Matthew Stafford's Wife Kelly Reveals She Once Dated His Backup Quarterback, Shares Why

Kelly, who has been with the super star quarterback for nearly two decades, recalled the early days of their relationship during an appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe's Off the Vine podcast, and shared the reason she once dated Matthew's backup QB.

"It wasn't that cute of a relationship at first," Kelly said. "I hated him, I loved him. I dated the backup to piss him off, which worked -- he was the bad boy too. Matthew's so sweet and a Southern gentleman and all that stuff. And the backup was the complete opposite, and it upset him."

As for the why, Kelly said simply, she did it to make her now-husband, jealous -- and it worked!

"They lived in the same dorm room because athletes lived in the same dorm room. He would see my car there. At one point he waited and followed me into the car. I was like, 'This is amazing, it's working,'" she recalled. "I was like, 'Get out of my car.' He was like, 'He's not right for you.' I was like, 'What? You can't tell me that.'"

Looking back on their relationship, Kelly admitted that things started out "horrible" between the pair.

"This was my first college experience," Kelly said of meeting Matthew days prior to starting school at the University of Georgia. "I was there for cheerleading, he was there for football. [We] talked all night. But he was the quarterback of an SEC college."

Kelly explained that Matthew's clout as the quarterback at Georgia meant the girls were all over him and while Matthew said it was "fun" dating Kelly, he wasn't ready to get serious as fast as she was.

"I was like, 'Oh, we’re in a relationship. This is great,'" she said, noting after their first date she was hooked. "I didn't know casual dating."

Kelly said there was a lot of "back and forth" between the pair, and while they didn't exactly kick things off on the right foot, the couple went on to work things out. Once they decided "it was it, it was it," Kelly said, noting that Matthew ultimately made the call.

"I was always all in. I didn't let him know that," she confessed. "There was something about him. He's brilliant."

After Matthew was drafted into the NFL by the Detroit Lions, the pair did long distance, and then Kelly made the leap and moved to Michigan to be with the QB.

"We did long distance for a year maybe and then I moved to Michigan,” Kelly went on to say. "Moved there against my dad's permission."

Matthew eventually met with Kelly's dad to "assure him" things would be OK, and with that green light, the pair gave their relationship a real shot, with Kelly enrolling in nursing school in Michigan and Matthew kicking off his career in the NFL.

The couple would go on to tie the knot in 2015 and have since welcomed four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, 7, Hunter, 5, and Tyler, 3. The family has relocated to Los Angeles in 2021 when Matthew became quarterback for the Rams.