podcast’s Instagram Story on Wednesday, November 9, after Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay confirmed that Matthew, 34, had been examined for the injury. “If you have listened to my podcast at all, you know how a big a deal it is to me. The head is not something to be messed with…and I hope as this sport develops, so does the concern for head health and the research around it.”
The Georgia native — who shares four daughters with the Super Bowl champion, twins Chandler and Sawyer, 5, Hunter, 3, and Tyler, 2 — revealed that she was “not okay” after learning that her beau was starting the protocol. “I have every emotion running through me. Concerned, angry, sad, tired…all of them,” she continued.
On Wednesday, McVay told reporters that while Matthew didn’t give any indication he was dealing with concussion symptoms during the Rams’ Sunday, November 6, game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he was later asked to undergo protocol after medical staff examined him.
Kelly, for her part, continued to be vocal about the league’s need for better safety precautions, reposting a message that Green Bay Packers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell wrote on Twitter that read, “I think it’s time y’all take some of the money y’all make off us and invest in grass fields for every team around the league,” The turf is literally like concrete. It has no give when you plant @NFL.”
The podcast host went on share her own thoughts about the dangers of playing on such a hardened surface. “There should be no more turf for the health of these players,” she wrote via Instagram on Wednesday. “Not just their limbs, but more importantly their head health. There is a big difference when a helmet hits grass than when it hits turf.”
The former cheerleader is no stranger to head-related injuries. Prior to the birth of her fourth child, Kelly had surgery to remove a brain tumor following an acoustic neuroma diagnosis, which is a condition characterized by noncancerous, slow-growing tumors along the branches of the eighth cranial nerve.
“I have symptoms that are still lingering. In fact, they aren’t symptoms anymore. They are just a part of me,” Kelly explained via Instagram at the time. “But every time I get those headaches, lose my footing or get yelled at by my girls for not listening when I really never heard them, I remind myself how much stronger I am. How much stronger my marriage is. How much stronger my family is. It was a part of God’s plan, a plan I am all in for. Grateful to be here.”
Matthew and Kelly met while the quarterback was playing football for UGA in 2007 and began dating three years later. After six years together, the pair tied the knot in April 2015 and prepared to become first-time parents in 2017.
While the couple’s relationship was tested in January 2019 with Kelly’s diagnosis, the mother of four praised her husband for staying by her side through all the ups and downs.
“Thank you, Matthew. Thank you for taking care of me and our family and always putting us first. Thank you for always being my rock and keeping me at ease during the toughest time of my life,” she wrote at the time. “I’m lucky to know you and the man you are … but mostly, I’m lucky you chose me to do life with. Thank you.”
