Christian Fauria: Stafford Will Never Win Super Bowl
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria knows what a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback looks like.
He doesn't see one in Matthew Stafford.
Asked if he thinks Stafford, 29, can win a Super Bowl, Fauria wavered for a moment before saying flatly, "No, I don't think he can."
Fauria played 13 years in the NFL and was a two-time Super Bowl champ with the Patriots. Now he's a college football analyst and a sports-talk radio host.
He got a close-up look at Stafford when his nephew, Joseph Fauria, played for the Lions in 2013 and 2014. He didn't like what he saw out of Detroit's franchise quarterback.
"I watched every single game, and I was not a fan. I just wasn't. It was outhouse, it was castle. It was unbelievable throw, missing a wide open guy. And they paid him lot of money, so you're expecting playoff performance," Fauria told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket.
Stafford went 18-14 during Joseph Fauria's two years with the team.
"Even with the weapons he had, you just throw the ball up and Calvin Johnson's gonna go up and get it. An average quarterback can throw to one of the best receivers to ever play the game," said Fauria.
The Lions and Stafford are in talks on a contract extension, one that's likely to make him the highest-paid player in the game. Fauria understands why.
"Let me tell you, what are your options? The quarterback position is so difficult to find. Brock Osweiler is gonna get cut from the Browns, they don't want him. They'd rather start some rookie out of Notre Dame whose coach said he shouldn't leave…It's a crazy world we live in, but it's football and that's why we love it," Fauria said.
Joseph Fauria, meanwhile, remains unsigned since being released by the Patriots in 2015. After a strong rookie season with the Lions in which he hauled in seven touchdowns, Fauria's career took a turn for the worse when he suffered a mysterious ankle injury in his own home in the fall of 2014.
He claimed he fell while chasing his puppy, a story that reeked of a cover-up.
Even Christian Fauria, who's also Joseph's godfather, doesn't know the full truth -- if there's indeed more to be told.
"I actually don't know know, I don't," said Fauria. "I wish I knew, because I ask him. I figure enough time goes by and we'll be having a couple drinks, throwing some down, I'll tell him a story that I'm uncomfortable with and maybe that'll open up the gate to have some truth serum come out of him – no.
"But I will say this: whenever somebody gets hurt and it involves a dog, a shower, or anything like that, I don't believe it."