It's not Matthew Stafford's job to worry whether Matt Patricia is going to get fired. And as the veteran Detroit Lions quarterback has shown over the years -- much to some fans' chagrin -- he's reluctant to call out his coach, no matter who it is.
That made his comments Thursday all the more revealing.
After getting waxed by the Houston Texans on Thanksgiving, the 4-7 Detroit Lions looked like a team all but certain to can their head coach in the near future.
Stafford was asked about that possibility after the loss, and he had a pretty jarring reposne.
“It’s not my decision,” Stafford said, via ProFootballTalk. “That’s for somebody else. If you want to ask me about the game, you can ask me about the game.”
He's certainly within his rights to answer that way, but it nevertheless was a shocking approach. Most players, when directed that question will say something along the lines of what he said Sunday after Detroit's embarrassing 20-0 defeat to the Carolina Panthers.
"Obviously, I can play better," Stafford said then, via the Detroit News. "I'm the guy that touches the ball on offense every play, so the better I play, the better we'll play as a team. ... It wasn't so much the game plan as it was our execution."
Maybe Stafford electing not to go that route this time tells you all you need to know about the quarterback's stance on the matter.
