When the Sunday Night Football cameras and broadcast team, in a game this past regular season, focused on Kelly Stafford, it caused quite a stir. Granted it was mostly because NBC screwed up and misidentified her, but her name became a top trending term on Twitter nonetheless.
The wife of Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford doesn’t need network gaffes to get attention, for that she suffices within herself. As Super Bowl 56 approaches, the name Kelly Stafford will likely be a trending term once again.
Great moment between Matthew Stafford and his wife. #SuperBowlBound pic.twitter.com/elxZDz691D
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) January 31, 2022
In June of 2020, the couple welcomed their fourth child just 14 months after Kelly underwent surgery to remove a non-cancerous brain tumor.
Stafford had a benign tumor, known as an acoustic neuroma, and it was removed in a 12-hour surgery on April 17, 2019, with doctors telling her there was a 50% chance she could lose her hearing as well as some facial function.
Kelly Stafford, or Kelly Hall as she was known before marrying the long time Detroit Lions quarterback, opened up about this on her podcast.
Stafford/Hall gets very candid on her pod, as well as on her social media platforms, where she has hundreds of thousands of followers. The couple met in college, the University of Georgia where she was a cheerleader and he was, obviously, the star QB.
Before coming the #1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Just in case that story isn’t Americana cliche enough for you, don’t worry, I’m sure they went to the sock hop and shared a malt with two straws before he gave her his varsity letterman’s jacket and asked her to “go steady.”
It’s all very reminiscent of former Iowa Hawkeyes WR Matt Vandeberg and his cheerleader wife, Laura.
Kelly hails from Atlanta, and she has a brother with NFL ties. That would be former Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Chad Hall, who is now an assistant coach for the Buffalo Bills.
And Kelly Stafford is not without controversy, although nothing too wild, egregious and outrageous, especially given the times in which we currently live. The following is not all that salacious, so don’t get your hopes up.
She once threw a soft pretzel segment at a fan who was heckling her. Not her best moment, but she showed a lot of remorse for it, so it’s all good.
More than we can say about Morgan Miller, wife of former Dayton and Indiana Hoosiers coach Archie Miller.
Anyway, enjoy the Super Bowl, in which the Rams will play in their home stadium; as -4.5 point favorites. It’s probably a good time as ever, with the Rams in the Super Bowl again, to revisit “Ram It,” the over-the-top sexually explicit rap music video the 1986 L.A. Rams made.
Because why not.
To follow Kelly Stafford online, check out her Instagram page and podcast
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.