Matthew Stafford can’t go back and change his reaction from the viral moment at the Super Bowl parade, but he can try to make things right. The Los Angeles Rams quarterback and wife Kelly Stafford opened up about the video of photographer Kelly Smiley falling off the platform in front of them at the L.A. celebration.
“We can’t not talk about what happened. … There was a photographer who stepped off the back of the stage, had asked if we wanted a picture and I was like, ‘Yes,’ because looking back to my camera roll, I have literally zero of Matthew and I,” Kelly began on her “Morning After With Kelly Stafford” podcast on Tuesday, February 22. “When she offered, she stepped back and fell. And it was an awful, awful moment. Matthew looked at me and said, ‘Check her please,’ and turned around. I’m gonna let him, you know, talk about it too, in a second. I went straight to her. I could see that she was OK, kind of stayed there, went and got some help.”
The host noted that the couple “followed up with her the moment we got in the car” after the parade.
“Matthew actually looked at me and said, ‘Hey, will you contract the Rams, ask how she’s doing?’ [I] did that they’re like, ‘We think she’s gonna be OK.’ We sent her flowers. [The] next day, we wake up, [she’s] not OK. So Matthew actually texted her himself. And that’s kind of where the story ended a bit. But I do know that the reaction that the world saw in that split second, I do know that’s not what you wish would have been your reaction.”
Matthew noted that the incident “happened really quickly and suddenly and unexpectedly,” explaining, “I wish I had a better reaction in the moment. I didn’t. I apologize to her for that. All in all, I’m glad she’s doing alright.”
After the Wednesday, February 16, event, Smiley revealed via social media that she fractured her spine.
“One of those things that [you] try and train your actions to be a little bit better next time,” Matthew concluded. “Other than that, it was a great day.”
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The pair, who wed in 2015 and share four kids, released a joint statement with the Rams after the accident initially made headlines.
“We have been in communication with Kelly Smiley since yesterday’s incident and we are sorry for what happened,” Matthew, Kelly and the team said on Thursday, February 17. “As we told Kelly, we will be covering all her hospital bills and replacing her cameras. We wish her a speedy recovery.”
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