Rams’ Matthew Stafford reveals how much longer he hopes to play, whether he rooted for Lions in 2023 playoffs

Matthew Stafford briefly considered retirement prior to the 2023 NFL season. A year later, preparing for the start of the 2024 campaign, the Los Angeles Rams quarterback has no plans to hang up the cleats anytime soon, revealing to “Pardon My Take” this week how long he intends to keep playing.

“I appreciate this game,” Stafford said. “It’s given me a ton. I hope I got three or four [seasons] left in me. We’ll see. Every year’s a new year. But I do feel good.”

The 36-year-old Super Bowl champion previously hinted late in the 2023 campaign that he’d be sticking around for the foreseeable future, despite admittedly having a “conversation” about retirement after a 2022 season riddled by injuries: “I don’t think I’ll go until the wheels completely fall off,” he joked last November, [but] I enjoy playing too much to hang it up.”

Just this summer, Stafford agreed to a restructure of the four-year, $160 million contract he signed with the Rams following his 2021 Super Bowl win. He’s still tied to L.A. through the 2026 season, though the Rams can technically release or trade the two-time Pro Bowler without a negative impact to their salary cap after this season.

On the field, Stafford is coming off something of a career revival, helping lead the Rams back to the playoffs after injuries cost him eight games the year prior. He was an MVP candidate back in 2021, throwing a career-high 41 touchdowns as the figurehead of Sean McVay’s title-winning offense.

His 2023 season ended, however, with a playoff loss to his old team, the Detroit Lions.

“That was honestly one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever played a football game in,” Stafford told the “Pardon My Take” podcast. “Sean and I talk about it all the time. It was incredibly loud. … It was go time from the first time we stepped out of the tunnel.”

Did Stafford root for Detroit after his Rams fell to the Lions?

“No, I’m not rooting for anybody at that point,” he explained. “I have a couple teammates — ex-teammates — that I really wanted to see play well, but at that point, I wish everybody could lose. … I’m like, ‘Eff this, I wish I could be out there.'”