 Matthews during the 1984 NFL season | |||||||||
| No. 57 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Linebacker | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | March 15, 1956 Palo Alto, California, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 245 lb (111 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | New Trier (Winnetka, Illinois) | ||||||||
| College: | USC | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1978 / round: 1 / pick: 12 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Player stats at PFR | |||||||||
William Clay Matthews Jr. (born March 15, 1956) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for the Cleveland Browns and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected in the first round of the 1978 NFL draft by the Browns and played in 278 games over 19 NFL seasons, which initially ranked him at number 17 among most games played[citation needed] (currently at number 21, see List of NFL players by games played).[1] Matthews had 1,561 tackles in his career, unofficially the third most in NFL history trailing Jessie Tuggle and Ray Lewis.[2]
He is the father of Clay Matthews III, an All-Pro linebacker and Super Bowl Champion, and Casey Matthews, a former American football linebacker; brother of Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews.