Matt Stafford Is Playing Coy

NEW YORK -- The whispers are that the deal could be done tonight, or already is done, but for some i-dotting and t-crossing. Peter King tells us to take it to the bank: Matthew Stafford is "going to be a Detroit Lion."

It's been an open secret for days that Stafford, the former Georgia quarterback, is in serious negotiations with the Lions and is very likely to be the No. 1 pick in Saturday's NFL draft. Mark Sanchez is telling anybody who'll listen that Stafford-to-Detroit is a done deal. Aaron Curry, while still hoping it will be him, seems resigned to Stafford as the No. 1 pick.

The only one who's pretending not to know anything about all of this is Stafford, who told us with a straight face this afternoon that he hasn't been paying it any attention.

"I know they've all been working hard on it, but honestly, I'm out of the loop," Stafford said around noon as he and other prospective draftees hosted an NFL-sponsored clinic for kids in sun-splashed Central Park. "I've been trying to stay out of it."

This may take the cake. At this point, it's become clear that anything anybody says in the days before the draft is at best a smokescreen and more likely a lie. But for Stafford to stand there and tell us he hadn't talked to his agent since last night and wasn't concerned about whether he got his deal done with Detroit before the draft started might be the toughest bit of misinformation any of us has been asked to swallow. I guess you give the kid a break because what's he supposed to say, but jeez. These agents really have these guys trained, don't they?

"I don't even know what goes into all the contract stuff," Stafford said. "Apparently there's a whole lot more to it this year because of the new CBA situation, so anything can happen, really."

Okay, so, playing along, he's right. If the deal doesn't get done -- if the Lions instead go and sign Curry or Jason Smith, Stafford's got a chance to drop pretty far down the first round. The quarterback-needy teams that follow Detroit are thought to prefer Sanchez, and that's the Lions' leverage with Stafford. If he doesn't sign with them, who knows how far he might fall?

Of course, he said he hasn't paid attention to that either.

"It's not a big deal to me, really," he said. "I'd love to be the first pick. I'm sure everybody here would. But if it doesn't happen, I really don't mind where I go. I'll be playing football for somebody."

If it's not Detroit, it'll be the shock of the day tomorrow (or possibly late tonight). And if it is Detroit, Stafford faces an uphill battle to win over the town's fans. One thing he did admit to being aware of was the group of Lions fans who showed up at the team's new logo unveiling last week to voice their opinion that Curry should be the pick.

"I did hear about that, and it's cool," Stafford said. "Fans are going to have their opinions wherever you go, and that's fine."

He's not going in with any preconceived notions about Detroit anyway. In fact, he said, he doesn't know much about the city at all.

"I know the Pistons and the Tigers are there," Stafford said. "That's about it."

And the Red Wings, somebody reminded him.

"Oh yeah, of course, the Red Wings," Stafford said. "Can't forget the Red Wings. I'm from Texas, see. There's no hockey there."

Looks like Stafford has a lot to learn about the place he's likely to be calling home. First, though, he's got to finish hammering out that contract. You know. The one he doesn't know anything about.