Kelly Stafford has admitted that she wasn’t quite thrilled when she learned she had to put her sick kids on a plane with an entire football team in tow.
During the latest episode of The Morning After podcast, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford opened up about the “well-oiled machine” that was the elaborate travel process to get the entire team to Arizona in time for their playoff showdown against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday, January 13.
The game, which was originally set to take place at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., was relocated to the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. due to the ongoing wildfires in L.A.
According to Kelly, 34, the Rams organization facilitated a plane for the entire team and their families to travel together to the game. Her only major concern was, she was sick with the flu at the time, as were her four kids. Kelly and her NFL player husband share four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, 7, Harper, 6, and Tyler, 4.
“We were sick on that flight,” Kelly admitted during the Jan. 15 podcast. “There was a huge guilt factor to me going, ‘Should we be on this plane right now because of everyone surrounding us and everyone who has to play this game?’ ”
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Kelly reached out to multiple people who would be on the flight ahead of time and received an unexpected response at such a pivotal moment in the season.
“They were like, ‘Get your a– on that plane. We all need to be together,’” Kelly said. “That was such an incredible thing for me to hear because there was a little bit of like, ‘Should I just stay back with my children?’”
Matthew, 36, was also insistent that the whole family be together for the game.
“Matthew was like, ’No, we will do whatever it takes. We are all getting on this plane. We are going to be together right now,’” Kelly added.
While in Arizona, Kelly took to social media to offer several updates on the health of her kids.
On Saturday, Jan. 11, just two days ahead of the playoff game, Kelly shared a photo on her Instagram Stories, captured by E! News at the time, of her two daughters in a hospital bed. “Last night was long,” she wrote in the post. “Back in beds and sleeping, everyone except Hunter. Feels like she drank a Celsius.”
“Before that tho, they were all smiles getting to go with daddy on his work trip,” she added. Kelly did not elaborate on why her kids’ had been hospitalized.
In another photo, posted after the hospitalization, the Los Angeles Rams quarterback cuddled one of their daughters as they were pictured in an arena. “This girl ❤️,” Kelly wrote. “In the middle of her pukes in the bathroom, ‘Mommy, are we still winning.’ She couldn’t wait to be in his arms.”
On Sunday, Jan. 12, Kelly shared another update on two of her daughters, posting a photo from a restaurant. “Found our happy place in AZ,” she wrote, hinting that they still still weren’t quite over the flu. “I promise we are happy, just still 🤕.”
She also shared a picture later on of all four of her girls sleeping, writing, “Never ending. My poor girls.”
Kelly’s decision to travel to Arizona with the team and their families comes after she previously said she and the girls might vacate their home to keep Matthew safe from their germs.
“I currently believe I have the flu. Two of my daughters have the flu,” revealed Kelly on the Jan. 9 podcast episode. She said she “can’t think straight” because of it and even “passed out on a little bench in the suite” at the Jan. 5 game against the Seattle Seahawks.
During the podcast, Kelly said that Matthew “won’t come close to [her]” because of her sickness, which she “completely” understands. “If all my kids have the flu, I don’t think we should be in this house with him,” she told listeners.
“I know everyone’s like, ‘Why would y’all move? There’s five of you and one of him.’ Because all of his work stuff and his film room and everything is here,” she continued. “So we would just get out of here. I think that is on the table right now.”
Kelly added, “We have 105 fevers going around this house right now and we can’t have Matthew with that going into the playoffs,” she concluded. “So we’re going to do our best to not let him get that.”
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