More than two years after the Detroit Lions traded quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for quarterback Jared Goff and draft picks, the Stafford and Goff worlds are intersecting again.
Kelly Stafford, who is married to Matthew Stafford, recently interviewed Christen Harper, who is engaged to Goff, for her the latest episode of her podcast “The Morning After with Kelly Stafford.”
Harper is a model, content creator and philanthropist. She and Goff got engaged in June 2022 and are planning for a summer 2024 wedding. Harper previously told Sports Illustrated the two met on the dating app Raya.
Harper has been vocal about how the perception of her changed after she started dating Goff.
“I think for me it’s kind of been an interesting dynamic to have had a career, I’ve built a platform for myself before I met Jared and just like the conversation that kind of switched after I started dating him. Where like I now became not just Christen Harper, but I’m now just Jared Goff’s girlfriend or fiancee and like my name just like leaves the headline,” she said previously on the “Women of the League” podcast, where she’s a cast member.
Harper, who grew up in California, told Stafford she’d never been to Michigan before Goff was traded. The two now live in Bloomfield Hills.
“I had never heard a single positive thing about Detroit and so I was like really not sure what we were getting ourselves into and then of course you get there and I’m like, ‘This place is amazing,'” Harper said.
“There’s something so special about the people there and they are diehard fans and they just support, support, support,” she said.
And Stafford still loves the Detroit fans, too.
“I used to hate that they would come to games and boo and wear bags on their heads … I used to hate that. I miss it. They care,” Stafford said. “The loyalty of Lions fans, the fact that they would even pay to come to some of the games that we had to play in, is pretty unreal.”
Harper has noticed a difference between California and Detroit fans.
Harper said in California, fans usually want a picture of Goff when they see him, but in Michigan, they just want to talk to him.
“That to me says a lot about the difference,” Harper said.
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While Harper hasn’t been able to visit Up North yet, which Stafford told her is a must, she has found some favorite spots in metro Detroit, including Tallulah Wine Bar & Bistro and Commonwealth, both in Birmingham, and she said the pasta “is to die for” at SheWolf in Detroit.
They also briefly touched on the gambling scandal that hit the Lions after four players were suspended in April for violating the NFL’s gambling policy.
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“First of all, I think that rule should be changed,” Stafford said.
“I think some of them were confused, “Harper said.
You can listen to the latest episode of Stafford’s podcast below.