Rudyard Kipling once said, “If you can meet success and failure and treat them both as impostors, then you are a balanced man, my son.” Kipling said that long before the birth of Jared Thomas Goff.
However, Kipling’s phrase might suit Goff perfectly. The Lions quarterback has experienced success and failure in equal measure. Goff has seen a lot since joining the NFL in 2016, from the highs of winning the NFC Championship in New Orleans to the lows of seeing John Wolford take his job.
Many labelled the former first pick a busted flush when the LA Rams dumped him at the start of 2021. They sent him to the Detroit Lions wasteland. Yet this cool, bashful California has somehow fought through failure and success.
And on Sunday, Goff leads his Detroit Lions into a home playoff game. His opponents? The LA Rams. While he has played down the personal significance, Goff has a shot at Detroit sporting immortality. Quietly, Goff has become the epitome of All Grit.
The Gut Punches Will Stop
Many Lions fans expected him to be a bridge quarterback. Most felt Goff was not tough enough mentally. Some thought he was a superficial LA guy with no substance. Nobody thought he would mesh with Dan Campbell. However, after just four weeks of being a Lion, Goff said this:
I think the resiliency that we’ve shown in the past amongst this group, and then hopefully the new guys as well, the resiliency to push through something like this will remain. That optimism, that hope, that belief in each other because it was there. It was really there at the end. So, all I’m saying is we will remain true and resilient, and the gut punches will stop.”
Arguably, it was there and then that Goff assumed the spiritual leadership of the Detroit Lions. He did not need to say that. No one would have blamed him if he just shrugged his shoulders and mumbled through that press conference.
It illustrated Goff’s steely determination. Every other quarterback in that situation would have surrendered to the narratives. Instead, he threw himself into the deep end for an organization and a city.
Remember that Goff was Detroit’s Walter Payton Man of The Year nominee last season. He has ingratiated himself with the fans and community. Beneath the surfer dude exterior, Goff is a tough, competitive leader. He never gets too high or too low. He is a steadying presence for this young Lions squad.
And he never hides from difficult moments. Whenever the Lions have lost, Goff has always fronted up and taken the criticism. He is gritty and is tougher than you think. And he’s a better quarterback.
A Better Quarterback
As always, discourse around quarterbacks is binary. The talking heads and social media commentators either brand a quarterback the next, Dan Marino, or Nathan Peterman. Goff fell into the latter category. But he has helped change the narrative in the last two seasons.
For 2023, Goff ranked 12th in total EPA, sixth in pass-EPA, sixth in success rate and 11th in EPA+CPOE. Since Week 9, Goff has been 5th in quarterback dropback success rate. He also leads the league in passing yardage against the blitz.
Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson have often commented about how organized and detailed their quarterback is at the line of scrimmage. He communicates well and leads his offense professionally. It is a vast change from his LA days. And now he is one win away from becoming a Detroit legend.
A Playoff Win for This City
Understandably, the media are making a lot of Goff and the revenge storyline. But the 29-year-old confirmed his goal with one sentence at his Wednesday press conference:
“I so badly want to win a playoff game for this city that hasn’t had one in so long. We’ve got a home playoff game for the first time in so long, and that’s so much more important than anything personally for me. I want to be a part of this win and do my job to the best of my ability.”
Understandably, the media are making a lot of Goff and the revenge storyline. But Goff confirmed his goal with one sentence at his Wednesday press conference:
“I so badly want to win a playoff game for this city that hasn’t had one in so long. We’ve got a home playoff game for the first time in so long, and that’s so much more important than anything personally for me. I want to be a part of this win and do my job to the best of my ability.”
Detroit has its sporting legends: Steve Yzerman, Al Kaline, Gordie Howe, Miguel Cabrera and Barry Sanders are Motor City immortals. While Goff may not join them on Sunday, he will entrench himself in Lions lore if he leads Detroit to a win. The fanbase has waited three decades.
They have endured all the heartbreaks and constant misery. Goff has endured both success and failure in equal measure. If he ends Sunday successfully, he might just embrace the impostor for one history-making moment.