Hear me out this week Jets fans, you’ll want to hear what Jared Goff has to say.
The Detroit Lions quarterback and my good friend opened up on “Renaissance Man” about one of the most major career changes he’s gone through — being traded from the Los Angeles Rams to play in Motown. It was right before his former team won Super Bowl LVI last season.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard,” Goff told me. “But, you know, you find out who you are and you find out who your character is and what you’re truly made of and what you truly care about.”
The soul searching quarterback — who brought the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance in 2019 — used the transition to not only up his own game, but to also bring out the best in his fellow personnel, including the Lions coaching staff.
“[I] really dug into that this [past] offseason,” he said. “How can I really elevate my team around me and make them the best they can be, as well as make myself the best I can be? So I spent a lot of time on that and just digging deep.”
The deep dig is proving successful with my hometown team. Goff’s squad is sitting at 7-7 with playoff hopes on the table as the NFL season draws to a close. He was quick to tell me that the Lions — who’ve battled injuries all year — have the pieces “to make a run” this winter.
“I’ve been on good teams. I’ve played in the league for this is my seventh year and this feels like a really good team and it feels like a really good team who can make a run,” he said with cautious optimism. “We have to still do it. We have to put in the work and win some of these last [few] games. But we’re in a good position and we’re really playing our best football when it matters and it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.”
No. 16 — who I call Jared Montana because he grew up a 49ers fan in Northern California — is taking it to the house off the field since the big move as well. Goff runs the snazzy JG 16 clothing collection and ensured much of its proceeds go toward a scholarship fund for Detroit’s youth. I’m proud to say he collaborates with Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, the school I founded in 2011, as well as the FATE mentoring program.
In his own words, getting to do such good for little Lions fans has been more than ideal.
“When I got traded here, it was perfect. This is a community that could use it and it’s a community that is so fun to be involved in and it’s so gracious of everything,” Goff said. “It was kind of a dream partnership for me and has worked out great and we raised a ton of money for those kids.”
Putting it plainly, just about everyone in Detroit is winning nowadays with Goff under center. But when it comes to the Lions roaring into the playoffs, Goff will be the first to say the job isn’t done yet.
“Now [it’s a push] in these last [few] weeks, getting guys back, our o-line is healthy, they’re playing so damn well. Yeah, we keep saying we got our horses back [at wide receiver] now,” he said. “So it’s a lot of fun to play quarterback with [this team] and I’m enjoying my time right now.”
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
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