Goff: Detroit media almost ‘relish in negativity’

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff would like the media that covers his team to realize that this is the start of a new era for the franchise, and they can stop focusing on the failures of the past.

“I have this like, I probably need to drop it pretty soon here because I’m hopefully gonna be in Detroit for a long time, but I have this thing with our local media where like they almost like relish in negativity at times,” Goff said on Willbo’s “Trading Cards” podcast hosted by Robbie McInerny, his former teammate at Cal, and Will McInerny, which was posted this week. “And maybe that’s what gets clicks and that’s what sells, but it’s no longer what they need to live in.

“Like, hey guys, we have a good team. We’ve had success. We can be happy about that, we can celebrate that and not have to write about how we’re constantly the underdog. No, teams are gonna be gunning for us now. We won the division and all that. I’m probably overthinking it in my head and it’s the chip on my shoulder and the competitor in me.”

The Lions won the NFC North last season, their first division title since 1993, and then went on to win their first two playoff games since the 1991 season, securing victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Matthew Stafford — the quarterback he was traded for in 2021 — and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Goff’s comments came after he described an exchange with a Detroit media member that went viral earlier this year when he was asked about the perceived talent gap between the San Francisco 49ers and Lions ahead of their NFC Championship Game matchup.

“Like, hey guys, we have a good team. We’ve had success. We can be happy about that we can celebrate that and not have to write about how we’re constantly the underdog. No, teams are gonna be gunning for us now.”

Jared Goff, on the Detroit media

“I wasn’t trying to be rude to the guy, I was just like that’s our own beat reporter that’s been with us for three years,” he said on the podcast. “You haven’t been in San Francisco. You know what our team looks like. Why do we gotta talk about how good their players are? Talk about how good our players are. That’s like how I felt.

“Are we like privileged to play this game because they have a bunch of good players? Like is that what you’re saying? So, I was like ‘OK [Amon-Ra] St. Brown was first-team All-Pro. Penei Sewell was first-team All-Pro. Frank Ragnow. Like, Sam LaPorta. You want me to keep going? I know they have a lot of good players. So do we. I know they are really good. So are we.”

Goff also clarified, however, that he likes the reporter that asked him that question and was just giving him a hard time.

Goff, 29, is entering the final year of his current contract and is in line to get an extension from the Lions. In three seasons in Detroit, he has passed for 12,258 yards with 78 touchdowns and just 27 interceptions and had found a home with the franchise and has said that it’s a partnership that he hopes will extend past this season.

He said on the podcast that the trade that sent him to Detroit was the best thing that could have happened to him.

“In hindsight, it’s the greatest thing to ever happen to me, for my career and my development as a human,” he said.