Culture

Tired of being blamed for Lions' shortcomings, Scott Mitchell sets the record straight

Published

10 months ago

March 10, 2024

Tired of being blamed for Lions' shortcomings, Scott Mitchell sets the record straight

SALT LAKE CITY — Scott Mitchell sinks into the soft gray sectional at 1 a.m.

Hey look, Barry Sanders is on television. It’s a promo for “Bye Bye Barry,” a documentary that debuted on Amazon Prime one hour earlier.

Watching Sanders was always a thrill, even when he was a teammate. Sometimes Mitchell was criticized for doing just that rather than following through with his play fake after handing off. The way Sanders moved was mesmerizing, and Mitchell couldn’t help himself.

Now the 56-year-old has time to watch television at 1 a.m. A few weeks earlier, he was let go from his job as a sports talk radio host for KSL Newsradio, a job he held for seven years.

Mitchell finds “Bye Bye Barry.”

There’s Sanders saying the Lions might have won some playoff games if they hadn’t let go of some players, including Mitchell’s predecessor, Erik Kramer. There’s head coach Wayne Fontes telling Sanders, “We had every piece but the quarterback.” There’s Eminem saying the Lions could have won more if Sanders wasn’t a one-man team. There’s Jeff Daniels joining the chorus.

Mitchell isn’t attacked as much as dismissed.

He seethes, gets off the couch, makes his way to his iMac, logs on to Facebook and begins to type. As soon as he finishes, he thinks he should delete it.

Nah. He hits “Post.”

Scott Mitchell: I just watched “Bye Bye Barry” on Amazon Prime and It wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I was Barry Sanders teammate for five years. I had a front row seat to some of the most amazing plays in NFL history. He will never have an equal as a pure runner in the NFL. I could argue there were several backs more complete, but I won’t. Barry was great!!

The 6-foot-6 Mitchell couldn’t do much with his feet, but with a left arm like Dumbledore’s wand, he didn’t have to. The ball left his big hand at the highest point and glided over the field, a gull over the sea. And the spin — it should have been the subject of a physicist’s thesis.

Greg Landry, Lions quarterbacks coach in 1995-96: “He could throw the heck out of the football, so accurate.”

Lomas Brown, left tackle: “Scott threw one of the prettiest balls — one of the tightest balls — I’ve ever seen. He could spin that thing, he really could.”

Herman Moore, wide receiver: “He threw probably the best ball that ever was thrown to me, just perfect passes. His was the easiest pass for me to catch.”

Marc Trestman, quarterbacks coach in 1997: “The ball always came out of his hand spinning, almost without effort. There was nothing he couldn’t do in the pocket.”

In three years at Utah, Mitchell set 10 NCAA records and became the 11th leading passer of all time. Miami chose him in the fourth round of the 1990 draft, and he was embraced and empowered by the great Don Shula, who handed Mitchell a playbook on his first day and told him he would be calling his own plays in practice. Mitchell learned how to be a pro by backing up Dan Marino, passer of passers.

Mitchell loved being a Dolphin and bonded easily with many of his teammates. The South Florida lifestyle suited him. But it was a dead-end job, and after two seasons without attempting a pass in a game, Mitchell volunteered to play for the Orlando Thunder of the World League. He threw for the second-most yards in the league and led the Thunder to an 8-2 record.

That year, he also joined Freeman McNeil, Marcus Allen and nine other players in an antitrust suit against the NFL that resulted in unrestricted free agency for the first time in the league’s history.

Then, in Week 6 of the 1993 season, Marino tore his Achilles and Mitchell had his showcase. He was named NFL offensive player of the week after his first game as a starter. Then he was named offensive player of the month.

In the first year of free agency, Reggie White was the grand prize. In 1994, it would be Mitchell. The Dolphins wanted to make him the highest-paid backup in the league with an unheard-of-at-the-time $1.5 million-per-year offer, but richer overtures followed.

Scott Mitchell shone in relief of Dan Marino in 1993, setting up a robust market in free agency the following offseason. (Doug Collier / Getty Images)

The charming Fontes came to Mitchell’s home and showed him the cigar he would light if Mitchell signed with Detroit. The Vikings handed him an 11-page booklet explaining why he was the only quarterback they wanted. Saints coach Jim Mora gave him a 90-minute sales pitch. Rams coach Chuck Knox pledged that, with Mitchell as his QB, no one would call him “Ground Chuck” anymore.

Mitchell had misgivings about how Fontes had used — or misused — quarterbacks in the past but decided to sign a three-year, $11 million deal with Detroit that included a $5 million signing bonus, the second largest in NFL history at the time and $500,000 more than White received from the Packers the year before. Lions GM Chuck Schmidt flew to South Florida to hand Mitchell the check.

“It was a blue check. More zeros than I had ever seen, ever,” Mitchell says. “And I was nervous, like, we need to get this in the bank.”

After making the deposit, he and Dolphins center Jeff Dellenbach celebrated at Burt and Jack’s, Burt Reynolds’ waterfront Fort Lauderdale restaurant. They ordered the two largest lobsters in the house — six-pounders — and a pair of filets so massive they needed to be butterflied to cook evenly.

The celebration ended when Mitchell arrived in Detroit.

Scott Mitchell: I am so tired of hearing that I was the reason Barry Sanders never won the Super Bowl. I’m so tired of hearing that I wasn’t a good QB. My only response is F### you all! That includes Eminem and Jeff Daniels.

The Lions made the NFC Championship Game two years prior and were loaded with former or future Pro Bowlers. All they needed, the narrative went, was a quarterback.

Mitchell probably was resented in his own locker room because of that blue check. And because he wasn’t Kramer, a well-liked part-time starter over three seasons. Brown believes Lions management failed to properly integrate Mitchell into a veteran team that was “still upset with them letting Erik Kramer go.”

When he got to Detroit, Mitchell sensed something was off, but he wasn’t sure what. “I just felt like I was interrupting a party,” he says. “Of all the places I played, Detroit was the one where I felt the most disconnected from my teammates.”

Moore was the exception. The quarterback and receiver recognized that they needed one another and bonded through shared commitment. They eventually could tell what the other was thinking without words or gestures. Moore says it is no coincidence that Mitchell was his quarterback all three years he was voted first-team All-Pro.

But Mitchell didn’t concern himself enough with chemistry, relationships, even reading the room. He would host a yearly dinner for the offense — buying prime steaks, fresh stone crabs from Florida and cheesecake from Chicago — but his focus, almost his sole focus, was being the best passer he could be. Naivete led him to believe he could succeed in any situation if he just applied himself more. It resulted, Mitchell believes, in being perceived as aloof and unapproachable.

“Scott was Scott,” Brown says. “Mostly to himself. Kind of quiet.”

In his first eight starts, Mitchell threw 11 interceptions and completed 48 percent of his throws. He was booed in his first game at the Pontiac Silverdome — and every subsequent game. He was struggling against the Packers in Week 9 when he suffered a broken right hand and was lost for the season.

In a 2012 radio interview, Brown said he purposely missed a block on the play that knocked Mitchell out for the season. Brown’s recollection of the play was faulty — he handled his assignment well while Sanders failed to pick up a blitzing safety — but he acknowledges his disgust with Michell’s play and regrets his ill intent.

“I was pissed off during the game,” he says. “I mean, I was mad.”

Mitchell wasn’t aware of Brown’s feelings during their playing days, but the lineman’s admission hurt him. “I’d never do that to another person, let alone a teammate,” Mitchell says. “I felt I got thrown under the bus for no reason. I don’t see Lomas. I don’t talk to Lomas. I don’t want to either.”

After the season, teammates presented him with a trophy featuring a turkey on top — the “Wanker of the Year” award given annually to the biggest complainer.

“I didn’t know if it was a joke, or if they were saying I was kind of a dick,” he says. “It could have been either one.”

Scott Mitchell: I can’t even tell you what a disappointment it is to hear my own coach, Wayne Fontes, who went out in free agency and actively pursued me to the point of begging me to come to Detroit, say that he wanted Joe Montana and Warren Moon, and that the only thing missing from the team winning the Super Bowl was a quarterback. A little support from the coach may have gone a long way. Wayne never had my back!

The 1995 season began with the Lions losing three games they easily could have won. Fontes called some of his team leaders to his office. One of them — Mitchell thinks it was safety Bennie Blades — said, “You brought this quarterback here to throw the ball. Let him throw it.”

Tom Moore, who had been promoted to offensive coordinator in the offseason, met with Mitchell. Detroit’s offense was reimagined using the same take-what-the-defense-gives-you, audible-based system Moore and Peyton Manning later used to set records and win a Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

“We changed our strategy,” Mitchell says. “We stopped forcing Barry Sanders on people.”

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In Mitchell’s first 15 games with the Lions, he averaged 23 pass attempts. After the meeting with Moore, he averaged 37 attempts per game. Detroit won 10 of 13 and led the league in yards. Mitchell was the NFL’s second-leading passer behind MVP Brett Favre.

“That year we put up statistically was because of Scott and his ability,” Brown says.

But that was the regular season. In a 58-37 wild-card-round loss to the Eagles, Mitchell was intercepted four times and Sanders rushed for 40 yards.

With Mitchell flinging it at a similar rate the next season, the Lions started 4-3. Then Fontes pulled him in the middle of a series during a three-interception game against the Giants. The next night, Mitchell showed up at the team Halloween party dressed as his coach: a pillow under his shirt, a cigar — and Mickey Mouse ears.

He was warming up for a practice later that week when he pulled a muscle off his ribs. He was so determined to play that at 5:30 a.m. the next day, he drove 45 minutes to Henry Ford Hospital, where they stuck a four-inch needle into his ribs and kept it there for 12 minutes to deaden the pain. He passed out the first time, then went back every subsequent morning for another.

It helped his pain but not his passing. “I just couldn’t throw,” Mitchell says. “It was the damndest thing.”

Mitchell started six more games, all losses, performing poorly. Tired of being told he sucked, he stopped going to grocery stores, restaurants and movies.

After the season, Lions owner William Clay Ford asked Mitchell what he should do about Fontes, who had a 66-67 record in nine years. Mitchell never felt like he was one of Fontes’ guys, but he says he told Ford there was nothing wrong with the team and asked him not to change the offense. “We just need more time,” the quarterback told the owner. “Just give us more time.”

Ford fired Fontes and hired Bobby Ross, a former Army lieutenant who coached like one. In Mitchell’s first meeting with his new coach, Mitchell said he thought the offense had much more potential than it had shown. Ross told him Herman Moore told him the same thing and asked if they were in cahoots. “And then he goes, ‘All you guys are interested in is your stats,’” Mitchell says.

According to Mitchell, Ross barred him from meeting with new offensive coordinator Sylvester Croom and told him not to speak with Ford or his son, William Clay Ford Jr., with whom Mitchell had become friendly. The Lions had already decided to double down on Mitchell by giving him a four-year, $21 million contract extension with an $8 million signing bonus, but Ross hadn’t had a say in the decision.

Sanders refused to report until the Lions adjusted his contract so his average per year exceeded Mitchell’s. Mitchell long suspected Sanders didn’t think much of him, and the relationship had difficulties.

“It was challenging to play with him,” Mitchell says. “A lot of those other running backs of the day weren’t going to get you behind the chains very often, and we were behind the chains a lot with Barry. If you didn’t run Barry the right way, it was hard, and it put everyone else in a bind.”

In most offenses, Mitchell would have taken former Bengals teammate Corey Dillon over Sanders. Or Emmitt Smith. Or Marshall Faulk. Or Terrell Davis.

“When we used (Sanders) the way we did in Tom Moore’s offense, I’d take him over anyone,” Mitchell says. “But what made it great was our willingness to throw the football.”

With Croom replacing Tom Moore, the offensive philosophy changed, de-emphasizing the passing game.

“Sylvester got so stuck on Barry and running the ball that a lot of guys were forgotten,” Mitchell says. “Barry rushed for 2,000 yards and it was all wonderful, but we could have been so much more. … It was an amazing opportunity lost.”

In Ross’ first year, Trestman served as a sounding board for Mitchell and a bridge to Ross. But he left after the 1997 season and was replaced by Jim Zorn, who clashed with Mitchell about almost everything. The Lions made the playoffs but lost 20-10 to the Bucs. Mitchell had 78 passing yards in the third quarter when he left the game on a stretcher with a concussion. Sanders rushed for 65 yards.

After opening the 1998 season with two losses, Mitchell was benched in favor of rookie Charlie Batch. His Lions career was over. Detroit traded Mitchell to Baltimore in the offseason for third- and fifth-round picks.

The Lions’ loss to the Bucs in the playoffs following the 1997 season was the beginning of the end for Scott Mitchell in Detroit. (Getty Images)

“Us failing wasn’t about Scott as much as it was failing to put the right coaching, schemes and systems around him,” Brown says.

“Scott had an offensive line. He had a running back. He had receivers,” Herman Moore says. “Some of the coaches that came in were so rigid that it was their way or the highway. In that regard, we were all set up to fail because there was no collaboration.”

Mitchell was the opening-day starter for the Ravens the next season but was benched after the second game. In 2000, he signed with the Bengals as a backup and started five games late in the year. He returned to Cincinnati the following season but never started again.

During a preseason game against the Lions, he planned to fire a pass at the sideline to bean Ross. He didn’t do it, but after retiring, he called his former coach to apologize for his rancor nonetheless. Mitchell says Ross appreciated the call and told him, “For what it’s worth, I never should have benched you.”

For the next two years, Mitchell practiced every day as if he would be starting an NFL game soon. He called Cowboys coach Bill Parcells repeatedly to ask for a chance. Parcells never called back. The Raiders finally asked him to come to Oakland for a workout. When he arrived, the tryout was delayed. Then it was canceled.

Mitchell went home and set up for another practice. Then it hit him. It was over.

“I fell to the ground,” he says. “And sobbed uncontrollably.”

Scott Mitchell: Bottom line. Barry had everything in Detroit. Everyone loved him. Everything was built for Barry to succeed. In his 10-year career, he won one playoff game and everyone else was the problem? How many yards did Barry have in the playoffs in 94, 95, and 97? I’ll give you a hint: Not very many. We are all to blame for not winning a SB in Detroit, even Barry Sanders.

One of Mitchell’s earliest childhood memories was when he was about 2, staying with his grandmother and waking to the smell of Kentucky Fried Chicken, then sitting up in his crib and yelling, “I want Tucky Chicken!” It was the start of a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits.

In his book “Alive Again,” Mitchell acknowledges struggling with his weight during his playing career. He often gained 20 pounds or so in the offseason, but he always dropped the weight and says he never was fined for failing to make his prescribed playing weight of 235 pounds.

By 2014, Mitchell was 13 years and 125 pounds beyond his NFL days. Weighing 366 pounds, he became a contestant on the TV show “The Biggest Loser,” which had him doing eight hours of cardio a day and preparing his own healthy meals. It was hard, so hard he decided to quit in the middle of the show.

“At that point, I felt like I failed,” he says, wiping a tear.

It wasn’t about failing on “The Biggest Loser” as much as it was about failing in football, in life. He took a hike in the Santa Monica mountains and decided to rest. Alone, he sat on a dusty dirt trail. That’s when he says he heard a deep, booming voice: “If you quit now, you’ll regret this for the rest of your life.”

He woke the next morning and saw his football career in a different light. He realized adversity had shaped his character. Through his disappointments and failures, he became more forgiving — even of himself. He developed patience and perspective and discovered he was more resilient than he knew.

Mitchell didn’t quit the show. He lost 124 pounds. And he stopped feeling like a failure.

Since then, it’s been a struggle. Mitchell weighed as much as 418 last year but lost 35 pounds after starting a weight-loss drug and embarking on a workout program with his wife, Anne, whom he married last month. But in January his kidneys shut down, and after five days in the hospital, he developed blood clots in his lungs. He has since regained his health and expects to resume his weight-loss program soon.

Scott Mitchell, at his Utah home, weighed as much as 418 pounds last year but lost 35 pounds after embarking on a weight-loss program. (Dan Pompei / The Athletic)

He doesn’t talk much to Sanders, who was unavailable for this story. Hardly anyone does. Or ever did.

“He never said a word, ever,” Mitchell says. “After games, he’d just duck out the back door. And it was OK. But I was not close to Barry at all. I don’t know who he is.”

Mitchell has time for fly fishing, 18 holes and playing guitar, or trying to. And for hosting weekly cooking classes for any of his five adult children — you should taste his almond/coconut encrusted sweet chili salmon with cauliflower mashed potatoes and asparagus with lemon, garlic and feta cheese.

He has time to look for a new platform while remaining the color commentator for Utah football on ESPN 700. He has time to follow his old team. Mitchell hasn’t been to a Lions game in five years, but he pulls for Dan Campbell, Jared Goff and Lions fans.

He has time to start a non-profit to provide disadvantaged youth with STEM education and mentoring from athletes. He has time to drive a visitor to the airport.

In years gone by, passengers would remark about his driving — it was a problem to solve, a game of “Tetris.” How can I get to the destination as quickly and efficiently as possible? He gripped the wheel tightly, looked way down the road and didn’t say much, all focus on the challenge.

He’s not driving that way now.

He’s chatting, appreciating the sights. Here’s Point of the Mountain, which separates Salt Lake City and Provo and is the dividing line between Utah fans and Brigham Young supporters. It’s about 230 miles that way to Moab. Four hours this way is the Grand Canyon.

Mitchell is seeing things he never could have 20 years ago.

He believes the Lions could have won a Super Bowl if he had been properly supported. He wants the world to know it. That was the reason for that Facebook post. He needed to get it out and put it in his rearview mirror.

What would he have done differently if he could go back in time?

He looks out the window. The sun shines. In the distance, the Wasatch mountains wear white caps.

“If I knew what I know now,” Mitchell says, pausing, “I would have stayed in Miami.”

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Vincent Laforet / Allsport via Getty; Dan Pompei / The Athletic)

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Culture

How Jared Goff hitting rock bottom became his and the Detroit Lions’ salvation

Published

8 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

How Jared Goff hitting rock bottom became his and the Detroit Lions’ salvation

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — First came the beating, another desultory setback in the rapidly degenerating professional life of Jared Goff, the face of a flailing franchise’s enduring futility. That was torture enough. What Goff truly dreaded, however, was The Meeting. Summoned to Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell’s office on a late-October Tuesday in 2022, Goff feared the worst, and with good reason. Two days earlier, in an ugly road defeat to the Dallas Cowboys, he’d been responsible for almost as many turnovers (four) as points (six). The Lions were 1-5, and 4-18-1 since Campbell had taken over as a rookie head coach and Goff had become the starting quarterback. It felt like the whole world wanted him benched, and that Campbell, if only out of self-preservation, would imminently grant that wish.

If the perception was that Goff was broken, well, it was a fair assumption. At 24, he’d gone head-to-head with Tom Brady on Super Sunday. Now, having just turned 28, he’d lost his mojo. He was getting booed by the home crowd, and his failings were constantly flaunted. Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, the man who’d rejected Goff, had just hoisted a Lombardi Trophy in his home stadium, validating his wunderkind status. And he’d done it in his first season with Matthew Stafford, the Lions’ longtime starting quarterback who’d been swapped out for Goff. In dating terms, Goff had been dumped by his partner and was now eating ice cream alone on the couch while watching the ex escort a radiant new flame up the red carpet.

As Goff entered Campbell’s office, he braced himself for bad news. “I know how this thing goes,” he told himself. “I’m not naïve. Is this it for me?” Yet Campbell, an outside-the-box hire with an unflinching nature, told his struggling starter he was sticking with him. And as Goff began to exhale, he had an epiphany.

“Man, I’ve got to stop trying to do too much,” Goff told Campbell. “I’ve been trying to overcome certain things throughout the game, constantly thinking that this is the moment we’re gonna turn it around. I’m squeezing so hard trying to help us win, because we all want it so badly. I have to release that a little bit and just do my job, one play at a time. I’m just gonna do my job and not worry about the rest of it.”

Campbell stared back at his quarterback and smiled. “Jared,” he said, “that’s all I’ve wanted you to do this whole time.”

It was a mental shift that helped Goff manage the emotions he’d experienced since being traded to the Lions after the 2020 season, a move that blindsided him and crushed his confidence. The conversation fortified his bond with Campbell and laid the groundwork for a connection with a famished fan base that would come to view his redemption story as its own. Long before Goff became an MVP candidate and the Lions (10-1), who host the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving, became the betting favorite to win Super Bowl LIX and inspired an iconic chant, the embattled quarterback unlocked the mystery in the nick of time.

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“It’s like you squeeze so hard, and the actual answer is to release,” Goff explained last week while sitting in an upstairs room of his Bloomfield Hills, Mich., home, which doubles as a film-watching sanctuary and memorabilia alcove. “Everyone wanted to fire Dan, fire (general manager Brad Holmes) and bench me. If we’d kept losing, of course they would. (But) it’s funny — you do your job one play at a time, and a little momentum starts to build. You do it 10 plays in a row, then 15, then 20, and the other 10 on offense are doing their job, and good things start to happen.

“It’s ironic that when you try to do less, more happens.”

Goff is a rock star in the Motor City, a pinpoint passer in the midst of a career year for a team laying waste to its opponents. He may have walked into Campbell’s office with trepidation that day 25 months ago, but he emerged with a bounce in his step that has morphed into a strut.

The day after that fateful meeting, Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp showed up at practice, spoke to reporters and gave Campbell and Holmes a vote of confidence. Four days later, Goff threw for 321 yards in a 31-27 defeat to the Miami Dolphins. And then, somewhat abruptly, the plot shifted and the losing stopped. The Lions are 32-9 since, a tally that includes their first two postseason victories since Jan. 5, 1992, and Goff’s job security rivals Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s.

In May, the Lions signed Goff to a four-year, $212 million contract extension, with $170 million guaranteed. In late November, Goff is armed with eye-popping numbers that serve as a sharp rebuttal to any remaining doubters. His 109.9 passer rating is the league’s second best, as is his 72.9 percent completion percentage. He’s averaging an NFL-high 9.02 yards per attempt, and he’s part of an MVP conversation that includes fellow quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and running backs Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry.

“Jared Goff is operating with as much command and poise as any quarterback in the league,” said San Francisco 49ers assistant head coach/defense Brandon Staley, who was the Rams’ defensive coordinator during Goff’s final season with the team. “They’re putting a lot on his plate pre-snap, and they’re using his experience and knowledge to get into premier plays almost every snap. The timing and ball distribution has been elite all year long. His swagger, unselfishness, and toughness are leading that football team.”

Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, whose team suffered a 24-6 defeat to the Lions on Sunday, views Goff’s success as a direct result of his comfort with Detroit’s offensive scheme: “He has the answers. He knows what he’s looking for. They know how to attack. He and his coaches just see it the same way.”

“He has taken efficiency to a whole new level,” added Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris.

Since being drafted first overall by the Rams in 2016, the former Cal star has relied upon elite accuracy, a quick release and a penchant for remaining cool under fire. What’s different now, as Staley and Bradley suggest, is Goff’s mental grasp of the position, which deepened when Ben Johnson took over as the Lions’ offensive coordinator after the 2021 season.

“I like to say it’s as much his offense as mine,” said Johnson, who has turned down head coaching opportunities in each of the past two cycles. “It’s really based on what Jared does well, what he felt most comfortable with. And we’ve tried the last two and a half years to challenge him and push him outside his comfort zone.”

Campbell noticed an appreciable difference in his quarterback this past offseason. “When he came in,” Campbell said, “you could tell there was a different feel — like, he wanted to have even more ownership in the offense and to take it to a different level. So now the offense is evolving because of his ability to process and see it.”

Jared Goff’s ownership and understanding of the Lions offense has grown exponentially under offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. (Ryan Kang / Getty Images)

Last month, Johnson told Goff that he’s “now asking these PhD-level questions over the course of the week” that the quarterback hadn’t broached previously. “The game’s slowing down for him, too,” Johnson said. “He can recognize coverages right off the bat. He’ll say during the week, ‘Hey, I know we think that they’re doing Cover 2 in this situation, but if they go man, where do you want me to go with the ball?’ Or, ‘I know it’s not a Cover 0 team, but we’re in this exotic formation, and if they do it versus this and I see it, what do you want me to get to?’”

Two Sundays ago, in the third quarter of the Lions’ 52-6 thrashing of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Goff, en route to a 412-yard passing performance, threw a 5-yard touchdown to tight end Brock Wright that particularly stood out to Johnson. The plan was to deliver a backside throw to wide receiver Tim Patrick, who was lined up to the right of the formation. Goff started by looking left, attempting to get Jags safety Darnell Savage to drift toward Wright, who was running to the far left corner of the end zone. When Goff looked back to his right, he noticed Savage had instead moved to his left toward Patrick — as if the Jags knew exactly what the Lions were planning. Rather than proceeding to his third read, Goff alertly turned back to his left and found Wright, abandoned by Savage, wide open for the easy TD.

“It’s just an example of where he is now,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t like that when he first got here.”

Brock on 🤘#JAXvsDET | 📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/9M4hdMMovV
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 17, 2024

Goff’s commitment to intensive film study makes sense, given his physical limitations. Unlike peers such as Jackson, Allen and Patrick Mahomes, Goff can’t rely on his athleticism to get him out of jams and make off-schedule plays. “You do have to find different ways to win in the pocket because you aren’t as fleet of foot,” Goff said. “I have to play disciplined. And the work that I have to do from Monday through Friday, I feel like has to be more. That’s where I feel like I’m able to get my edge, whereas other guys have their athletic ability as their edge.”

There’s another reason Goff is so intent on trying to master his craft: He’s aware of his reputation, and still a bit sensitive about the prevailing perception that McVay, known for his schematic acumen, discarded him because the coach needed an upgrade in that department. It’s a narrative that began in 2017 when it became clear that McVay, then the youngest coach in modern NFL history, was giving his second-year quarterback cues via the in-helmet communications system as Goff waited to receive the snap. It intensified after Goff’s poor performance in L.A.’s 13-3 defeat to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

Because McVay had become the brightest young star in his profession — the joke in league circles was that even his acquaintances were getting head-coaching interviews — it was easy to conclude that Goff wasn’t good enough to bring the coach’s brainy schemes to life. The Rams’ decision to deal him just weeks after he’d come off the bench to win a road playoff game with a broken right thumb seemed abrupt and suggested that there were deep-seated reasons for McVay’s dissatisfaction.

“Everyone externally just assumed that I suck,” Goff said, “because why else would this be happening? People thought, ‘He’s done. He’s damaged goods. His story is over. His career will end in this way. This will be the end of the road.’”

Most of the NFL world, including Rams coach Sean McVay, seemed to think Jared Goff was “damaged goods” by the end of his time in L.A. (Abbie Parr / Getty Images)

The trade hit Goff like an earthquake. The Rams, who’d signed the quarterback to a massive contract extension only 17 months earlier, were so desperate to get out of that deal and land Stafford that they included two first-round draft picks and a third-round selection. Goff got the news while hanging out at his Hidden Hills, Calif., home on a Saturday night in late January, via a phone call from McVay — who was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, celebrating the deal in real time with Stafford and then-Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth, one of Goff’s closest friends on the team.

The news broke instantly, before Holmes, the Lions’ newly hired GM, could get ahold of his new quarterback. Eventually, Goff took phone calls from Holmes — who’d been the Rams’ director of college scouting when he was drafted — and Campbell, both of whom were still at the Lions’ facility as midnight approached.

At first, Goff seemed shellshocked, but when he heard the excitement in Holmes’ and Campbell’s voices, he became fired up and defiant. The next morning, he told me, “I’m just excited to be somewhere that I know wants me and appreciates me.” His phrasing was intentional. McVay’s reproach over the past two seasons had beaten him down, and this was a stark juxtaposition.

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Most of the football world viewed him as a declining quarterback who’d be a stopgap starter — at best — for the Lions, but Holmes and Campbell saw things differently. “Everybody created that monster and that was never the case with us,” said Holmes, who called it a “lazy narrative.” Goff, who’d gone 1-11 as a true freshman starter for Cal in 2013, viewed it as a chance to do something epic.

“The opportunity that I have to be at the ground floor of something is something that most guys don’t get in their career,” he recalled thinking. “You can either see it as something that’s happened to you or something that’s happening for you.”

The turnaround didn’t happen quickly — and Goff’s self-esteem suffered along the way. “It felt like he got traded here to never be talked about again,” said Goff’s wife, Christen, who was his girlfriend at the time. The model and actress relocated from L.A. to Detroit after the trade and had an up-close-and-personal view of the struggle. In 2021, the Lions didn’t win their first game until December, beginning with an 0-10-1 stretch that included a 28-19 road defeat to the Rams.

In February, a week before Stafford and the Rams would defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium, I visited Goff at his Hidden Hills home, and he did his best to put a positive spin on the situation. “We all run our own race, whatever that may be,” he told me then, expressing excitement at the prospect of working with Johnson as his coordinator. “It’s part of the journey, and this year obviously was a tough experience. My time will come, whenever that may be, to get another crack at it, and in order to get there, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”

So Goff did the work — schematically and psychically. He felt stung by the way his Rams tenure ended and experienced conflicting emotions as they won a Super Bowl without him, but he refused to let bitterness be his driving force.

“It’s not vindictive for me,” he insisted. “And I think that was a big part of the journey, that it couldn’t be. Because that’s not enough. That’s not enough to motivate you to get through the hard times. It was never that. … It truly became, how can I help this team and help this city and be a part of this rebuild and do everything I could for Dan and for this coaching staff?”

GO DEEPER

The Lions believed in Jared Goff, and that’s all he needed to come roaring back

Even as the losses mounted, and Goff sensed he might be out of time, Campbell and Holmes never wavered in their support. Both men had long admired Goff’s mental and physical toughness. As things turned around in 2022, Goff’s grit and refusal to fold began to resonate with a fan base conditioned to wallow in enduring misery. The Lions rallied to make a late playoff push but were eliminated on the final night of the regular season — when the Rams lost to the Seattle Seahawks in overtime. Goff got the news during pregame warmups at Lambeau Field, where the Lions’ NFC North rivals, the Green Bay Packers, still faced a win-and-in scenario. Intent on spoiling the Packers’ party, Goff and his teammates earned a 20-16 victory that ended an era for another former Cal quarterback: It was four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers’ final game with the franchise.

It took 12 games before Dan Campbell and Jared Goff celebrated their first win together, but the Lions never wavered in their support for their QB. (Rey Del Rio / Getty Images)

Last season, as the Lions closed in on their first division title and home playoff game in 30 years, it became clear that Goff might have to confront his demons in a conspicuous setting. Sure enough, as if the bracket were drawn up by screenwriters, the third-seeded Lions hosted the sixth-seeded Rams in a first-round playoff game at Ford Field. If Detroit was going to break an NFL-record nine-game postseason losing streak, Goff would have to get past McVay and Stafford.

In the lead-up to the game, Goff tried hard not to make the story about him. As it turned out, tens of thousands of empathic observers would adopt a different approach.

When Goff entered the tunnel to take the field for pregame warmups 50 minutes before kickoff, his image was projected onto the stadium’s video screens. Spontaneously, fans began chanting his name, increasing the volume minutes later when Stafford, who’d spent 12 years as Detroit’s starter, took the field. It was an acknowledgment of the stakes, of Goff’s difficult journey and of a region’s unmitigated embrace of a player who’d won the respect of the paying public.

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“That’s what it felt like,” Goff recalled. “It was very surreal. I was like, ‘Holy s—; this is incredible.’ … They knew I was dumped by this team. They knew that basically (the Rams) said I wasn’t good enough. And they were saying, ‘No, you’re our guy. You are good enough for us. Let’s go win it.’”

Said Christen Goff: “That was so incredible. Everybody here got it. It’s not like they’re cheering his name because they are obsessed with him and they think he’s just everything. It’s because every single one of those people have been him before, or they just get that story, and it resonates with them. … It didn’t feel like fans; it felt like family.”

On the sideline, Goff sidled up to Johnson and told the coordinator, “Dude, I feel great! Let’s go!”

“Yeah,” Johnson answered, “I’d be feeling pretty good if the whole stadium was chanting my name, too.”

Goff delivered, sealing the Lions’ 24-23 victory with an 11-yard pass to star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown just after the two-minute warning — a typically bold Campbell second-down call — and the chants got even louder. When he reached the locker room, his teammates were joyfully mimicking the “Jared Goff” mantra. He cherished the moment, believing it was a one-off.

Ja-red GOFF! Ja-red GOFF!#AllGrit pic.twitter.com/NGBoC8KRMN
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 15, 2024

“I thought that was the end of it,” Goff said. “But yeah, it’s taken on a life of its own.”

The chant resumed a week later at Ford Field as the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to reach the NFC Championship Game. Soon after, it went viral, surfacing at a University of Michigan hockey game, a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game and a high school cheerleading competition in eastern Michigan. The chant has since been busted out at Red Wings and Pistons games, at most Lions road games and at Green Day and Creed concerts.

“Now it’s just a fun thing that everybody’s doing when they’re drunk at a bar, which is honestly just as amazing,” Christen Goff said. “I’ve seen it everywhere. People send me videos; I think somebody got married in Italy and a chant broke out. Now I think it’s Michigan’s inside joke.”

Campbell’s wife, Holly, doesn’t see the phenomenon ceasing anytime soon: “I think 50 years from now, Jared Goff chants will still be happening. I think it’s just a thing now. And it’s beautiful, because it is about the underdog fighting adversity and coming out on top.”

Jared Goff has come to be the perfect representation of Detroit. (Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

Last January, it appeared that Goff’s amazing journey would land him back on the sport’s grandest stage. The Bay Area native returned to his home region for the NFC Championship Game, and Detroit took a commanding, 24-7 halftime lead over the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium. A furious San Francisco comeback dashed that dream — or, quite possibly, delayed it.

The Lions have looked like a legitimate contender from the jump in 2024, and Goff has continued to slay ghosts and smash narratives. In the season opener, he beat the Rams again at Ford Field. In early November, Goff — who as a Golden Bears freshman was pulled from a game at Oregon because he couldn’t throw in a driving rainstorm — completed his first 11 passes, and 18 of 22 overall, in similarly wet conditions in Green Bay.

The following week, in a Sunday night road clash with the Houston Texans, Goff threw five interceptions — more than half his current total for the entire season. Yet the Lions, trailing 23-7 at halftime, rallied to win, 26-23, on Jake Bates’ 52-yard field goal as time expired. Afterward, in the visitors’ locker room, Goff channeled another California native, Kendrick Lamar, and essentially dropped a “Not Like Us” remix while addressing his teammates: “If that ain’t a f—ing lesson that it ain’t over until it’s over, that’s what it is, boys. Way to fight all day. We’re f—ing different. We’re f—ing different than all 31 in this league.”

We found a way pic.twitter.com/lzSSpJVMfM
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 11, 2024

Later, Goff harkened back to the trying times he, many of his teammates and their coaches have experienced together, and the resolve it fostered.

“Yeah, we are (different),” Goff said, leaning forward in the chair where he sits during his marathon film-study sessions at home. “There aren’t many teams who can go through that and win, on the road, on ‘Sunday Night Football,’ with five turnovers — the whole thing. It took everyone to win that game.

“There are no other teams like us. You can’t replicate it unless you go through what we’ve been through. Which is not fun. And most people don’t survive. And most head coaches don’t stand firm with it — and stand in the s—, and stand in the mud, and take all the criticism.”

GO DEEPER

Super Bowl 2025 odds: Lions, Chiefs lead. Eagles, Ravens rising

Goff’s voice rose as he continued.

“I think there were moments where Dan could have turned his back on me,” the quarterback said. “He was the head coach on a team that was 0-10-1, and then at the end of the season we were 3-13-1. Could’ve done it then; could’ve done it in the middle of that first season; could’ve done it the next year when we were 1-6 to start. And he never did. And I’m thankful for that. ‘Cause you see it all over the league, where somebody’s head’s got to fall. They were calling for his head. They were calling for Brad’s head. They were calling for my head. And Dan just held the line and said, ‘No, I believe in what we’re doing here, I believe in Jared, I believe in what we have going on, and he’s our guy.’ And here we are.”

As he continues his unlikely comeback story, Goff is exactly where he wants to be, in a place that appreciates every bit of adversity he has overcome. His name may be chanted all over the world, but the 30-year-old quarterback belongs to Detroit and its appreciative fans, and he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I think they relate to the journey a lot,” Goff said. “Especially the last four years of everyone telling you you’re not good enough, and you kind of turning away from that and saying, ‘Hey, watch me. Let’s see. Let’s see what happens.’ And that motivates me. But I’m not motivated by that as much as I am motivated by wanting to win for this city.”

(Top photo: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

Culture

The 2024 Baseball Trivia Extravaganza: Take our mega quiz to test yourself!

Published

16 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

The 2024 Baseball Trivia Extravaganza: Take our mega quiz to test yourself!

When last we saw a Major League Baseball game, the Los Angeles Dodgers were celebrating a World Series title at Yankee Stadium. If you’re a trivia lover like me, you might have noticed a historical oddity: The Dodgers have now clinched a championship at three different versions of Yankee Stadium — the original (in 1955), the renovated original (in 1981) and the current one (in 2024).

Yet how many times have the Dodgers clinched on their home field? Just once, in 1963 — also against the Yankees, naturally.

Those kinds of connections are everywhere in this wonderfully zany sport. To score well on our annual holiday Trivia Extravaganza, it’s best to keep them in mind. Good luck with the nifty fifty questions for 2024, my baseball friends. You may need it.

(For the best results on mobile, you may want to take the quiz directly at this link.)

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(Top illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Luke Hales, Nick Cammett, Mark Cunningham / Getty Images)

Culture

A guide to Christmas-themed trading cards: From Santa Claus to Clark Griswold

Published

1 day ago

December 24, 2024

Press Room

A guide to Christmas-themed trading cards: From Santa Claus to Clark Griswold

Sports stars, celebrities, and even cryptocurrency all have rookie cards… but does Santa Claus? It’s a question you may ask yourself after consuming a little too much nutmeg. And since the season of giving is officially here, I want to spread some holiday cheer by highlighting Christmas-themed trading cards, which is a bigger niche than you may realize.

So let’s dive into a fun corner of the trading card world, one dominated by the GOAT of gift giving himself: Old St. Nick.

A brief history of Santa Claus trading cards

An 1891 Woolson Spice card. (Photo: eBay)

There isn’t a concrete origin story of Santa Claus trading cards, but some of the first examples in the United States date back to the late 1800s. Ohio-based company Woolson Spice created several artistic Christmas trading cards featuring Santa sitting around the tree with children or on his sleigh. Woolson Spice used the back of the cards to advertise its products, such as Lion Coffee.

There technically isn’t a card from the 19th century that’s coined as Santa’s “true” rookie card among the collecting community, but one of his most known from the time can be found in the 1890 Duke Holidays set. The popular tobacco company produced a 50-card set featuring three Christmas cards, but only the U.S. variation included Santa Claus. According to Professional Sports Authenticators’ (PSA) graded population report, the company has authenticated less than 15 copies. An example of the card is even in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.

1890 Duke Holidays Christmas, U.S. card. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

It’s fascinating to see Santa Claus’ evolution from how he was depicted back then compared to today. Many early picture cards showed a thinner-looking version, sometimes dressed in a green or brown suit. It was Coca-Cola’s advertisements starting in the early 1930s that cemented the image of Santa Claus that we have today (although it was political cartoonist Thomas Nast who originated it in the 1860s). And yes, there are trading cards featuring those old Coke ads that were made in the 1990s.

In the late 1980s, the sports card industry exploded in popularity and began producing more and more sets. One of the first Santa Claus cards that caught the attention of modern collectors is the iconic 1989 Pro Set Football card. The promotional card was given to card shop owners and dealers during the holidays and could not be pulled out of packs, which heightened demand for it.

1989 Pro Set promo card. (Photo: eBay)

The front of the card lists Santa Claus as a “player-coach” and depicts him wearing a baseball cap bearing his own name and a red satin jacket emblazoned with the NFL logo. Inexplicably, he is holding up the very same trading card that he is on, creating a mind-bending card-ception loop. Behind Santa Claus, through a snow-covered window are two Pro Set executives dressed as elves (Leaf remade this card in 2021 with a selection of notable figures ranging from Donald Trump to Pele there instead, which can complicate searches for the more valuable original). The back of the card features Santa Claus’ vital info and a scouting report.

It was such a hit that Pro Set began putting Santa Claus cards into its sets starting in 1990. All of those were printed in far higher quantities, making them easy to obtain today, but the ‘89 card is still highly sought after, with “gem mint” PSA 10 graded copies selling for around $500 to $750.

As the sports card industry continued to innovate in the 1990s, it opened up new opportunities to celebrate the holidays through autograph and memorabilia cards. One of the first autographed cards of Santa Claus can be found in 1991’s Pro Line Portraits with the rarest version limited to 200 copies.

In 1998, Upper Deck produced an oversized Kris Kringle promo card featuring a velvety red piece of “holiday-worn jersey” that was exclusive to the company’s Collector’s Club members. The card can be found on eBay for around $20.

In 2007, Topps created the most comprehensive offering yet, with a special Santa Claus Holiday Set that contains 18 cards, all featuring versions of Santa Claus on Topps’ most popular designs of all time, including a Kris Kringle relic card, an autograph card, and a rookie card that pays homage to Mickey Mantle’s famous 1952 Topps card. Instead of being a “Topps Certified Autograph,” the signed card in this set is a “Topps Santafied Autograph,” with the back of the card insisting, “Santa himself signed this card with the very pen he uses to make his list of all the naughty and nice children around the world.” The back of the relic card, bearing a piece of Santa’s suit, says, “Topps acquired this suit from Santa himself, who requested it be spread as far and as wide as possible so everyone could have a piece of his holiday spirit to cherish and revisit whenever they wish.”

2007 Topps Holiday Set. (Photo: eBay)

In recent years, Topps has produced more Santa Claus autograph and relic cards for its holiday baseball sets (more on those in a minute), but the disclosures have gotten decidedly less whimsical. “The relic on this card is not from anything at all,” says the back of a 2019 offering.

Over the last decade or so, the hobby’s annual holiday set releases have produced more Santa Claus trading cards than ever before. In the most recent Topps Holiday set releases, collectors can pull rare chase cards of other classic North Pole characters such as Mrs. Claus, Frosty the Snowman, the Gingerbread Man, and more.

Holiday-themed sports sets

The sports card industry offers a few holiday-themed sets that bring a seasonal vibe to collecting with unique player-worn holiday sweater cards and festive super short print variations.

The main baseball card release centered around this festive time of the year is Topps Holiday. First produced in 2016, the set has holiday-inspired designs of the MLB’s rookies and stars where you can find hidden elves, snowflakes, and Christmas lights on cards. Collectors can pull autograph cards, player-worn Christmas hat relics, and those aforementioned rare relic/auto cards of Santa Claus. Topps Holiday sets are retail exclusives that can be found online and in stores like Target and Walmart.

2024 Topps Holiday Bobby Witt, Jr. image variation. (Photo: eBay)

A few years after the first Topps Holiday release, Panini, which produces NFL and NBA licensed trading cards, began offering Hoops Basketball and Donruss Football holiday-themed sets that have also become popular with collectors. In 2022 Donruss Football, Panini released a visually stunning Santa Claus Downtown insert. The ultra-rare case hit (there has traditionally been only one Downtown insert per every couple hundred packs) is still in massive demand, with PSA 10 copies selling for more than $1,500. The one-of-a-kind Clearly Donruss Holo parallel of this card sold for $3,234.71 in June of this year — a record high for a Santa Claus card, according to CardLadder’s database, which tracks card sales across major online marketplaces.

I would consider these products to be more collector-focused, with less monetary value on average than many other sets, but they offer plenty of chase cards and autograph relics of top rookies and stars that can still fetch hundreds of dollars. PSA 10 Topps Holiday base rookie cards of superstars like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani sell for north of $100.

Classic holiday movie trading cards

This Peter Billingsley autographed A Christmas Story card sold for $750. (Photo: eBay)

One of my favorite holiday traditions is to sit back with a glass of eggnog and watch Christmas movies — a genre that is also making its way into trading card forms now. This year, actor Chevy Chase released a Christmas Vacation 35th Anniversary Box Set that offers signed cards of the Griswold family and personally used Chevy Chase relic cards. The limited edition release of 300 boxes quickly sold out, but a few have made it to eBay.

Cryptozoic Entertainment and Marquee Trading Cards recently put out a similar set based on the beloved holiday movie “A Christmas Story” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film’s release. Collectors have the chance to pull single and dual autograph cards signed by the cast, hand-drawn sketch cards, and serial-numbered chase cards. Sealed boxes are available on eBay for around $130 and a 1/1 Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) autograph card inscribed “I want a Red Ryder!” has already been pulled from a pack and sold for a penny shy of $1,000.

Billingsley also signed cards for Leaf, some with an “Oh fudge” inscription that are being sold for $99 each — exactly what someone might say after their loved ones find out they spent $99 on a Ralphie autographed card.

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(Top photo: Stephen Pond/Getty Images)