Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly had a dust-up with 49ers fans earlier this season at Levi’s Stadium, and broke down just how much of an advantage they posed during the Week 18 season finale between the 49ers and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium.
“I’m not going to lie, I’ve never seen so many of the opposing team’s fans at a game, and we came from Detroit and there were a lot of good traveling teams there, but that was wild. Like Matthew was on a silent count.
“Matthew was on a silent count, Jimmy Garoppolo was not, who’s the opposing quarterback. It was crazy, again I’ve never seen anything like that but again, it made it very hard for us because I guess we weren’t expecting to be on a silent count.”
From the start of Sunday’s game, it was clear that there were significantly more 49ers fans in the building in Inglewood than Rams fans.
This has been a theme with the new Los Angeles teams in recent years, but more so with the Chargers. Fans of opposing teams love to travel to cities with nicer weather in the winter like LA or Las Vegas, and you end up seeing a significant number of road spectators filling out the seats as these recently relocated clubs still try to establish a local base of support.
Stafford’s wife apologized on Instagram after the Rams’ blowout loss at Levi’s Stadium in Week 10, after she reportedly threw a pretzel at a 49ers fan during the game.
“I’m an idiot. He was saying a bunch of things that were aggressive towards our crew but zero excuse,” Stafford wrote in a reply to fan who inquired about the altercation (H/T CBS Sports). “I tried to apologize, but in the end I knew I was wrong. Will always stand up for my guy and everyone I love, but obviously needed to do it completely different!
“I’m embarrassed too! Sorry you had to witness me in my weak moment!”
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Considering that LA did not have an NFL team for over 20 years after the Raiders returned to Oakland, it is not too surprising that there might still be quite a few 49ers fans down in Southern California.
The home-field advantage seemed to pay off, as the 49ers rallied from a 17-point deficit to win and clinch a spot in the NFC playoffs.
The 49ers will travel to Dallas for a big matchup with the Cowboys in the wild-card round on Sunday, reprising a feisty rivalry that dates back to some historic matchups in the early 1990s.
We will see if the Faithful can fill out AT&T Stadium the same way they did at SoFi this week.
