Drunk Matthew Stafford Walked Away as a Photographer Took a Serious Digger Off the Stage and the Internet is Not Having It

In the Championship Hero business, everything can turn on a dime. You can spend the first 34 years of your life trying to get to the top the way Matthew Stafford did. You can be celebrated around the country for being the most lovable kind of happy drunk:

But once you get that ring, life comes at you fast. That bar for personal behavior sets that much higher. The things that get ignored when you win six games and are out of the playoffs by Halloween become things you get judged for. Let one photographer tumble off the stage in front of you and you act like you didn't see it, and there will be a backlash. The expectations are too high now. Matthew Stafford can't just hand it off to Kelly like he did Cam Akers. That No Look pass to Cooper Kupp? Great. That No Look of the photographer's spill? Not so much. 

For the record, here's the photographer herself, Kelly Smiley (A+ name, by the way) commenting on the original video from @LoganTheHammer:

And updating us on her condition. Which is not good:

Obviously a fractured spine is a serious condition. You don't have to be a doctor to know that the spine is like the backbone of the entire human body. And to that end, a crowdfund account has been set up on Kelly Smiley's behalf:

And while we can all legitimately ask what Stafford should've done, however many beers and champagne swigs into his morning he was. None of us should want to be judged by the moment we're celebrating after just having reached the pinnacle of our entire life's pursuit. But then again, a single drop of the milk of human kindness would've been nice. Some show of concern, a quick "Are you OK?" followed by letting the sober professionals on duty take care of her wouldn't have cost a thing. Which seems to be where much of public opinion is at:

Personally, I'm on the side of letting bygones be bygones. Maybe while this probably wasn't the best look for Stafford, it's "a judge not lest ye be judged" situation. Or maybe I'm just old school. I come from a different time. A time when we didn't expect our quarterbacks to be first responders. We just wanted Terry Bradshaw to let people joke about how he can't spell "cat" if you spot him the "c" and "a" and Roger Staubach to be boring and square and Joe Namath to bang cocktail waitresses at Toots Shor's two and three at a time. They didn't have time for human compassion because they were too busy fighting through the pain of vicious hits from maniacs like Jack Youngblood, Mean Joe Greene and Deacon Jones. And being American Icons. 

But times have changed. We've got Good Samaritan laws now. We're expected to be decent to complete strangers in their moment of need. But since Stafford has never been anywhere near this particular mountaintop, let's cut him some slack. We love to say "act like you've been there," but since he never had, I say we go easy on him. 

I'll just add this, if that was Mac Jones, he would've flown off the stage, caught Kelly Smiley in mid-fall, and gently placed her on her feet. You'll all see when it happens at next year's Super Bowl Duckboat parade.