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The Los Angeles Rams seem to have a small problem in their locker room right now and that problem is that Matthew Stafford is apparently struggling to connect with his younger teammates. 

That surprising revelation comes from Stafford's wife, Kelly, who revealed the news during the most recent episode of her "The Morning After With Kelly Stafford" podcast.  

"It's kind of crazy," Kelly said, via ESPN.com. "So, Matthew's been in the league a long time. He's like, 'The difference in the locker room has changed so significantly.' They have a lot of rookies on their team, they're very young. But he's like, 'I feel like I can't connect.'"

The biggest problem for Matthew seems to be that players are no longer bonding like they used to. Instead of playing something like ping pong in the locker room, everyone is always looking at their phone.   

"In the old days you'd come out of practice, you'd shower, and people would be playing cards, interacting," Kelly explained. "Who knows what they're doing, but they're doing something together. Playing ping pong, they have a tournament going on. They'd at least be talking. But now they get out of practice, and meetings during training camp, and they go straight to their phones. No one looks up from their phones."

Due to that fact, the Rams quarterback is starting to feel more like a father figure than a teammate. 

"Matthew's like, 'I don't know ... am I the dad? Do I take their phones? What do I do here,'" Kelly said. "He's like, 'I want them to see me not as a coach.'"

At 35 years old, Stafford is the oldest player on the team, and it's not even close. Including Stafford, the Rams only have five total players over the age of 30 and one of those is Aaron Donald, who at 32 is the second-oldest player. 

Not to mention, the Rams also have a young roster. Going into the 2022 season, the team had an average age of 25.8, which made them the 10th youngest roster in the NFL. For the 2023 season, they're likely only going to get younger considering how many rookies they've added. 

"They say 'sir' to him and s---," Kelly said. "He's like, 'No, we're on the same level here, we're both playing in the league. Let me get to know you.' He said it's so different and so hard to get to know these guys."

According to Kelly, Matthew has asked for some help remembering everyone's name and one reason for that might be because the Rams made a league-high 14 picks in the NFL Draft this year, which means there's 14 new faces for him to learn. 

"He had a book printed out," Kelly said. "He had the equipment guy get a book printed of all their faces, and all their names, 'cause he's like, 'I need to know their names.' We need to talk, so I'm gonna find their names and I'm gonna say, 'Hey so-and-so, how was your weekend?' So, they know I know them and maybe we should get to know each other so there's chemistry on the field.'"

Not only have the Rams added a lot of rookies this year, but the team has also been almost completely overhauled since Stafford's first season in Los Angeles. On the defensive side of the ball alone, the Rams are set to have nine different starters compared to the defense that Stafford won the Super Bowl with in 2021. 

Apparently, Matthew would like to get to know everyone, but it hasn't been easy. 

"I think nowadays, it's really hard to develop that because all these young kids, they don't care or it's not that they don't care, but they're so used to going straight to their phones instead of having some fun with some guys in the locker room," Kelly said. "It's different. It's kind of sad."

If Stafford is truly having an issue connecting with his younger teammates, he might want to talk to his head coach, Sean McVay. At 37, McVay is barely older than Stafford, so he theoretically could be dealing with the same issues, but that hasn't been the case. Players of all ages seem to love McVay. Though, to be fair, the coach also isn't taking Kelly's comments too seriously.

"I'm not concerned because I think if you know Kelly, I took that as more of a joke at the old man," McVay has since told reporters, per ProFootballTalk. "And I'll be honest, there's a couple throws that he made during training camp where I wanted to say, 'Yes, sir,' to him as well. ... (This) guy's done a phenomenal job of leading, connecting with his teammates. I think it's one of those deals that becomes a fun narrative in a dead period. And I know Kelly well enough to know that she was probably taking a good old rib at the old man as her husband's getting older playing, but this guy's done a phenomenal job and I know how much he loves his teammates and how much they love him. That is the least of my concerns."