MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. – Matthew Stafford leaned back onto the couch inside his trailer Tuesday afternoon, having finished an hours-long commercial shoot a little while before.
It is a commercial that is expected to be released digitally – and one that Pepsi obviously hopes will go viral at some point after shooting the commercial at a local Meijer. Stafford starred in the commercial and while his presence might help drive the video, it is unlikely he’ll be pushing it socially himself.
Social media and Matthew Stafford are pretty far apart. He claims not to have Facebook or Instagram. His Twitter account, @Staff_9, hasn’t been tweeted from in 281 days and counting, where he thanked Paramount Pictures for screening "Anchorman 2" with the Lions.
The Detroit Lions quarterback prefers it this way as he tries to hold on to some of his private life that has become way more public. When he was drafted out of Georgia with the No. 1 overall pick in 2009 this is what he didn’t see coming.
“Not only in football but just the world, the social media aspect of life is something that five years ago I didn’t think was going to be what it is today and something that personally ... not my favorite thing,” Stafford said. “That everybody has access to you and everybody has an opinion about you and it’s apparently news and all that.
“That’s probably the biggest thing five years ago that if you would have asked me if life was going to be like that, I would have said ‘No way.’ “
By staying away from social media, Stafford is essentially trying to keep the last vestiges of his private life private. He has declined multiple times to talk about his engagement to former Georgia cheerleader Kelly Hall, who posted engagement pictures and pictures of her engagement ring on her Instagram account.
Even she has apparently cooled on Twitter, though, as the once-prolific Tweeter hasn’t sent a message in 144 days and hasn’t tweeted something that didn’t come from her Instagram account in 274 days.
Stafford is similar.
“I try not to put my private life out there as much as I can and don’t pay too much attention to what else is going on,” Stafford said. “There’s so much in my life that is public and talked about every day without my control, I’d like to be able to control as much as I can.”
Trying to live some of his increasingly-public life in private does have disadvantages, though. If there is one regret from choosing to abstain from social media, it is that life has been harder to stay in touch with childhood and college friends whp are now spread out across the country.
It wasn’t something Stafford always understood, but as he has grown in the league and his profile has raised as a quarterback, it is something he now accepts. To try and keep his privacy, there are things he has to give up.
“There’s a positive aspect to social media as far as keeping up with people and what’s going on in people’s lives,” Stafford said. “But that’s a trade-off I’d happily make.”