Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford took some criticism when he just turned around and walked away after a photographer fell off the stage at the team’s post-Super Bowl celebration. Stafford and the Rams later pledged to pay her hospital bills and replace her broken cameras, but Stafford still wishes he had handled it differently.
Speaking on his wife Kelly Stafford’s podcast, Stafford acknowledged he wishes he would have checked on her immediately.
“Yeah, I mean, that obviously happened really quickly and suddenly and unexpectedly, and wish I had a better reaction in the moment,” Stafford said, via Today.com. “I didn’t. I apologized to her for that, but glad that all in all she’s doing all right.”
Stafford called it “one of those things you try to train your reactions to be a little bit better next time.”
Kelly Stafford did check on the photographer immediately, and although she initially seemed fine, when she later posted on social media that she was injured, the Staffords vowed to take care of her.
“Long story short, we followed up with her,” Kelly Stafford said. “The moment we got in the car, Matthew actually looked at me and said, ‘Hey, will you contact the Rams, ask how she’s doing?’ Did that, they’re like, ‘We think she’s going to be OK.’ We sent her flowers. Next day we wake up, [she’s] not OK.”