Guess who’s back, back again in Detroit? Matthew Stafford , former Detroit Lions quarterback, who will be leading his squad into a hostile Ford Field on Sunday night in a wildcard matchup.
And the former Lions gunslinger got some words of discouragement from a Motor City legend: Eminem. Wearing a Barry Sanders hoodie, the southeast Michigan native issued a brief video plea to his former quarterback: Let the Lions win.
“Stafford, what’d I say? You owe me this favor, bro. I was there for you when you won it. I was there for you. I was right there. I rapped for you, Stafford. Bro, I rapped for you. Can you just let us have this one? Just this one,” Eminem said in the video shared by NBC’s Sunday Night Football social media pages.
Stafford began his career in Detroit after being selected by the Lions with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. He managed to guide the franchise to a trio of playoff appearances, but struggled to overcome what plagued Detroit for so many quarterbacks and players.
Eventually, he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams ahead of the 2021 season, in which Stafford and the Rams promptly won the Super Bowl.
Sunday night will be Stafford’s first game back in Detroit since the trade and the reception is likely to be mixed. Fans around Detroit haven’t harbored ill-will toward Stafford, but did try to make a move to not have any No. 9 Stafford jerseys be worn in the stands on Sunday night.
And while he surely will keep on being a Stafford fan, for Sunday at least, Eminem will be treating him as persona non grata.
Lions OC Ben Johnson is likely to be a hot head coaching candidate this offseason
The Carolina Panthers have begun the process of finding a new head coach following the firing of Frank Reich this past November.
According to reports from Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Carolina has requested to interview Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken for its head coaching vacancy. In addition, the Panthers have requested an interview with Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. All three are expected to be on the shortlist of every team searching for a new head coach.
Johnson was one of the first names to be linked with Carolina’s opening following his success over the last two seasons in Detroit. Johnson, 37, has spent the past five seasons with the Lions, the last two as the team’s offensive coordinator. He is the mastermind behind a Lions offense which ranked No. 3 in the league in yards per game (394.8) and fifth in points per game (27.1). He reportedly declined a second interview with Carolina for the same opening last offseason, paving the way for the team to hire Reich.
Monken, 57, is far more well-traveled, having begun his coaching career in 1989 as a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State. He is in his first year in Baltimore and spearheads the league’s No. 6 ranked offense. Quarterback Lamar Jackson has flourished under Monken and is the leading candidate for the AP NFL MVP Award. Monken served as offensive coordinator for Georgia the previous three seasons, helping lead the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and ’22.