It was in 2011 and Matthew Stafford was closing out his third season as quarterback of the Detroit Lions. He was attending a college bowl game at Ford Field when his phone rang. Team president Tom Lewand was on the other end of the line.

Pro Bowl rosters were about to be announced, and Lewand wanted to let his young star know in advance that he didn’t make the NFC team.

At first, Stafford thought he was being played a prank. After all, he was on track to finish the year as one of only two players to pass for more than 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns that season, and the Lions were headed to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.

But Lewand was serious.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

That’s when Stafford realized his best might never be good enough in some people’s eyes. Thirteen years later, I would say nothing has changed, which is why I consider Stafford the most underrated and underrated quarterback of the last two decades.

When people talk about active prime callers, they rightly place Patrick Mahomes alone on a perch. The platform below generally includes Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson And Joe Burrow. Stafford often feels like an afterthought if he even makes the cut, which is as crazy as it is central to the narrative of his career.

Despite ranking in the top 10 all time in passing yards, touchdown passes and fourth-quarter returns, and despite winning the Super Bowl several years ago in his first season with the Los Angeles RamsStafford, the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, was never voted All-Pro and appeared in only two Pro Bowls.

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I’m bringing it up now because I’m not sure people realize how big of an impact his impact has been on the Rams this season, especially during their three-game winning streak. It’s not so much what he does that matters, but rather when he does it, often finding himself important late in games after the offense has procrastinated for more than two quarters.

Against the Vikings two weeks ago, he threw two second-half touchdown passes to Demarcus Robinsonone at the end of the third quarter, the other with 6:17 remaining in regulation, to keep Minnesota at bay. And last week in Seattle, his 39-yard throw to Robinson was the game-winner in overtime.

MATTHEW STAFFORD TO DEMARCUS ROBINSON ONE-HANDED TD TO WIN THE GAME FOR THE @RAMSNFL! pic.twitter.com/xqFG6xQ4eS

– NFL (@NFL) November 4, 2024

His relentless quest for improvement is contagious, as is his fearlessness in big moments. He has the rare ability to make others believe in situations in which they might otherwise doubt.

Admittedly, I was skeptical when the Rams traded him in 2021. Is he really an improvement over Jared GoffI asked myself. Goff is six years younger and had helped Los Angeles reach the Super Bowl several years earlier. Stafford made three playoff appearances in 12 seasons with Detroit, each ending in a first-round loss.

My skepticism may have been unwarranted, but it was explainable. Like many others, I didn’t watch many Lions games when Stafford was there. There was nothing compelling about the franchise after Barry Sanders retired. The only memorable moment came in 2008, when they became the first team to finish a season 0-16.

Stafford’s arrival in Detroit the following year did little to shake things up. The Lions went 8-24 in their first two seasons, leaving them well beyond relevance. This partly explains why he was marginalized in the 2011 Pro Bowl voting, even though he threw more touchdowns than Tom Brady and passing over more meters than Aaron Rodgers.

“I kind of thought about it and said, ‘If I don’t make it, then it’ll be like this, and that’s OK.’ I’m just not going to do a lot of those things,” Stafford said Friday afternoon. “At times I feel (underappreciated), at other times I don’t. But I certainly don’t sit here week after week thinking about it. My wife and family probably think about it more than I do. I’m here every day trying to prove myself. In this league, you have to keep trying to do that. It doesn’t matter how successful you’ve been in the past. If you’re not trying to improve every time you step on grass, you’re probably not in the right place.

Atlanta Falcons Coach Raheem Morris spent the previous three years as the Rams’ defensive coordinator, where he got to see Stafford up close. Before that, he thought the former Georgia star was an elite talent, but he knew that after watching him daily.

“When we welcomed him into the building in Los Angeles, I found out how intelligent he was, how much he invested in the game, how much he studied the game and how well he communicated with everyone from the coaches to the players to the staff,” Morris told me last week. “I could see how special he was with his guys. It was just different. players he plays with, and he can play with just about anyone, whether you’re a rookie or a veteran. It’s unique because there are quarterbacks that need their guys, they need. of their people. With Matthew, it doesn’t matter who you put with him, it will make him a better football player.

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The ability to elevate the performance of others is the essence of sporting greatness, but its meaning can be lost in translation if it is not accompanied by victories. This is why it was so easy to underestimate Stafford in Detroit. But ask yourself: what would these Lions teams do I would have looked like without him?

According to Pro Football Reference, 32 of Stafford’s 74 wins with Detroit required a comeback in the fourth quarter or overtime. Twice he led the league in this category, including in 2016, when his eight late-game rallies set a league record unmatched until two years ago, when Kirk Cousins and the Vikings tied him up.

The crazy thing is that Stafford’s uniqueness wasn’t just lost on casual fans or the uneducated media (show of hands). The Lions also needed a reality check in 2014 after their fifth season.

They had just hired Jim Caldwell as head coach, and shortly after, a senior team official wondered if it was time to trade Stafford. The suggestion did not go down well with Caldwell, a source familiar with the matter said. Caldwell had taken the job in part because of Stafford, in whom he saw the qualities required to succeed in the position: intelligence, tenacity, fearlessness, arm strength, touch, the ability to make every throw on multiple platforms and, perhaps, Most importantly, altruism.

Caldwell felt the team could do more if Stafford did less — the Lions had made just one playoff appearance in the previous 14 years — so the veteran coach preached offensive balance.

The result: After attempting 634 passes or more in each of the three seasons before Caldwell, Stafford landed below that mark in each of the next four years, finishing below 600 in three of them. He also went from averaging 17 interceptions in the three seasons before Caldwell to 11 in the next four.

These changes helped the Lions to three winning seasons and two playoff appearances in four years. The last time they managed back-to-back winning seasons was between 1993 and 1995. When outsiders criticized Stafford in Detroit, Caldwell warned that Stafford wasn’t the problem. He just needed a little help from his friends, which he got in Los Angeles.

Matthew Stafford celebrates a third-quarter touchdown against Seattle with Demarcus Robinson. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

“When you watch him play the game — and you have to go defend him, thinking back to the Detroit days — you were always afraid of the Lions because of him,” Morris said. “Every game he played, he gave his team a chance to win. He can make every throw, he’s mobile enough to get away from people, he keeps the game alive, he has a unique stamina that sets him apart from everyone else. In my opinion, he was closer to Aaron Rodgers than we gave him credit for every year, because he made all the off-platform throws, all the no-look throws, all the things Aaron did. He was exactly the same, except he did it in Detroit and didn’t have as many wins.

The Rams (4-4) appear poised for a series with their next four games against Miami, New England, Philadelphia And New Orleans. More wins will attract more eyes, which means more opportunities to witness Stafford’s specialness. Not that he cares about the opinions of outsiders. He wants respect from those he plays with and against, as well as those who came before him and will follow him.

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Stafford turns 37 in a few months, which means he’s closer to the finish line than the starting line. Whether he finishes his career in Los Angeles is a question question of conjecture, as our Jourdan Rodrigue recently pointed out. I asked him how long he wanted to play.

“I don’t know,” he said shyly. “It depends how long they keep me here. But I love playing and trying to lead this young group. It’s a lot of fun.

I can’t imagine Stafford playing for anyone else. Then again, I never imagined he would be left off the Pro Bowl roster in 2011.

(Top photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)