It's fair to say the trade between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams early in the 2021 offseason worked out great for both sides. The Rams got the quarterback upgrade they sought, and Matthew Stafford led them to Super Bowl win in his first season.
The Lions got Jared Goff to be their quarterback, and multiple draft picks to fuel a rebuild that has has bore great fruit.
Counting the playoffs, Sunday's game will be the fourth time the Lions and Rams have faced each other since the trade. The Lions have won the most recent two matchups, and Goff has now spent as many seasons in Detroit as he did in Los Angeles after he was the first overall pick in the 2016 draft.
As long as they're the quarterbacks for their respective teams, Stafford and Goff will be asked questions about facing their former team every time the Rams and Lions play.
The difference is how they exited their former teams. Stafford asked to not be part of another rebuild in Detroit, which no one blamed him for, while Goff was truly discarded by the Rams. On multiple occasions, Rams head coach Sean McVay has acknowledged his mistakes when it came to handling Goff's departure.
Jared Goff says there are no more hard feelings toward the Rams
Goff spoke to reporters on Wednesday. As expected he was asked generally about the time that has passed since the trade that brought him to the Lions, acknowledging "my career now has spent more time here."
Then he was asked if he still felt an emotional charge facing his former team.
"Not so much anymore. No," Goff said. "And really, I mean, we played them in that playoff game, was such a big deal. The next year, played them again and that felt like even less. So now, it’s even further removed, and yeah, they’re a really good team and we’ll have our hands full.”
READ MORE: Lions comfortably plan for a future without Taylor Decker in new 2026 mock draft
Heading into that Wild Card Round game against the Rams in January of 2024, Goff dismissed the revenge angle narrative. But he also ultimately couldn't hide the chip he clearly carried on his shoulder.
"Of course," Goff told ESPN's Eric Woodyard, regarding that chip on his shoulder when it comes to facing McVay and the Rams. "I think it'll never leave me, and I think that's a good thing."
The emotion attached to facing a former team surely fades from the first time to the third or fourth time. And even with all that's at stake for both teams this week, there's certainly a difference between a playoff game and a game in Week 15.
But Goff going from saying the chip on his shoulder due to facing the Rams will never leave him, to saying it now carries little emotional charge for him to face his former team, stretches believability. Not that he would (or should) say anything else, in the name of focusing on the task at-hand this week as the Lions try to keep their playoff chances afloat.