Here's an excellent article on the Matthews Clan. They should be a model to all white families. Get married, assume the traditional roles of father and mother, and have lots of children. The bonus is to make sure as many of them as possible play in the NFL!
(BTW, after that excellent ESPN article talking about Danny Woodhead's roots/family, this is the second MSM piece on yet another white NFL player. It's great to see this.)
For Matthews Clan, N.F.L. Is All in the Family
Brodie Matthews may or may not become part of an unprecedented fourth generation of N.F.L. players from his family. He is only 2 months old.
Clay Matthews Sr. was the first to play in the N.F.L. "We're going to try to get him something a little more noble than running into somebody for a living,"Â said his grandfather, Clay Matthews Jr.
No family has infiltrated the league the way the Matthewses have. They might be considered the Mannings for the head-knocking set. For now, five Matthews men have played in the N.F.L., bridging three generations and including the current linebacker Clay Matthews III, whose Packers (11-6) will take the field against the Falcons (13-3) on Saturday in an N.F.C. divisional playoff game. More may be on the way shortly. Odds are decent that Brodie will join them in 2033 or so.
"You know, there's a Lord in the world that blesses you sometimes,"Â said Clay Matthews Sr., a defensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1950s.
The patriarch cannot quite explain how it is that four of his progeny followed him to the N.F.L., but he believes the numbers will grow. When Matthews Sr. was born 82 years ago, he weighed 10 pounds 4 ounces, he said, same as his newly arrived great-grandson.
"Are you asking me if it's something I did?"Â he said. "No, it's nothing I did. I'm just thankful to have them."Â
Matthews Sr. and his late wife, Daisy, had five children. Among them were Clay Matthews Jr. and Bruce Matthews, who each played 19 seasons in the N.F.L. and combined to reach 18 Pro Bowls. Clay Jr. played linebacker, mostly for the Cleveland Browns. Bruce was an offensive lineman for the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
Each of those sons spawned another N.F.L. player roughly in his own mold. Clay Matthews III is in his second year with the Packers. One of the game's best players â€" on Thursday he was named the N.F.L.'s defensive player of the year by Sporting News â€" Matthews III is recognized for his tirelessness on the field and the stringy hair that hangs from his helmet.
On the other side of the family, Bruce Matthews's burly batch of Texas linemen includes Kevin, an undrafted rookie this season who made the Titans and started their last game at center.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, only two other families have had three generations of N.F.L. players, but neither had five family members play in the league. Only the Nessers had more family members in the league than the Matthews family, with six brothers playing in the early 1920s â€" five for the Columbus Panhandles in 1921, the year before the American Professional Football Association was renamed the N.F.L.
Reinforcements could be on the way. Clay Matthews III's brother Casey was a starting linebacker for Oregon in this week's Bowl Championship Series title game against Auburn, and is expected to be chosen in April's N.F.L. draft. Casey Matthews forced the fumble by quarterback Cam Newton that allowed Oregon to tie the score with two and a half minutes left.
Among their cousins, Kevin Matthews's brother Jake started most of last season at right tackle as a true freshman at Texas A&M. Another brother, Mike, is in high school and is being heavily recruited. The youngest boy, 11-year-old Luke, "is probably going to be the biggest one,"Â his father said.
It seems that at this rate, in five or six generations, every N.F.L. team might have a few Matthewses on the roster.
"I guess once we get going on something, we're hard-headed enough to keep doing it,"Â Clay Matthews Jr. said. "Maybe there's something wrong with us."Â
About a year ago, Casey Matthews told his father that he wanted to pursue an N.F.L. career when he finished at Oregon.
"I said, ‘You realize all that entails and the odds of making it, don't you?' " Matthews Jr. said.
For a Matthews boy, it's about 1 in 2.
Clay Matthews Sr. played football at Georgia Tech in the late 1940s. The son of the longtime boxing coach at The Citadel, H. L. Matthews, who was known as Matty, Clay Matthews was also a boxer, a wrestler and a diver. He was big for his time â€" about 6 feet 3 inches, 220 pounds.
He was a 25th-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams in 1949. Before he heard that news, Matthews was traded to San Francisco. His career was interrupted by the Korean War, and Matthews became a paratrooper for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. In 1953, he returned to the 49ers for three more seasons.
Matthews grew eager to get on with a business career. He worked up the corporate ladder and eventually became president of Bell & Howell, the camera and projector manufacturer.
His five children (besides Clay Jr. and Bruce, five years younger, the family included a daughter and twin boys) never knew their father as an N.F.L. player. But they knew him as someone who encouraged competition, and often got on the floor to teach wrestling moves or climbed on the diving board to teach dives.
"It was, ‘Go out there and play, give it your best shot,' " said Bruce Matthews, now 49 and an offensive assistant coach for the Houston Texans. "That was his main thing: Once you start something, you don't quit it. He goes, ‘If you ever go out there and half-step or give it less than your best effort, I'll come and yank you out.' "Â
Clay Matthews Jr., left, and his brother Bruce, the second generation of Matthews, watching the final minutes of a game in 2000.
Casey Matthews played linebacker for Oregon in the national championship game Monday night and will probably be drafted. Speaking from his home in Agoura Hills, Calif., Clay Matthews Jr., 54 and working as an assistant high school coach, recalled similar mantras.
"My dad was very clear," he said. " ‘You guys can do whatever you want, and I'll be proud of you. But whatever you're going to do, apply yourself, be responsible, show up and do it like you mean it.' "Â
Football was the sport that grabbed hold. Clay Jr. starred at Southern California. Bruce followed him there. Both became first-round N.F.L. draft picks. Clay Jr. made four Pro Bowls in the 1980s and played 278 N.F.L. games. Bruce made 292 starts, a league record for a nonkicker until Brett Favre broke it this season. He was named to 14 Pro Bowls and was a seven-time first-team All-Pro.
Each married and had large families. Clay and his wife, Leslie, lived in California and had five children: Jennifer, Kyle (Brodie's father, who played safety at Southern California), Brian, Clay and Casey.
Bruce and his wife, Carrie, settled near Houston and had an even larger family â€" seven children â€" Steven, Kevin, Marilyn, Jake, Mike, Luke and Gwen.
Clay Matthews Jr. said that Clay III and Casey are "much better"Â linebackers than he was. Bruce Matthews said that his football-playing boys are more diligent than he was.
"I used to think that was the cool part, to go work out with them,"Â Bruce Matthews said. "Now it's like, I don't want to go work out with them. They work out too hard and lift too much weight."Â
For now, it is Clay Matthews III who garners most of the attention. He was a walk-on at Southern California who bulked up and blossomed into a first-round draft choice. Almost instantly, he was one of the league's top players.
"It's fun to continue on this legacy of players that have excelled in the N.F.L.,"Â Matthews III said.
Now he will try to help the Packers win a Super Bowl â€" a championship that has eluded the family over the generations.
Among those who will be watching Saturday night will be Clay Matthews Sr., remarried and living in Sugar Land, Tex., outside Houston. He said he would have to double-check the television schedule.
"I have so many who play,"Â he said, "I'm not sure when the games are going to come on."Â
