Matthew Stafford keeps the Georgia football celebration going at Super Bowl LVI

Former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford helped lead the LA Rams to a Super Bowl win, and in doing so, has kept the party going for punchdrunk Georgia football fans.

The Los Angeles Rams are Super Bowl champions after their bitterly-contested win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. It was a game for the ages featuring two quarterbacks of vastly different ages.

For Matthew Stafford, it was the culmination of 13 long years in the NFL, 12 of them struggling in Detroit and one year of overscrutinization and intense pressure playing in Los Angeles.

For Georgia football fans, it was a continuation of a party that began on January 10, when the Bulldogs finally took down mighty Alabama to win their first national championship since 1980. Stafford getting his ring and likely punching his ticket to Canton was as important to the Bulldog Nation as it was to the Rams fanbase.

Since declaring for the draft and becoming the No. 1 overall pick in 2009, Stafford has been the subject of both awe and ire when it comes to NFL analysts and fans. He’s been compared to the likes of Dan Marino and Dan Fouts — a guy with all the stats but no rings — to  Danny Kannell, a guy who is overhyped and underwhelming.

Matthew Stafford always had the backing of Georgia fans

But the Bulldog Nation always believed in Matthew Stafford, and those who saw what he was able to do with so little talent surrounding him in Detroit knew if he was ever given the true opportunity, he’d make good.

And make good he did.

He persevered. He fought. He took everything the media, the fans, and the Bengals could dish out, and he stood tall and raised the Lombardi Trophy. Matthew Stafford finally proved it wasn’t him who was the problem. Sean McVay and the Rams brought him in as the missing piece to the puzzle. The quarterback who could do the things and overcome the obstacles Jared Goff couldn’t.

And Georgia fans were there for it.

The Bulldog Nation was cheering just as hard for the Rams as their own fanbase (as were Lions fans, who truly came to appreciate Stafford over the years).

The Bulldogs are champions, Matthew Stafford is finally a champion.

Along with former Bulldog greats Sony Michel, Leonard Floyd, and Thomas Brown, Matthew Stafford added another verse to the lore of Georgia players ringing the championship bell in the NFL.

Keep the party going, Bulldog Nation. The Top 25 Diamond Dawgs could use another College World Series championship.