Rams QB Matthew Stafford, on returning to Detroit for wild card: ‘It’ll be a

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is trying to keep this week as normal as possible.

Good luck with that.

Stafford will return to Detroit on Sunday night, as the city hosts its first playoff game in three decades, for the 10-7 Rams’ wild-card game against the 12-5 Lions.

Detroit drafted Stafford with the No. 1 pick in 2009, and he quarterbacked the Lions for the next 12 seasons before the Rams traded for him in 2021. Stafford played in three road playoff games, all losses, while with the Lions but led the Rams to a championship the same year he was traded.

Wednesday, he was asked what type of reception he expected from the Detroit fan base.

“I’m not expecting anything, to be honest with you,” said Stafford. “I was asked this question a couple of times just by friends and family. I think the biggest thing for me is (to) go experience whatever that experience is gonna be.

“I understand what the people of Detroit and what the city of Detroit meant to me and my time, my career, what they meant to my family. I hope they feel that back. At the same time, I’m not a stranger to the situation and understanding that I’m the bad guy coming to town. I’m on the other team, and they don’t want success for me.”

Stafford and his wife, Kelly, have four young daughters who were all born in Detroit while he played for the Lions.

“It’s an amazing city. It’s an amazing group of fans,” said Stafford. “The organization does a heck of a job. I know that they are going to be excited. It’s going to be a great atmosphere, probably one of the best we have played in in a long time. It’s a group of people that, from my experience, love the Lions. Wanted what was best for them. And now they’re playing really good football, they have an opportunity to host a playoff game. They’ve earned that opportunity.

“It’s going to be a cool experience for those people. … It’ll be a tough place to play. It’ll be loud. It’ll be tough for us to communicate as an offense, and we understand that.”

The Rams are practicing on their silent cadence all week, even during walkthroughs. The booming thuds of their outdoor speakers carry through the walls of their practice facilities.

“You know it’s going to be a great atmosphere and environment,” said Rams coach Sean McVay on Wednesday, “so that’s absolutely something that we’re gonna be working on all week and we gotta be able to handle that.”

What McVay is less concerned about, he said, is Stafford’s ability to manage his emotional state heading into a game that is setting up like a Hollywood script.

“I think it would be not being a human being to not feel a lot of different emotions,” said McVay, “but he’s put our team in a position to go play a meaningful game. He’s got a history there. I think it’s real to feel those…