Detroit Lions teammates are living their dream through Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford

Rob Sims was watching the NFC Championship Game on television and could feel his own emotions starting to bubble up. For years, Sims blocked for Matthew Stafford as a guard on the Detroit Lions. Now, in retirement, he was watching his former quarterback do something they never could in Detroit.

He watched Stafford — with his bright smile and scruffy beard — reach the pinnacle of the sport with the Los Angeles Rams after languishing with the Lions. For Sims and so many others who played with Stafford throughout the years, his journey felt, in some ways, like their own journey.

«Man, me and [Calvin Johnson] have had many conversations about how cool it is that he's in this position,» Sims said. «Me and [Dominic Raiola] are like, 'What we believed in was true. This guy, he is the real deal and he's proving it.'

»It's just good for us, seeing somebody that came from where we came from, to go to that next level and prove it."

They watched in Los Angeles and suburban Detroit, cheered in Texas and Connecticut — and even in Paris. They played alongside Stafford and shared so much with him. Some were co-captains and others close confidants. They all have one thing in common — a quarterback who once led them reaching the place they all wanted to go.

The Super Bowl.

«This might be weird for people to hear,» former quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said. «It's going to be like watching a family member.»

Orlovsky, who has long been an ardent Stafford supporter, is not alone. The group of players who worked with Stafford from 2009-20 in Detroit have been vocal about watching Stafford' journey this season.

The quarterback, who turns 34 Monday, may be a Ram now, but his ties to Detroit are deep. Lions fans have loudly