Kelly Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew, has taken a swipe at her critics, while praising her husband amid criticism this week.
Kelly, 34, sparked backlash last week when she revealed that she dated her quarterback husband’s college back-up just to make him jealous.
She admitted on the Off the Vine podcast that when her future-husband – and father of her four daughters – tried to date her casually, she decided to ‘p*** him off’ by ditching him for his quarterback rival.
NFL star Matthew played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs between 2006 and 2008, and his now-wife – then known as Kelly Hall – was a cheerleader for the Athens-based team around the same time.
After finding herself the target of criticism for her admission, Kelly appeared to take aim herself Thursday.
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‘Realizing how many insecure men there are out there.. so grateful I married the complete opposite,’ Kelly wrote on Instagram alongside a cozy snap of the now-loved-up couple. ‘Loved last night #joyofmylife.’
Among Kelly’s critics was ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who was incredulous that the passer’s wife would make the episode public.
‘How is it that y’all know that men have egos, and males are ego dominant? But you forget that when it comes to your own man,’ he began on his eponymous show.
‘If you are Mrs. Stafford, what could possibly make you think that it is okay for you to go home, after revealing to the public, ‘I kicked it with his backup.’
‘What possible, possible advantage could you peel from that with a husband of yours with?’
Smith added that he was not ‘casting any aspersions’ on Kelly’s character, as he met her once and considers her to be a ‘nice lady’
Still, he concluded the video by asking, ‘What would make you think that’s okay?’
Meanwhile, Kelly’s confession also sparked a frenzy of speculation over the identity of the football player she was referring to.
Although Kelly did not name the back-up player she dated, many questioned whether it was Joe Cox, a former Bulldogs quarterback-turned-Alabama coach, who played on the team at around the same time as Matthew.
She was forced to issue a bizarre statement apologizing to Cox and his ‘beautiful fam’, insisting that he was not the player she referenced and writing that he had ‘zero involvement’ in the dating drama.
‘To this beautiful fam… I am sorry for the media storm that happened last week that made its way into your lives,’ she wrote in an Instagram Stories post, while sharing an image of Joe, his wife Erica, and their three children.
Kelly went on to praise Joe and Erica – who was also a Bulldogs cheerleader – for being the couple that she and Matthew ‘looked up to’.
Fans had speculated over whether Cox or Joe Tereshinski III was the QB Kelly had hinted at, but it now appears Cox has been ruled out.
Stafford was the 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.
Kelly and her husband first began dating while they were at college together, and she was by his side when he was drafted into the NFL – with the football star proposing to the former cheerleader in 2014, three years after they moved to LA.
The pair tied the knot in an extravagant 2015 ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia, and one year later, they announced Kelly was pregnant, going on to welcome twin girls, Sawyer and Chandler, in April 2017.
Over a year later, in August 2018, they introduced daughter Hunter Hope — a surprise given that they hadn’t announced a pregnancy.
In June 2020, they announced the arrival of Tyler, another daughter.