ALLEN PARK -- Matthew Stafford was slumped over at his locker. He didn't do anything. Not even take off his own cleats. Because he couldn't.

The year was 2015, and Minnesota had just teed off on him. He took eight official shots in the game. And all these years later, he still remembers the one from Eric Kendricks. Hell, he still remembers the down.

"He wrapped around on a blitz -- I think it was the first third down of the game, a third-and-10 -- and I hit Golden (Tate) over the middle for a first down. But he put his helmet right into my ribs.

"I was in a bad place there for a little bit."

No kidding. Stafford writhed on the ground in pain, and didn't look right the rest of the way. He managed to finish the game, though if you saw him afterward, you'd wonder, like, uh, how.

He was so beat up, he couldn't bend over. A trainer took off his cleats for him, then clipped away at the tape on his ankles. It was soaked in blood. The toe on his left foot was blue.

Then the trainer helped him take off his shirt, revealing another bandage on his wrist, and another on his forearm. More blood. Then he headed for the X-ray room for a look at those ribs.

All these years later, all those hits later, he calls it one of his most painful moments on a football field, ever.

"I've had some bad (injuries), but the ribs don't feel real great," he says with a chuckle. "I mean it hurts to laugh with something like that. You can imagine what throwing a football is like."

Yet, he did.

Stafford finished that game, because that's what he does. Then he was back at practice the next week, because that's what he does. And then he was back out there the following Sunday, because that's just what he does, week after week, year after year.

When the Lions open the 2018 season tonight against the New York Jets, Stafford will be making his 113th straight start, making him one of the known constants for a team facing all sorts of unknowns heading into Matt Patricia's first campaign.

"That's a tough joker, man," safety Quandre Diggs said. And Quandre Diggs would know a thing or two about tough jokers. So would fellow safety Glover Quin, who has started 132 straight games himself.

"When you're a quarterback, all those shots hurt, man," Quin said. "All those shots hurt. And for him to bounce back up, play after play, to continue to go out there and fight, is pretty crazy. It's just crazy man."

What's even crazier: Matthew Stafford, once called a "China doll" by his own teammate, will move past Tom Brady tonight for the eighth longest QB start streak in NFL history.

"That blew my mind," Stafford said. "I didn't know that."

Not many do. And even fewer saw it coming.

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Let's roll back the tape. Yes, Stafford really was called a "China doll" by one of his own teammates. And to be fair, Zack Follett wasn't exactly wrong at the time either. Stafford missed six games as a rookie with knee and shoulder injuries, then another 13 in 2010 after separating his shoulder twice.

That'd put any quarterback under the microscope. And Stafford wasn't just any quarterback. He was a No. 1 overall pick, and anointed the savior of the long-lost Lions before he ever suited up for a game. Then he missed 19 games through two seasons. So, yeah. Disappointment set in, especially among fans.

"He's a china doll right now," Follett, then a Lions linebacker and special teams ace, told KFIG-AM. "Anytime he gets hit, he goes down. But the kid is -- hopefully, it's just patiently waiting for him, because the kid is an awesome talent. He has a tremendous arm. The throws that he makes during practice when no one can touch him, he looks like an All-American quarterback. But put him in a game, and you hit his shoulder ... "

Follett, who didn't respond to interview requests for this story, later walked back the quote, and Stafford doesn't hold a grudge at all. But the greater perception that existed -- that he was injury prone -- clearly bothered him.

"In the years after that, I was ready to prove it was going to take a lot to get me off the field," Stafford said. "I still feel that way."

And boy, has he done it.

He's played in 112 straight regular-season games, which trails only Philip Rivers (192) and Matt Ryan (131) among active QB streaks. And he's already tied with Brady for eighth longest ever. If he plays all 16 games this year, he'll pass Brady, Ron Jaworski (116) and Joe Flacco (122) to move into sixth place all time.

Not bad for a China doll.

And it hasn't been easy.

Playing behind a line that's often been outmanned, Stafford has taken some vicious shots over the years. The last two seasons alone, he's taken 84 sacks. That's more than every quarterback not named Russell Wilson. One unnamed Lions player says he saw Stafford in the trainer's room every day last season. Every single day. Asked if that were hyperbole, Stafford confirmed he believes it could be true, either to deal with injuries or prevent them.

Yet Stafford played 2,073 of Detroit's 2,082 offensive snaps the last two years. That's 99.6 percent. Despite the hits, and all the injuries that have come with them, from his ankle to his ribs and even a couple to his throwing hand.

Ask around about it, and players got all kinds of stories about stuff they've seen Stafford play through.

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Tight end Michael Roberts remembers the Saints game last year, when Stafford gutted through ankle and rib injuries that clearly took a toll.

"He got destroyed," Roberts said. "I mean, obviously our offensive line wasn't protecting him. And as many times as he got hit, as many times as he was on the ground, and there's a lot of weight falling on that man ... but he turned it up.

"He was like, 'Let's (bleeping) go.' Excuse my language, but that's what he said."

Marvin Jones remembers the ankle injury against Minnesota last year. Of course, he also caught a 43-yard touchdown pass on the play, so maybe that has something to do with it.

It's always entertaining to hear Stafford break down a play away from a press conference, and he remembers this one well. It was a free play, and his mind immediately went back to Week 2, when he had a free play against the Giants on Monday Night Football. He had a guy streaking downfield to the right, but was looking left instead and missed him.

This time, he saw the free play, kept his eyes right and feathered a beautiful touchdown pass to Jones in double-coverage. Only he didn't get to see the catch. He was rolled up on from behind, and felt pain streak through his ankle as Jones plowed his way into the end zone.

"I had hurt that ankle earlier in the year against Carolina," Stafford said, "so it was just starting to feel a little better, a little more normal. Then, you know -- I've never broken an ankle, but I imagine it's pretty close to that."

Of course, Stafford never came out of the game. He just went to the sideline and got a tape job -- "a tight one," he recalls. Then he played on.

"He was obviously hurtin'," Jones says. "People were like, 'Yoooo, so ...' and then he's just like, 'So what about the next play?'"

Quin remembers an ankle too, suffered against Minnesota or New Orleans or who can really keep these things straight these days? He just remembers seeing Stafford limp around the sideline, refusing to come out.

"He was hurting pretty bad," Quin said. "You could see it on his face. Like, he had taken a couple shots, man, and you could just see it. For him to finish, to go back in, man, I could see it on his face, he was hurting. And he finished. Like, man."

For Quandre Diggs, his favorite story doesn't involve Stafford being in pain, but delivering it. He recalls the Week 2 game against Tennessee in 2016, when Stafford found himself scrambling in the open field on third down. And when Perrish Cox came barreling down on him, everyone in the building thought he was going to slide.

Instead, Stafford lowered his shoulder and just ran Cox over.

"That was my second year in the league, and I'm just yelling, 'Get down! Get down!' Then he just runs that dude over," Diggs said. "Man, that's just how he's built. You never really wanna see a quarterback take big hits, but I loved seeing him deliver a big hit."

Of course, there was nothing quite like Stafford's return against the Browns as a rookie in 2009. With Detroit trailing 37-31 and just 8 seconds remaining, Stafford dodged defenders until cutting loose a pass into the end zone. Pass interference was called on the play, giving Detroit one more untimed play from the 1.

Only problem: Stafford had just been crushed by C.J. Mosley, dislocating his shoulder.

But he refused to leave the game.

"It was just my left shoulder," Stafford says with a shrug. "Didn't feel good, obviously. But I thought, you know, I mean -- 'Hey, there's one play here. I don't care what's going on. It's one play. I can do anything for one play.'



"Sure wasn't a whole lot of fun though."

Stafford came back out, then threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Pettigrew to win the game.

"I just remember seeing him go back in and thinking, 'All right, this is awesome. Here we go,'' long snapper Don Muhlbach said. "He looked like he was hurtin', and he wouldn't let anyone stop him from playing."

Ah, Don Muhlbach. He has an interesting story himself, as a 15th-year veteran at the game's most unheralded position. He also happens to be the last player left who was around when Stafford was taken first overall in 2009, and their lockers are just a couple stalls apart in the locker room.

That gives Muhlbach one of the most interesting perspectives on this whole story arc. He was here when Stafford was getting assassinated by fans and critics for injuries. Then he saw Stafford go five years without so much as missing a practice, let alone a game.

Asked for his take, Muhlbach first reacts with characteristic reticence, like he's allergic to a notebook.

"He's indestructible," Muhlbach says. "What more do you want from me?"

Pressed on it a day later, though, Muhlbach opens up about his longtime friend.

"It's just competitiveness," Muhlbach said. "If he's not in there, something's probably really wrong. It doesn't matter whether we're playing football or shooting a basketball at his house, or playing golf, he just wants to win. And he's not going to let anything stop him from trying."

"I don't know what the opposite of (China doll) would be, but he's that."

Indeed. We may not know a lot about how these Detroit Lions will look under Matt Patricia. We may not know who is going to rush the passer, or whether that running game will finally be any good. But we know exactly what they're going to get at quarterback, and that's more than a lot of teams can say. And Detroit's chances of putting together a run in 2018 ultimately depend on it.

"I've never seen anything like it before," says center Graham Glasgow, who played every snap last season. "He pushes through more things than other people are willing to. He's just a tough dude."