Rob Sims was watching the NFC Championship Game on television and could feel his own emotions starting to bubble up. For years, Sims blocked for Matthew Stafford as a guard on the Detroit Lions. Now, in retirement, he was watching his former quarterback do something they never could in Detroit.
He watched Stafford -- with his bright smile and scruffy beard -- reach the pinnacle of the sport with the Los Angeles Rams after languishing with the Lions. For Sims and so many others who played with Stafford throughout the years, his journey felt, in some ways, like their own journey.