How fatherhood has changed Jared Goff

DETROIT — To the child waiting in the friends and family tents, it didn’t matter the Detroit Lions had just wrapped up an intense two-hour practice on the sunny afternoon of Aug. 10. The moment 1-year-old Romy Isabelle Goff spotted her father, Jared Goff, on the practice field afterward, she immediately threw herself into his arms.

Goff then introduced his daughter to teammates and coaches in between chasing her around.

Romy, who was born in early July 2025, was too young to regularly attend training camp with her dad last summer. But this season, she and Goff’s wife, Christen, were a consistent presence on the practice fields as the Goff family would often spend quality time together once training concluded.

As Goff plays his 11th season, and the Lions’ Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), he and others around him have seen a different mindset from the 31-year-old quarterback. Romy’s presence in his life has sharpened his focus and supercharged a sense of urgency that was instilled in him by his father, Jerry, a former MLB catcher.

From the start of the Lions’ offseason workout dates, teammate Penei Sewell said he could sense a different vibe from Goff, and head coach Dan Campbell said he noticed a heightened sense of urgency.

“I think it absolutely transitions to the field,” Christen said. “I think having perspective and having [an] understanding that there’s more [to] life than football really helps you even focus in more on football and what you’re doing there because it takes that pressure off that this is your whole life. Like, there’s so much more to life.

“So he can really, when he’s at work, he can focus — he can put in his time, he can put in his energy and to know when he’s at home that nothing’s going to change. He has a wife and a baby that loves him, and it gives him the freedom to play more freely, I think, without the pressure of his full identity being wrapped up as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions.”

In Week 1, Goff helped the Lions get off to a 1-0 start with a 31-30 victory over the New Orleans Saints. He threw two touchdowns, including the game winner in overtime to Amon-Ra St. Brown, which extended his TD streak to 24 games — a franchise record and the longest active streak in the league.

After the victory, Christen posted Instagram photos of Romy roaming the sidelines of Ford Field before the game. She also posted a candid photo of Romy in the arms of her beaming father with the caption: “Sundays are back!”

“Your goal is to win the whole thing, and you want your career to go a certain way, and you have aspirations and all these things, but I think she reminds me that there’s more to it,” Goff said of Romy. “And every time I finish up, getting able to see her and just [knowing] I get to go home to someone who doesn’t care.

“It makes things a lot lighter for sure.”

And Goff said the new perspective fatherhood has brought will translate to the field when it matters most.

“[Fatherhood] gives you a little freedom. It does,” Goff told ESPN. “And I felt like I was in a really good place prior to having her, but I think it just unlocks a new world that you can’t really feel until that happens.”

JERRY GOFF UNDERSTOOD exactly what it took to excel in sports. He spent six years in the major leagues as a catcher between 1990 and 1996, playing for the Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros.

In the Goff home in Novato, California, Jerry instilled a sense of urgency in his son at a young age.

“He’d be playing video games like every other kid. I said, ‘Let’s go out and hit,’ for example. … He would say, ‘I’m playing video games,'” Jerry recalled. “And I would just tell him, ‘You go play your video game and I’m going to support you there, but somebody else is getting better while you’re doing that.’

“And that was always my thought when I was training. If I’m not working, somebody else was working and then next thing you’d know, I’d get a tap on the shoulder, ‘Hey dad, let’s go hit.’ He understood.”

Those lessons ultimately helped Jared finish his prep career with a 39-4 record over three varsity football seasons at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, California. He was the first quarterback in Cal history to start as a true freshman, then the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams.

“What I have been able to give him, which most dads can’t, is the perspective — when he was younger in particular — of playing at the highest level,” Jerry told ESPN. “And giving him the tools, and he took it and ran with it to know how to prepare for the highest level, and I mean like in work ethic.

“I’ve always said, ‘You can’t be like the rest of the kids if you want to be the best player, you can’t. You can’t go to the beach on the weekends every time, you have to be different.’ You have to be different if you want to pursue greatness.”

That pursuit of excellence has become a feature of Jared Goff’s professional career. He was traded by the Rams to Detroit in winter 2021 for former Lions star Matthew Stafford just two seasons after leading L.A. to a Super Bowl berth. But Goff resurrected his career in Detroit, leading the Lions to four consecutive winning seasons while becoming one of the NFL’s most accurate and efficient quarterbacks.

The trade worked out for both teams as Stafford led the Rams to a victory in Super Bowl 56. Now entering Year 6 in Detroit, Goff’s focus and standard to win has heightened.

“With Jared, things change when the season starts,” Jerry said. “It’s a little bit of a switch that gets flipped in terms of his focus and attention to detail and just his demeanor. Similar to me when I played [professional baseball]. In the offseason, it’s loose and all that, but once the season goes, he’s a different cat. He’s so locked in.

“Yes, the baby is the focal point, love of his life with him and Christen, and I can see there being a sense of urgency a little bit. But there’s always a sense of urgency for Jared. He’s got one thing in mind, and we all know what that is and that’s the ultimate goal.”

THE LIONS WILL need the best version of Goff if they hope to return to the postseason and potentially bring home a Super Bowl.

According to ESPN Analytics, the Lions entered the year with a 40% chance to win the NFC North — the best odds of any team in the division.

And after the Week 1 win over the Saints, Goff reached 39,828 career passing yards, passing Eli Manning (39,755) for the eighth-most passing yards through 11 seasons in NFL history.

But 2025 represented a slight step back for Goff. After Ben Johnson left as offensive coordinator to become head coach of the Chicago Bears, Goff posted his worst Total QBR (57.3) since his first season in Detroit (45.5 in 2021), when the Lions finished 3-10-1.

Last season, Goff particularly struggled when pressured. He faced a pressure rate of 28.9%, his highest since his first two seasons with the Rams. He also was sacked a career-high 38 times. Doubts outside the Lions building have arisen about his ability to lead Detroit to a title.

ESPN analyst and former Lions QB Dan Orlovsky said such questions being asked about Goff are a sign of how far he has come as a quarterback.

“I think he’s really started to get the national and public appreciation as a player,” Orlovsky said. “Like, you hear guys talk about Jared Goff now and it’s not just Lions, it’s not just [St. Brown] and [Jameson Williams]. I think that gives you, whether we like to admit it or not, that just gives you that credibility and that belief.

“And when your peers are talking about you, the way I feel like they’ve started to talk about Jared in the last year or two, I really think it has an impact.”

And Goff remains hungry for more. The heightened sense of urgency he has felt because of Romy’s presence in his life has him drilling down even harder on every aspect of his play, including his leadership. Goff was voted a team captain for the sixth straight season.

“I think the biggest thing for Goff is he’s taken his game to such a level right now that I feel like he’s in this, man, he’s up there, I mean, he’s up there,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “And now what I feel is, ‘All right, here’s my game.’ His game’s good. It’s damn good. It’s the mentality, the urgency, the leadership, the, ‘Hey man, let’s go.’ We cannot accept anything less than the best.

“He wants to be the best in the league, and he wants to run the best offense in the league. And to get there, we’ve got to go, we don’t have time. That’s where I really feel him growing. And every year I felt more of an urgency out of him in that regard, more command, more leadership, and that has to come organically. It can’t be forced on somebody, it can’t. And so that’s great to see out of him.”

After the season-opening win, Goff came out of the locker room and spent time with Christen and Romy. He kissed both and stared at Romy, then shrugged with a childlike grin, as if he can’t believe his luck. Everything that defines success for him was in that moment.

“All he cares about right now,” said Cam Croteau, Goff’s lifelong friend, “is family and close friends and winning a Super Bowl.

“That’s it.”