Kelly Stafford says she felt ‘guilt’ for getting on family plane with sick children

Kelly Stafford, wife of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, is opening up about her decision to travel from Los Angeles to Arizona with the Rams organization despite her family battling the flu.

During the most recent episode of her podcast “TIMEOUT: The Morning After with Kelly Stafford,” Stafford discussed how hard the Rams and the Cardinals organizations worked to get the families within the Rams organization out of Los Angeles because of the devastating wildfires in the city.

“They opened their arms to a division rival,” Stafford said of the Cardinals organization, who sent their planes and offered their practice facilities and stadium to the Rams for the playoff game against the Vikings. “It just tells you again, community, people supporting.”

But she also discussed the “guilt” she felt taking her four kids, all of whom were battling the flu, on the plane that was transporting other families within the organization as well.

“We were sick on that flight,” Stafford admitted. “There was a huge guilt factor for me going, ‘Should we be on this plane right now because of everyone surrounding us, everyone who has to play this game.’”

However, after reaching out to people to ask for advice, they were all in agreement, telling Stafford that she and her children need to be on the plane.

“We all need to be together,” they told Stafford. “And that was such an incredible thing for me to hear because there was a little bit of ‘Should I stay back with my children?’”

As Stafford explained, the Rams organization within 24 hours time prepared to fly “everyone” out, “families, pets, you name it.”

“They just said, ‘We’re not going to separate you all during this time. We are going to move as a community.’”

“We ended up packing everything into our cars that was sentimental or of value,” Stafford said, before noting how “gross” it felt to talk about knowing so many have lost everything.

“To pack your life into whatever you’re packing it into, pack up yourself, your children if you got them and preparing to be gone and not knowing when you’re coming back, that’s a lot other wrap your head around.”

Stafford called operation a “well-oiled machine. It was so incredible.”