The Eve of Training Camp

I totally forgot to publish the post that was ready this morning. I went to bed at 6:30 a.m. and had to get up an hour and a half later so, basically I'm operating on automatic and going about my day like a zombie.

Anyway, here are today's updates.
DetroitLions.com - Training camp starts tomorrow.
ESPN Page 2 - Stafford need not travel by scooter
Jeremy Green of ESPN's Football Today spoke with Matthew about his relationship with WR Calvin Johnson and competing and working with QB Daunte Culpepper.

DetNews - Schwartz eager to solve Lions' quarterback riddle
The Cypress Times - Former Lions QB Dan Orlovsky gives some advice

Former Lions RB Barry Sanders comments about Matthew.

Matthew talks to That's Fit about the importance of staying hydrated.

Radio appearances

Matthew has partnered with Gatorade to inform people about the importance of hydration. He talked about it on these radio shows on Wednesday.
101 WRIF with Drew & Mike
97.1 The Ticket with Jay Towers and Bill McAllister

He will also be a guest on ESPN's The Herd with Colin Cowherd today at 11:40 a.m.

It's late, and I can't think of a headline

ESPN - Revenge of the fallen
DetNews - Jim Schwartz: No decision on Lions quarterbacks 'before the race is run'
MLive - Lions coach Jim Schwartz didn't come to Buick Open Pro-Am to talk football
Central Michigan Life - Stafford is Detroit's only hope to change culture

Elie Seckbach, The Embedded Correspondent, talks to Matthew about the up coming season

Hidden Talents

ToppsTV has posted a video of the rookies demostrating some little-known talents.

Mini-update

Not much to post today, just an article and two videos from the ESPYs.

MLive.com - Why the big turnaround on Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford?

"The Lions' future" continued...

Detroit Free Press writer Nicholas J. Cotsonika has posted part two of his article about Matthew. Click here to read it.

DFP Gallery - A look at Matthew Stafford
MLive - Stafford on fast track to be Lions' starting quarterback Week 1 against the Saints

If you would like to watch "Band of Champions" you can find it at Thunderboltfilms.com.

The Lions' future

Detroit Free Press writer Nicholas J. Cotsonika has written an excellent article about Matthew's link to the Lions' legacy. Here's part 1 of a 2-part series.

Scout's RoarReport - Lions Camp: Players To Watch, Battles, & More
(If you can't access that article then click here.)
FreeP.com - About Lions QB Matthew Stafford
DetNews - Hot Lions topics
NFL.com - Rookie QB expectations

Lions training camp schedule is released

Sorry for the lack of updates, but there's not much going on lately. About the only interesting piece of news is the release of the training camp schedule which will be open to the public some days. There's also a couple of articles worth reading. I will also resume the Looking Back posts soon so check back for those.

DetroitLions.com - Training camp schedule
USAToday - With NFL camps opening, stud rookies have a chance to shine
NoleDigest.com - The One That Got Away

Also, Getty Images has posted some footage of Matthew's interview at the ESPYs press room.

Embracing the spotlight

Matthew tells DetroitLions.com that he embraces the pressure that comes with being in the spotlight.

ESPN - Lions DE Clif Avril talks about Matthew and the upcoming season.
FOXSports.com - First in line

Plus more video from the ESPYS.

Matthew Stafford's AXE Hair/ESPYS commercial

After several days of searching high and low for Matthew's commercial, I finally found it. Here it is.

The ESPYS air tonight at 9:00 PM

The ESPYS air tonight at 9:00 PM ET.

Also Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw talks to the Sporting News about Matthew and their friendship.

Journalistic opinions

I'm posting several links to some interesting articles. They are opinion pieces from some of the sports journalist that cover the Detroit Lions and Georgia Bulldogs.

MLive.com - The Huge Show: Lions' Matthew Stafford likely '1B' heading into camp

AJC - Greene shows Stafford what happens when things go wrong

Scout's Roar Report - Lions Camp Goal? Develop Matt Stafford

More from the ESPYS

Yahoo! Sports - The Shutdown Corner Interview with Matthew Stafford
CNN.com - ESPY Awards: The thrill of victory, the agony of the teleprompter

ESPN Radio - Matthew joined Jason Smith on the red carpet at the ESPYS.

Video
RadarOnline.com
Palestra.net

Arriving at the ESPYS

At the ESPYS

Matthew attended the ESPYS and the Gatorade Athlete of the Year awards yesterday. The ESPYs air on Sunday, July 19 at 9:00 p.m. on ESPN.

LATimes.com - All the stars come out for the ESPYS

Photos from the ESPYS
Getty Images
Wireimage 1, 2, 3
Globe Photos
Daylife.com

Matthew presented the Gatorade National Player of the Year award to Lake Travis HS (Austin, Texas) QB Garrett Gilbert. Softball player Jess Mendoza posted a photo of Matthew with the award winners.

Turnto23.com has posted a video from the Gatorade Awards. It's mostly about nominee Anna Jelmini, but Matthew is also featured in the video.

Matthew was on the Tony Bruno Show on Wednesday. Click here to listen to the podcast.

Matthew backstage at the ESPYS.

NFL Total Access with Matthew Stafford

Matthew was in-studio on NFL Total Access on Tuesday.

NFL Live Chat.
DetNews.com - Stafford center stage on NFL Network

Plus some video from NFL.com.
Deion Sanders advice to Matthew.
Stafford on Set

Matthew also had his portrait taken while at the Total Access studio.

Live chat with Matthew Stafford today at 6:15 p.m.

According to NFL.com, Matthew will be taking questions during a live chat today at 6:15 p.m. ET. Get your questions ready!

Making the radio rounds in Los Angeles

Matthew is in Los Angeles this week promoting AXE Hair and the ESPYs. He made the radio rounds on Monday and was a guest on the Dan Patrick Show, 790 The Zone's Mayhem in the Morning, 66 AM WFAN's Boomer and Carton, 710 ESPN's L.A. Sports Live and the Jim Rome Show.

FreeP.com - Lions' Stafford on baseball: I had a little pop in the bat
DetNews - No prediction when (or if) he'll be Lions' starter
USAToday - Can the 'Matthew Stafford shampoo bar' be far off?
MLive - Stafford's development already includes bond with Lions coach Jim Schwartz

Also, Matthew was a guest on FOXSports.com. Here's the video of the interview.
<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:483db327-b2c6-4bf8-8093-cb597dd29c6b&showPlaylist=true&from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videosearch&fg=everyzing" target="_new" title="Sizing up Stafford">Video: Sizing up Stafford</a>

Paying for rent and game tix makes the news

You know that there's nothing to report when the news consist of paying past-due rent and for game tickets.

Red and Black - Stafford’s replacement (at home) found
Katomic Snitch - Madden 10 Detroit Lions Screen Shots

And an article from Online Athens about Matthew receiving some tickets to a Broncos-Falcons game last year from his friend Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler. I thought it was a non-story, but it made NFL Total Access so I thought I would be remiss if I didn't include it.

Matthew was featured on the cover of the May issue of In Play! magazine. I know it's sort of belated news, but you can still read the issue online.

Win an AXE Hair/ESPN gift pack!

AXE Hair is holding another sweepstakes on their facebook page. According to the site, ten winners will receive an ESPN bag, full line of AXE Hair products and a signed football from Matthew. Click here to enter the contest.



Also, here's a scan of Matthew's AXE Hair/ESPYs ad, which you can find on the July 13 issue of ESPN The Magazine. I know the quality of the scan is kind of poor, but I couldn't help it. My magazine got wet, along with the rest of my mail, after my mailbox was left open and it rained. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Anyway, enough of my mail woes, just click on the image below to see a larger version.

Stafford to present an award at Gatorade HS AOTY Awards

According to AZcentral.com, Matthew will presenting an award at the Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year Awards. The winners a will be named at a luncheon on Wednesday, July 15th.

Also, Matthew will be in-studio on NFL Total Access on Tuesday, July 14. Keep in mind that The NFL Network programming schedule is subject to change.

Preparing for training camp

According to the Gaston Gazette, Matthew has been in Athens, Ga., working out in preparation for the start of training camp on July 30.

According to MLive's Tom Kowalski, "the Lions are now very confident that [Matthew] Stafford will be ready for the start of the regular season." Keep in mind that the article is part of an opinion column.

Listen to Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt talk to All Access Football host Bo Marchointe about the departure of Matthew to the NFL.

Photographer Tim Mantoani has posted some photos of the 2009 NFL Rookies on his site. If you haven't checked out his site please do. His work is very, very good. This is one of the photos of Matthew that he posted. Visit Tim's site to view more.

Looking Back: Part II

Here's Part II of the Looking Back series that I started last week. I couldn't find that many articles predating 2005 that were not PPV or subscription-based, but the ones that I did find are very good. They're mostly about his senior season in high school, and they mention his knee injury, his high school's state championship run, his recruitment and commitment to the University of Georgia and much more.

Both sides now
The Ice Man
Scots fans eager to celebrate
A good bet
Can't Miss?

Check out these photos of Matthew during his early high school years.





Someone posted this video on YouTube a while back, and I was able to save it before they deleted it. I hope they don't mind that I borrowed it. This interview took place on November 2005 before a playoff game.


And this other video is of a few of Matthew's senior season highlights.

Brief update, nothing major

Not a lot to update, but I did find two articles that I thought were worth reading.

DetNews - Lions have high hopes for offensive line
CBSSports - Lions offense familiar to Stafford

Matthew's AXE/ESPYs commercial is now airing. Keep an eye out for it.

Also, I will be posting another Looking Back post soon so check back for it.

Looking Back: Part I

Now that minicamp is over and training camp is still a few weeks away, the amount of news is going to dwindle so I've decided to do something different. Since Matthew is fairly new to Lions fans, I thought they would like to know a little more about him. So for the next few days or weeks, I'm not sure which yet, I'm going to be posting links, articles and pictures that will tell a little bit of the story of Matthew Stafford. I'm going to try to keep things in chronological order so I'm going to start with his childhood and high school career. Here we go.

Sophomore QB excells for Highland Park
Great Scot
Courting a Golden Child

Here are some childhood pictures of Matthew. I tell you, these were not easy to find.