As Goff learned, they love you — until they don’t
By Art Spander
This is the way it is in pro sports: They love you — until they don’t. And that’s management, the people in control. Sometimes the fans never love you. No matter what you accomplish.
The linking of Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams was perfect. Until, alas, it wasn’t.
He was born and raised in California; played quarterback at Cal so effectively the Los Angeles Rams made him the overall No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft; helped lead the Rams to the Super Bowl in his second season.
A golden boy from and in the Golden State.
Then, whup, traded to the Detroit Lions. For another quarterback, Matthew Stafford, also an overall No. 1 pick. Well, maybe “whup” isn’t quite accurate.
As of a few days ago when the Rams failed to offer anything more than unqualified support — “He is our quarterback right now” was the cryptic comment from L.A. coach Sean McVay after the Rams’ playoff loss two weeks ago — change was a possibility.
The hero has become a bum. The golden boy has been tarnished. At 26, Jared Goff was dispatched. Thanks for dropping by, and good luck on that team that never has any luck — real or Andrew Luck.
He’s the Stanford quarterback also selected No. 1 overall, in 2012, who after injuries retired before the 2019 season. And is rumored to be coming back.
Those QBs are so valuable. You don’t win only with a quarterback. You need a defense, receivers, running backs, a kicker. But rarely do you win without a quarterback. He is the leader, the one who — as we’ve been taught — handles the ball on every play.
Norv Turner, who has coached several teams, including the Chargers, said during a season a great quarterback will win a couple of games that, without him, you would have lost.
Then again, if Stafford is the answer, the savior, someone the Rams preferred over the man they had, Goff, why didn’t the Detroit Lions ever win a playoff game in Stafford’s 12 seasons?
This is the start of Super Bowl week, and unquestionably the teams who made it, Tampa Bay and Kansas City, have brilliant quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes of K.C. arguably the best now playing, and Tom Brady, arguably the best of all time.
Such a quest to find somebody of quality, if not another Mahomes or Brady. Or Joe Montana. Or John Elway. Or Terry Bradshaw. Someone to win those couple of games along the way you would have lost.
The 49ers have the guy who once was Brady’s backup at New England, Jimmy Garoppolo. He helped direct the Niners to the Super Bowl in 2019. As with Goff when the Rams got there, Garoppolo was on the team that didn’t win.
The 49ers are looking for someone else, according to the rumors. Stafford was one of their preferences. Now he’s joined one of their division opponents.
What happens to Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, as Goff a Cal alum, who describes his future as a “beautiful mystery,” is, well, beautifully mysterious.
Everybody except K.C. and Tampa Bay (and of course the Rams and Lions) wants Houston’s Deshaun Watson, who wants out of Houston — but according to the Texans will remain.
So much instability. So much uncertainty.
A year and a half ago, the Rams signed Goff to a four-year $134 million contract extension. He was their quarterback. He’s now the Lions’ quarterback.
Goff incurred a broken thumb in the last game of the 2020 season. Yet it was broken trust by McVay and the Rams’ front office that cost the quarterback his job.
Along the way the decision was made, quoting that nefarious phrase bosses often employ, to go in a new direction.
How far the Rams — and Lions — will go after trading their franchise quarterback for a franchise quarterback should create as many questions as answers.