The 2018 season was winding down, and Clay Matthews was facing an uncertain future. For everything he had accomplished during his decade-long run with the Packers, there was no guarantee the team would sign him to a third contract and allow him to continue his NFL career with the only franchise he’d ever known as a player. “I’ve got two kids, a third on the way. Are we staying out here or are we moving back? There’s a lot of moving pieces right now,” Matthews said. “I’m building a house back in California. Of course, you think about it, but I don’t stress about it. Whatever happens, happens.”
Truth be told, Matthews did a good job of not letting the uncertainty get to him for much of the 2018 season—until a sitdown with NBC’s Sunday Night Football announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, and Collinsworth asked him during production meetings about the possibility of wearing a different uniform someday. “I came here in 2009, and next year will be 2019. Obviously, everybody would love to finish out their career in one place, and I’m no different,” Matthews said. “But it has to make sense. That’s the part of free agency with a new coaching staff. You’ve got to see the fit. There’s a worth that you feel about yourself. Everything has to come together. If that’s the case, I’d love to be a Packer for several more years.”
Even though Matthews ended up signing a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019, returning him to his Southern California roots and to the Memorial Coliseum, where he starred at USC. The Packers made headlines by giving Matthews’ No. 52 to first-round pick Rashan Gary instead of keeping it out of circulation for a year, as they had done fo other great players. Matthews will be remembered for his big plays for the Packers. None was bigger than the Rashard Mendenhall fumble he forced in Super Bowl XLV when the Pittsburgh Steelers were threatening. That came after outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene exhorted him to make a momentum-shifting, game-changing play. (“It. Is. Time,” Greene famously told him on the sideline before the play.) Later in 2017, Matthews broke the franchise record for sacks.
Perhaps had the Packers won a second title during his tenure, fans’ perception would have been different when it came to Matthews, who was certain he’d help the Packers to more titles after the first one. “You’re a little naïve in thinking that, but especially following up the next year going 15–1, you’re like, ‘We’ve got something cooking here.’ We win that whole thing, and you’re going, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ Then ’11 comes along, and you’re 15–1, and you’re thinking, We’re going to do this again, but you lose in the playoffs and you’re like, ‘Okay, let’s refocus.’ In 2012 we got a second shot at San Francisco after playing them in Week 1, but we ran into a little bit of a buzz saw with Colin Kaepernick. Then in 2013 Aaron gets hurt with the first broken collarbone, but we still get in the playoffs and lost at home, but I had just re-broken my thumb and didn’t play. In 2014 you’re right there again and lose in overtime, and so on and so on.”
Aaron Rodgers certainly understood. He’d become the team’s starting quarterback a year before Matthews’ arrival as a first-round pick in 2009, and the pair had shared the post-Super Bowl XLV championship dais with Matthews slinging a championship belt over Rodgers’ shoulder. They also shared the frustration of not parlaying that first title into another in short order. That said, the two grew close as the years went by, sharing a leadership role in the locker room during the season and working out together in Southern California in the offseason.
They even starred in State Farm TV ads together for several years—“a slightly above average commercial actor,” Rodgers called Matthews—and while fans perhaps didn’t always appreciate Matthews, Rodgers certainly did. “It’s really impressive. He has been an elite player for us for a long time and brings a lot to our defense. It’s been great playing with him over the years,” Rodgers said. “I’ve known him for a number of years now. I’ve trained with him in the offseason for a number of years as well. He’s gone from that young, single, long-haired Fabio to now he’s a father and a husband. He’s a great dad and a great family man. He’s been great in the locker room. I sometimes rib him a little bit. He’s a blast out there, working out in Calabasas and L.A. He’s just a lot of fun. He’s always cutting up and ripping on people and just fun to be around. He’s a little more focused, I think, at the stadium and during the week, but he’s been a lot of fun to play with. He’s been a fantastic teammate and great player for this organization for a number of years. Some of my favorite memories, though, are just being on set, filming those commercials. We were just cracking each other up all day—or working out [in Los Angeles]—and him and his brother are just riffing on funny ’90s movies all day. That’s the Clay I get to see that you guys probably don’t get to see a whole lot.”
Linebacker Clay Matthews celebrates after sacking Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler during a victory against the Packers’ NFC North rival.
Reggie White set the franchise record for sacks with 68.5 in just five seasons in Green Bay. It’s also worth noting that sacks weren’t an official NFL stat before 1982, and one-dimensional speed rusher Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila actually held the record at 74.5 sacks until Matthews passed him in 2017. Unlike KGB, Matthews was a complete player—his move to inside linebacker stabilized a struggling defense in 2014, making the Packers a legitimate Super Bowl contender—whose injury issues lessened some outsiders’ appreciation for his field-tilting talent.
If there’s any room for criticism, it’s that his durability impeded his productivity, as he missed only 17 of a possible 160 games during his first 10 seasons but saw his effectiveness at times diminished by playing through injury. “When Clay’s healthy, he can rush with the best of them in NFL history,” said former Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers, an NFL coach for three decades and Matthews’ coach from 2009 through 2017. “I’ve said in the past that Clay was probably our best drop linebacker. He can cover ground, he had good instincts off the ball. That’s the thing you don’t find a lot of times in pass rushers: their instincts when you ask them to go play other positions. I mean, he’s been really unselfish that way. You remember a few years ago when we took him midseason and put him at inside linebacker. He played there. And we’ve played him a lot there since then at different times in a game with different schemes. So that’s the thing you like about Clay: he’s willing to do whatever it takes that’s in the gameplan that week. He’s not one of those guys you feel like you’ve got to always rush him.”
Still, Matthews didn’t put up the eye-popping sack numbers, going four seasons (2015–18) without registering double-digit sacks. In 2018 under Capers’ replacement, Mike Pettine, Matthews played in all 16 games but managed only a career-low 3.5 sacks, leading to his free-agent departure. But as he matured as a player, his value on the defense remained—even if his statistics didn’t reflect it. Head coach Mike McCarthy often said that the Packers defense was different when Matthews was healthy and he always appreciated Matthews’ professionalism. “He’s very detailed as far as his approach in everything he does and he’s always been that way. Growing up in a football family, you can see the discipline that he has,” McCarthy said. “I go back to his rookie year. He’s the [first-round] draft pick, and [in] every meeting, whether it was a rookie orientation meeting or any type of seminar, Clay always sat in the front row. I think that shows his approach and how he goes about it.”
Not much changed with Matthews after that. The grandson (Clay Matthews Sr.), son (Clay Matthews Jr.), and nephew (Bruce Matthews) of NFL players, Matthews later moved to the second row for team meetings, but other than getting married (to wife Casey) and having children, Matthews insisted that all he did was get older and wiser. “I don’t know how much I’ve changed as a player. I tell everyone I feel just as good today as I felt back in 2009. Obviously, a lot smarter, wiser, and a lot crustier from just being around,” Matthews said. “Everything outside the locker room hasn’t really affected me on the field. Obviously, it puts things in perspective more. That’s just a different deal. You’re growing up. [But] I still feel the same way. Check the genealogy. My dad and my uncle played 19 seasons apiece…I still feel really good. I feel like I can contribute a lot. I don’t think I’ve fallen off or lost a step.”