All through the second half of the Rams-Bucs game Sunday, Matthew Stafford watched his teammates do what people accuse him of doing. The Rams made one losing play after another, a display so staggering it looked like someone spiked their sports drink. They lost four fumbles in a 28-minute stretch. Kicker Matt Gay somehow left a 47-yard field goal short. Sean McVay, one of the best coaches in the NFL, seemed to call plays out of fear. And yet the Rams won anyway because, on a field sprinkled with future Hall of Famers, Stafford was the best player.
This was not surprising to many who have watched Stafford, but it was probably quite surprising to those who have read about him. Until this month, he had never won a playoff game. To much of the public, that failure defined him.
The NFL playoffs are down to four teams, and the four quarterbacks of those teams each carry a narrative with him. Quarterbacks are not just passers or runners or both. They are debate fodder. Some get tagged as winners and others as losers, as though every game reveals not just a skill set but a soul.
