Kelly Stafford candidly reflected on the early days of her relationship with husband Matthew Stafford — and how far things have come for football wives and girlfriends since.
After Kelly, 35, and Matthew, 36, met during their time together at the University of Georgia, Matthew was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Lions in April 2009. The couple married in April 2015 and have since welcomed four daughters: twins Chandler and Sawyer, 7, Hunter, 6 and Tyler, 4.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, what the first couple years as his significant other were like,” Kelly told Glamour in a story published Wednesday, November 20.
Kelly now hosts “The Morning After” podcast — which she launched in September 2021 — and routinely talks about her life as the wife of an NFL quarterback, even welcoming Matthew as a guest sometimes.
But during her relationship’s infancy, Kelly was nervous to blend those two worlds in fear of what people might think.
“For a really long time I did not want to take advantage of any platform I was given due to being married to my husband,” she says. “I felt like it wasn’t my place. I felt almost dirty doing that.”
All these years later, the concept of a WAG — an abbreviation for “wives and girlfriends,” most often used to describe individuals in relationships with athletes — has drastically morphed.
“Women [now have] businesses and have this huge platform,” Kelly said. “It is incredible to watch.”
Women like Kristin Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, turned her connection with the NFL into a licensing deal with the league after her custom football jackets went viral, thanks in large part to Taylor Swift (another member of the modern-day WAG community).
In a recent interview with Us Weekly, Claire Kittle, the wife of 49ers wide receiver George Kittle, embraced being called a WAG.
“It’s a short and quick term, you know?” Claire, 30, told Us in October. “What else would have the same effect? It kind of works!”
During a chat earlier this week with fellow podcaster Jana Kramer, Kelly explained she launched “The Morning After” at another vulnerable point in her life.
“I was really tired and really down on myself on a lot of things — as a parent, as a wife, with my looks,” Kelly told Kramer, 40, on the Sunday, November 17, episode of Kramer’s “Whine Down” podcast.
“I just wanted to create a space where we talk about not all of our best things,” Kelly added. “Maybe we mix it up and talk about some of our failures so that we don’t feel so alone when we do fail.”
