Retired NFL player fires back at Jared Goff's emotional overshare

The Los Angeles Rams underwent a metamorphosis under the watchful eye of HC Sean McVay in 2017. With only a few minor tweaks and a handful of roster changes, the Rams exploded from a 4-12 team to a powerhouse 11-5 team. And at the time, QB Jared Goff changed from an 0-7 struggling rookie to an offensive general who led the team to an 11-4 rebound. Goff would go on to play five seasons with the Rams before being traded away to the Detroit Lions.

Goff was a rookie quarterback for the Rams in 2016, but would be paid just under $81 million for his five seasons in Horns. Before being traded, he would run the Rams to a 42-27 record, complete 63.4 percent of his passes for 18,171 yards, 107 touchdowns, and 55 interceptions. But when it came time to compete in the NFL Playoffs, he faltered. Goff was just 2-3 in the postseason for the Rams. He only completed 57.4 percent of his passes for 1,300 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. So in the NFL Playoffs, Goff averaged 260 passing yards and held a 40 percent win rate.

Players have been traded away for less.

After the Rams lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the 2021 NFL Playoffs, everything changed. And if I could detect that moment when All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald cried on the sidelines, that would be a pivotal moment for the team—shame on any players who did not recognize the importance of that event.

It was that moment of unbridled hopelessness in one of the game's legendary players that rallied the entire Rams football organization. This was less about one player than it was about creating the same urgency that Aaron Donald felt throughout everyone associated with the Los Angeles Rams.

Jared Goff was a 26-year-old quarterback who simply did not feel the urgency of his coaches or teammates. After a humbling 2019 season, he was urged by his coaches to improve his ability to excel when plays broke down. He arrived to the 2020 season full of confidence, believing that he could master throwing off-platform and out of sequence. But Goff continued to shoot himself, and the offense, in the foot. He threw 20 touchdowns in 2020, but threw 13 interceptions that season as well. He also fumbled the football seven times that season.

Hmmm.

A blockbuster trade that Goff can't get past

That loss at Lambeau Field changed the Rams perspective. While the team was in full support of Jared Goff through the 2020 season, the team realized that Goff withered when the spotlights brightened. You certainly recall what came next. The Rams packaged Jared Goff, a 2021 Round 3 pick, a 2022 Round 1 pick, and a 2023 Round 1 pick to pry QB Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions. The Rams would go on to win Super Bowl LVI, and the Lions landed a king's ransom in picks to use in rebuilding a competitor.

It was a rare win-win exchange. The Rams landed a quarterback who was ready to win now, and the Lions hit the reset button to get a quarterback who could win 'someday.' Well, someday is now, and rather than celebrate his good fortune at building a winner with the Detroit Lions, Goff would rather play the victim and use his starring role in Netflix: QB season 2 to whine about how the Rams did him wrong.

That didn't sit well for Rams fans. And it didn't sit well for the former Washington Commanders linebacker Lavar Arrington. Arrington also has a platform, and he taps the brakes hard on Jared Goff's sob story:

Professional football players face being cut, demotion, and traded all the time. As free agents, they have some control over that process. As players under contract, they seldom do. Every player in the NFL faces those conditions, and yet thousands of collegiate football players swarm to the NFL just for the chance to compete in professional football.

Jared Goff started 69 regular-season football games for the Los Angeles Rams. He has since started 65 regular-season football games for the Detroit Lions. Per Over The Cap.clom, Goff has been paid $399,107,504 so far to play in the NFL. So his complaints about how the Rams did him dirty just doesn't align with reality.

Did he get traded? Of course he did. But the Lions needed Goff plus a king's ransom to agree to trade away Stafford, a player who is nearly seven years Goff's senior. And in the postseason, Stafford is 5-2, has completed 68.0 percent of his passes for 2,088 yards, 15 touchdowns to just three interceptions. Perhaps the true villain is Goff himself, a quarterback who was happy to claim huge paychecks and casually commit to improving, but never intending to do so.

It's time to let this 'woe is me,' tale go. Goff should get a therapist if he feels that strongly about how he was treated, but it is not something that puts him in a positive light. He has landed on the Detroit Lions, a team that he has managed to find success with. The more frequently NFL fans examine the reasons why the Rams traded away Goff for Stafford, the need to include three quite valuable draft picks to make the deal happen becomes that much more evident.

Rising above it is the best road to take. But for the sake of Netflix and controversial drama, Jared Goff ignores the fact that he is a starting NFL quarterback who has already pocketed $400 million. In the effort to shame the Rams football team, he appears small and petty. Don't take my word for it. Just ask Lavar Arrington.

As always, thanks for reading.

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