After Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford received a false-positive COVID-19 test last Saturday, his wife Kelly took to Instagram and had some harsh words towards the NFL, blaming them for lack of accountability.
Over the weekend, the Lions placed Stafford on the reserve/COVID-list indicating he had either tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, was in close proximity of someone who had tested positive or had received a false positive test. Per NFL and NFLPA rules focusing on protecting a player’s privacy on health-related matters, they do not identify which category a player falls under.
Just hours later NFL Network’s Tom Pelliserro reported a source told him Stafford was asymptomatic followed up by a Monday report from Monday Morning Quarterback’s Albert Breer that Stafford did indeed test positive for COVID-19 — a report that was later proven incorrect.
Today, the Lions removed Stafford from the reserve/COVID-19 list and had some very stern words of clarity on the subject:
“To be clear, Matthew does NOT have COVID-19 and never has had COVID-19 and the test in question was a False-Positive. Also, all of Matthew’s family have been tested and everyone is negative.”
Not long after, Kelly Stafford took to Instagram to explain the stresses that were placed on the Stafford family during the last four days, the negative reaction from members in their community, and why she blames the NFL “for not holding itself accountable”:
The past four days have been somewhat of a nightmare. For 24 hours, we believed my husband was positive for covid.. We were all tested the day after and we were all negative including Matthew.. then he tested negative again, then again, again, and again.
After his second negative, we were made adware [sic] of the “false positives” and how this was one of those cases.
I have been losing my mind because of how my Family has been treated since my husband was put on COVID-IR.
Even after we knew it was false positive, our school told us they were not allowed back, I was approached in a grocery store and told I was “endangering others,” my kids were harassed and kicked off a playground, I was told I needed to wait in my car when trying to pick up food, and people closest to us had to get tested just so they could go back to work.. and that’s just to name a few things. I don’t blame these scenarios on any of the people directly involved.. I understand where they are coming from, but I do blame the @NFL.
I blame the @NFL for not holding themselves accountable. These are people’s lives and livelihoods that are in those results in THEIR test sites. Maybe we should be absolutely positive a person has covid before releasing that info to the world. I’m sharing our experience because I don’t want it happening to any other family that plays for this league.
We are thankful for those who called, texted, emailed and showed concern for matthew and our family. Your thoughts during this strange, difficult time are greatly appreciated.. but we are all absolutely fine and feeling great. Thank God for that.
Kelly would add this in the comments section:
“I would also like people to know.. if you saw me out and about after this, it was because we already knew it was a false positive. We would never chance endangering anyone with this virus. If we have learned anything in the past two years, it’s that we know the value of health and the health of others.”