Green Bay Packers’ linebacker Clay Matthews has responded to criticism of him as dirty player. He called himself “awesome” when asked about his now infamous sideline hit on 49ers’ QB Colin Kaepernick.
Before last Sunday, there was no talk of Matthews being a dirty player. He has been fined twice in his NFL career. One of the those fines was for wearing the wrong colored shoes. The other was for grabbing Jay Cutler’s face mask.
The face mask fine was $5,000, nowhere near the $100,000 fine Ndamukong Suh received for his most recent dirty hit.
So far Matthews has not been fined for clotheslining Kaepernick out of bounds. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh , never one to keep his opinions to himself, called the play dirty:
“That certainly was a cheap shot. Launching, clotheslining to the neck/head area. That was a bad play.”
When Clay Matthews was asked about Harbaugh’s comments, He responded simply:
“I’m an awesome player. I’m not a dirty player. I think my resume’s pretty good right now. I think we’re doing alright.”
The “awesome” Clay Matthews will face another read/option QB this Sunday in RGIII. Before the 49ers’ game Matthews said the only way to stop a read/option QB was to hit them. He stuck by his words in San Francisco. All eyes will be on him Sunday to see if he sticks by his words again.
Something else to consider is that emotions shouldn’t be as high for the Packers against the Redskins. The game against the 49ers was a playoff rematch. The Packers lost playoff game 45-31 while Kaepernick ran for an NFL record 181 yards for a QB. The Packers wanted revenge. Clay Matthews tried to single handedly get that revenge.
Now all Green Bay wants is a win. A loss would give them an 0-2 record to start the season. Most teams that start 0-2 don’t make the playoffs. Most teams don’t have Aaron Rodgers as their QB though.
Do you think Clay Matthews is “awesome?” Will the Packer beat the Redskins on Sunday?