Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams will be on the field this Christmas Day, facing the Denver Broncos at 1:30 p.m. PT. It’s one of three games on Christmas as the NFL tries to compete with the NBA on that major holiday.
For Stafford, he’s trying to figure out what to tell his kids. One option: tell them Christmas is the next day and hope they don’t look at a calendar. The other? Pretend Santa got stuck in the chimney and open presents after the game.
Either way, he has a story to tell his young ones about why dad is playing football on the day Santa is supposed to be delivering their presents.
“That’s a great question. I hope my kids aren’t watching, but my wife Kelly was saying maybe we just tell the kids that Christmas is the next day,” Stafford said on NFL Network Thursday night. “But, uh, I don’t know. I’m not really sure what we’re gonna do there. Turn the TV off Chandler and Sawyer if you’re watching. We’ll figure that out when we get there, but maybe that is a ‘Santa got stuck in the chimney, he’s a little bit late delivering the presents. We’ll see him after the game.’ I don’t know. Either that or I go over there super early in the morning but that doesn’t sound like a good plan.”
Stafford is good at thinking on his feet. I’m sure he’ll come up with something to make the holiday work.