Clay Matthews Jr.
Matthews with the Cleveland Browns in 1984 | |||||||||||
| No. 57 | |||||||||||
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| 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: 1st round, 12th pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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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 (currently at number 21, see List of NFL players by games played). Matthews had 1,561 tackles in his career, unofficially the third most in NFL history trailing Jessie Tuggle and Ray Lewis.
Matthews 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.