Detroit Lions: Passing through the seven stages of Matthew Stafford grief

Stage 3: Anger and Bargaining

Hearing the report of Stafford’s trade request last Saturday evening, my immediate reaction was first of confirming the inevitable, but then of anger. This anger is at nobody entirely, but at all of the turning points small and large from the past dozen years.

The ones that have left Stafford with an incomplete legacy in Detroit, the feeling that there’s no other direction left than to move on, and many in the fanbase apparently more than ready to send him along.

Plenty of it is reserved for Matt Patricia and his chief enabler, Bob Quinn. Turning back the clock, there’s some reserved for all the fans who have done nothing but criticize him for years. At Aaron Rodgers, for always staying two steps ahead in several legacy-defining matchups.

As Stafford finishes his time in Detroit unfinished, there’s still the final remnants of anger at that ref in Dallas who picked up the flag and offered no explanation. At Stafford himself, for playing so poorly down the stretch with a banner for the taking in 2013. At the New York Jets, for injuring him midway through the fourth quarter of a potentially franchise-altering upset bid in 2010.

At myself, for giving 26 years of my life attaching my emotions and hopes to this franchise and walking away bitterly disappointed 26 consecutive times.

Once the anger subsided, the fantastical bargaining scenarios ping-ponged through my head, ways to soften the blow of losing the most important Lion of the past 50 years.

• Maybe all ten teams who have been linked to Stafford will submit such insulting lowball offers that no deal will go through and he stays in Honolulu Blue.
• Or, maybe if Stafford leaves now and cements his legacy elsewhere, he can come back home LeBron-style in four years and finish what he started in Detroit.
• Or, maybe Stafford plays out the remainder of his career in Indy or San Francisco or wherever, and then comes back to coach the team once his playing days are over.

Once those ideas (of varying degrees of ridiculousness) had passed through my head, I had no choice but to look at the current state of the franchise, leading me to the next stage.