Stafford and Company Will Restore Lions' Roar for Years to Come

Sometime, 10 or 12 years from now, the face will be more chiseled and hewn. It’ll be the look of a man instead of a boy. The care-free smiling will be replaced by looks of introspection. The peach fuzz will be long gone—sandpaper in its place. Matthew Stafford will find this out, first hand. The mug of the NFL quarterback who’s been able to survive the league from college to his mid-to-upper-30s is the “after” following the “before.” They’re handsome and unblemished when they enter the league. Then they leave looking like a tractor wheel drove over their face a few times. Check out John Elway, 1983, and then compare it to Elway after winning his second Super Bowl in 1999. They could be son and father. They all had the look. Dan Marino bounded into Miami from Pitt with floppy, dark, curly hair. He had the looks of someone who should have been on the silver screen, not the gridiron. Then came 17 years of beat downs from defensive linemen the size of Delaware, and Marino ...