Packers' Matthews has a chance to make family history

DALLAS - Clay Matthews III comes from a family that has accomplished a lot in a combined 44 seasons of NFL football.

But the Packers' dominating linebacker, who has contributed only two seasons to that total, has a chance this week to do something his father, grandfather and uncle never managed - win an NFL championship.

Matthews wasn't reveling in that distinction yesterday, when he and a handful of teammates met with the media shortly after the Pack arrived in Dallas to begin preparing for Super Bowl XLV.

"Well, he didn't make it [to the Super Bowl], so there weren't a lot of conversations there, but hopefully we can pull one off for the whole Matthews family," Matthews said, after being asked if he'd discussed having a chance to win a ring with his father, Clay Jr. "Nineteen years with him and 19 years with my uncle [Bruce], who had a Super Bowl loss [XXXIV, with the Titans], so it'd be really exciting to bring one home." (Clay's grandfather, Clay Sr., played four seasons with the 49ers in the 1950s.)

Not that Clay III feels winning would set him apart from them, though, in any crucial way.

"In all honesty, they couldn't have cared less [about never winning it]. That didn't determine their career[s]. It doesn't determine people's careers, win or lose, despite what the media says," Matthews said. "They had great careers for 19 years of play, and the games, the years, the plays they made speak for themselves."

Matthews' play has spoken for itself, in his amazing ascent to the top of the NFL defensive ladder. Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu, who had an awful lot to do with getting the Steelers here, edged Matthews for the Associated Press defensive player of the year yesterday, 17 votes to 15, but Matthews won the Butkus Award, given to the NFL's top linebacker, and it would be hard to convince anyone in the NFC that he wasn't the best player on that side of the ball they encountered.

Matthews is the first Packer to record double-digit sack totals his first two NFL seasons. He is 2-for-2 on making the Pro Bowl. There haven't been many decisions in the NFL lately better than the one Packers general manager Ted Thompson made on draft day in 2009, when he sent a second-round pick and two thirds to New England for the Pats' first rounder, 26th overall, plus a fifth-round pick. Thompson took Matthews, and Green Bay hasn't looked back.