The year was 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.

Pro Bowl rosters were about to be announced and Lewand wanted to give his young star advance notice that he did not make the NFC team.

Initially, Stafford thought he was being pranked. After all, he was well on his way to finishing 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 heading to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.

But Lewand was serious.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

It was at that moment Stafford realized his best might never be good enough in the eyes of some. Thirteen years later, I’d argue nothing has changed, which is why I view Stafford as the most underappreciated and underrated quarterback of the last two-plus decades.

When people talk about the top active signal callers, they rightfully place Patrick Mahomes on a perch by himself. The platform below typically 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 his career narrative.

Despite ranking top-10 all-time in yards passing, touchdown passes and fourth-quarter comebacks, and despite winning a Super Bowl several years ago in his first season with the Los Angeles Rams, Stafford, the first pick of the 2009 draft, has never been voted All-Pro and has appeared in just two Pro Bowls.

I bring this up now because I’m not sure people realize how significant his impact has been on the Rams this season, notably during their current three-game win streak. It’s not so much about what he’s doing, but when he’s doing it, often coming up large late in games after the offense has sputtered for two-plus quarters.

Against the Vikings two weeks ago, he threw two second-half touchdown passes to Demarcus Robinson, one late in the third quarter, the other with 6:17 to go in regulation, to keep Minnesota at a distance. And last week in Seattle, his 39-yard scoring toss to Robinson was the walk-off 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 infectious, as is his fearlessness in consequential moments. He has the rare ability to make others believe in situations in which they might otherwise doubt.

Admittedly, I was a skeptic when the Rams traded for him in 2021. Is he really that much of an upgrade over Jared Goff, I wondered. Goff is six years younger and had helped Los Angeles reach the Super Bowl several years earlier. Stafford had three playoff appearances in 12 seasons with Detroit, each ending with 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’ retirement. The only memorable moment was in 2008 when they became the first team to finish a season 0-16.

Stafford’s arrival in Detroit the following year didn’t do much to move the needle. The Lions went 8-24 in his first two seasons, leaving them far beyond relevancy. That partially explains why he was marginalized in the 2011 Pro Bowl voting despite throwing for more touchdowns than Tom Brady and passing for more yards than Aaron Rodgers.

“I kind of wrapped my head around it and said, ‘If I didn’t make it, then that’s just the way it’s going to be, and that’s OK. I’m just not going to make a lot of these things,’” Stafford reflected Friday afternoon.  “At certain times I feel (underappreciated), at other times I don’t. But I definitely don’t sit here week in and week out and think about it. My wife and family probably think about it more than I do. I’m out here every day just trying to prove myself. In this league, you have to continue to try to do that. What success you’ve had in the past doesn’t matter. If you’re not trying to improve yourself every time you step on the grass, you’re probably not in the right spot.”

Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris spent the previous three years as the Rams defensive coordinator, where he got an up-close view of Stafford. He thought the former Georgia star was an elite talent before that, but he knew it after observing him daily.

“When we got him in the building in L.A., I found out how smart he was, how intelligent he was, how much he took to the game, how much he studied the game, and how well he communicated with everyone from coaches to players to staff,” Morris told me last week. “I got to see how special he was with his guys. It was just different. He brings a certain type of relaxation to the players that he plays with, and he can play with just about anybody, whether you’re a rookie or a veteran. That’s unique because there are quarterbacks who need their guys, they need their people. With Matthew, it doesn’t matter. Whoever you put out there with him, he’s going to make them a better football player.”

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The ability to elevate others’ performances is the essence of athletic greatness, but the meaning can be lost in translation if not accompanied by victories. That’s why it was so easy to underestimate Stafford in Detroit. But ask yourself this: What would those Lions teams 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. On two occasions he led the league in that category, including in 2016 when his eight late-game rallies set a league record that stood unmatched until two years ago, when Kirk Cousins and the Vikings tied it.

What’s wild is that the specialness of Stafford hasn’t been lost solely on casual fans or uneducated media (raising hand). The Lions also needed a reality check in 2014 after his fifth season.

They had just hired Jim Caldwell as head coach, and not long afterward a high-ranking team official questioned whether it was time to trade Stafford. The suggestion did not go over well with Caldwell, a source familiar with the discussion said. Caldwell had accepted the job in part because of Stafford, in whom he saw the required traits for success at the position: intelligence, toughness, fearlessness, arm strength, touch, abilities to make every throw off multiple platforms, and, perhaps most importantly, selflessness.

Caldwell reasoned that the team could do more if Stafford did less — the Lions had made only one postseason appearance in the previous 14 years — so the veteran coach preached offensive balance.

The result: After attempting 634 or more passes in each of the three seasons pre-Caldwell, Stafford landed under 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.

The changes helped the Lions post three winning seasons and two playoff appearances in four years. The last time they had managed consecutive winning seasons was 1993-95. When outsiders used to criticize Stafford in Detroit, Caldwell would caution that Stafford wasn’t the problem. He just needed a little help from his friends, which he has gotten 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’ve got to go defend him, thinking back to the Detroit days — you were always scared of the Lions because of him,” Morris said. “Every game that he played in, 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 play alive, he has unique toughness that separates him from everybody. In my opinion, he was more close to Aaron Rodgers than we gave him credit for every single year because he made all the off-platform throws, all the no-look throws, all the things that Aaron did. He was the exact same, except that he did it in Detroit and didn’t get as many wins.”

The Rams (4-4) appear primed for a run with their next four games against Miami, New England, Philadelphia and New Orleans. More wins will bring more eyeballs, which means more opportunities to witness the specialness of Stafford. Not that he’s worried about the opinions of outsiders. He wants the respect of those he plays with and against, as well as those who have preceded him and will follow him.

GO DEEPER

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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 will conclude his career in Los Angeles is a matter of conjecture, as our Jourdan Rodrigue recently outlined. I asked him how long he wanted to play.

“I don’t know,” he said coyly. “Depends on how long they’ll have me around here. But I am enjoying 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 envisioned him being left off the Pro Bowl roster in 2011.

(Top photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)