REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — The label «laid-back California quarterback» follows Jared Goff everywhere and almost sounds like an insult, but true to form, he doesn't really care.
He doesn't hate it at all. Goff, the starting quarterback for the Detroit Lions, has wrapped up a spirited offseason July workout at his gym in Redondo Beach, capping it by schooling his trainer in a basketball game called «Pressure,» and now he's winding down with a home video on his phone.
He can't stop laughing at the clip, which is more than 20 years old and looks sort of like a 1990s sitcom. The video shows Goff's whole family in the yard after his first Pop Warner practice, and they're helping him with technique. «Set, hut,» the long-legged 7-year-old boy says, and Goff's older sister, Lauren, snaps the ball through her legs.
Goff had been thrown in with the linemen that first day, but his coach said if he could learn the reverse pivot by the next practice, he'd get a chance at playing quarterback.