Clay Matthews- Success is earned, and not granted.

2009 February 27

Clay Matthew, Linebacker, NFL draft,

Clay Matthews, maybe, the huge surprise, or hidden gem in the NFL draft.  He’s the son, and nephew of two NFL players: Titan Bruce Matthew, and Clay Matthew Sr, and might take a page out of Lofa Tatapu’s playbook about NFL bloodlines, and hard work can achieve anything.

Lofa Tatapu and Clay Matthews are both very similar in so many ways. Lofa Tatapu transferred from the University of Maine, and no one recruited Clay Matthews beside then Idaho coach, and current Washington defensive coach Nick Holt.

A chip on their shoulders, eagerness, and the chance to play for the best college football team were the main ingredients of this NFL recipe.

But, Clay Matthews, and Lofa Tatapu most impor tantly; both believed in themselves:

Clay Matthews said, "Maybe I was just naïve thinking that I could play at the same level. When I got there, people may have thought I was crazy," he said with a laugh. "But my mentality was different from that of a normal recruit coming in who had been heavily recruited. I wanted to be the best, and I knew it was going to take hard work, but I was willing to do that. "Obviously, genetics kicked in since I was a late bloomer, but at the same time, my success came from a lot of hard work in the weight room, film room, and at practices. I feel very fortunate to be the player I am today, and I can pretty much say that it was all because of hard work.

22-32

Clay Matthew’s projected draft position

22. 2009 Draft-      Minnesota Vikings-         2008 Draft Money- 5 Years for $10.5 Million
32 . 2009  Draft-      Pittsburgh Steelers-        2008 Draft Money- 5 Years for $10 Million

The Other Numbers…

40                           4.67         Ranked #4
Bench Press             23         Ranked #11
Vertical Jump       35.5         Ranked #5
Broad Jump          10′1"        Ranked #3
3-Cone Drill          6.90        Ranked #2
20 Yards Shuttle  4.18         Ranked #2

NFL Draft Anaylst Mike Moldock said, ”I’ve only seen him play once with his hand down, then they stood him up, But he’s USC’s two-time special teams player of the year. He’s got a chip on his shoulder. His dad, uncles and brothers all played big-time football and he didn’t get a scholarship offer from USC. When he came in he was a 195-pound safety, now he’s 250. He will outwork people, although he’s not as naturally gifted as his father. He could be a second-round pick and three years ago he was a walk-on.”

And lastly, Clay Matthews Sr thinks the Patriots will be the perfect match for his son.

Related posts:

  1. Clay Matthews Rips Adrian Peterson Share Clay Matthews Rips Adrian Peterson on Monday Night Football....
  2. Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga, Kaluka Maiava-The Best set of college linebackers ever? Share What a year from the 2008 class of USC...
  3. 2009 NFL Draft Contest! Share Our NFL draft Contest was a huge success, and...
  4. Mark Sanchez-The Road to the NFL Draft. Share Mark Sanchez has been on the grind, preparing, and...
  5. 10 Reasons Why it’s great to be a NFL and USC Trojan fan Share 1.) Mark Sanchez, Rey Maualuga, Clay Matthews, Patrick Turner,...

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

One Response leave one →
  1. DAVIDtrojans2011 permalink
    April 1, 2009

    NFL Pro-Bowler in the next 4 years.

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic License.