NFL star Stafford’s wife reveals why she dated his ‘bad boy’ rival

By Ben Nagle

19:38 20 Jun 2024, updated 02:02 21 Jun 2024

Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly has revealed that she dated the quarterback’s college back-up – just to make him jealous.

The Los Angeles Rams star played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs between 2006 and 2008. His future wife – then known as Kelly Hall – was a cheerleader for the  Athens-based team about the same time.

Kelly has claimed that Stafford was trying to casually date her while they were students – despite her being all-in on the football star. 

So she decided to ‘p*** him off’ by ditching him for his back-up, who lived in the same dorm and was the polar opposite. 

‘It wasn’t that cute of a relationship at first – I hated him, I loved him,’ Kelly revealed on the Off The Vine podcast. ‘I dated the back-up (quarterback) to p** him off – which worked.’

Click here to resize this module

She added: ‘He was the bad boy, too. Matthew is so sweet – a southern gentleman, all that stuff. And the back up was the complete opposite and it upset him.’

During the 2006 season, Stafford was a freshman who played back-up to Joe Tereshinski III before taking the starting spot. Joe Cox also played quarterback for the Bulldogs that year.

Then, in both the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Stafford was Georgia’s starting quarterback, with Cox as his back-up.

It is unclear whether either Cox or Tereshinski are the players mentioned by Stafford in her bombshell podcast appearance.

But Kelly revealed her new relationship drove Stafford to confront her and warn her off his teammate.

‘They lived in the same dorm because athletes lived in the same dorm – and he would see my car there,’ she continued.

‘So at one point, he waited and followed me out and got in my car. And wouldn’t get out. I was like: ‘This is amazing, it’s working!’ 

After she told him to get out of her car, Stafford replied: ‘He’s not right for you’. To which Kelly replied: ‘You can’t tell me that!’

Stafford then went on to be No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, coming out of college as the most highly-touted prospect in years.

He was drafted by the Detroit Lions, where he spent 11 years, before heading to the Los Angeles Rams in 2011.

He then won the Super Bowl in his first season on the west coast, helping the Rams to a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium.