NFL: Clowney’s path paved by good, bad and crazy
By Andy Pollin
Jadeveon Clowney is only the eighth defensive end in NFL history to be drafted number one overall. It’s a wide-ranging group that includes two Hall of Famers, a bust and one of the most unique individuals ever to put on a helmet. As he begins his career September 7th, Clowney can glance down at his predecessors and begin to see which direction he will ultimately go.
2014 – Houston Texans – Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina
2006 – Houston Texans – Mario Williams, North Carolina State
2000 – Cleveland Browns – Courtney Brown, Penn State
1985 – Buffalo Bills – Bruce Smith, Virginia Tech
1976 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Lee Roy Selmon, Oklahoma
1974 – Dallas Cowboys – Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Tennessee State
1973 – Houston Oilers – John Matuszak, Tampa
1967 – Baltimore Colts – Bubba Smith, Michigan State
Of the group, only Brown was a bust. Selmon and Bruce Smith made the Hall of Fame. Bubba Smith and Too Tall won Super Bowls. And Williams is enjoying a very good career. That leaves Matuszak, who won two Super Bowls with the Raiders, but needs to be placed in a category of his own – the category of crazy.
Matuszak had the size, 6’8″, 272 lbs, and speed to be a star. He grew up in Milwaukee and sorted through multiple scholarship offers before landing at Missouri. That lasted until early in his sophomore year when he bashed in the face of a fellow student at a frat party because he thought he was hitting on his girlfriend.
After a stop at a junior college, it was on to the University of Tampa. Few outside of Tampa even knew such a school existed, much less had a football team. But “The Tooz” made enough of an impression for the Oilers to take him with the number one overall pick. Obviously this was before the days when teams invested in psychological testing, or the Oilers wouldn’t have drafted this cat.
After a s0-so rookie year, Matuszak decided to take an offseason job – playing professional football! The World Football League launched in 1974 with a team in Houston called the Texans. He actually suited up and got on the field for two series, before the Oilers produced a restraining order, ending his days in the rival league. At that point, the Oilers had seen enough and shipped Matuszak to the Kansas City Chiefs. They had their own awakening. Head Coach Paul Wiggin had to be called in to pound on his player’s chest after “The Tooz” has swallowed a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol. That was the end of his days in Kansas City.
In 1976, there were only two men looking for players with a past like that, Redskins Coach George Allen and Raiders President Al Davis. In the span of a few weeks, Matuszak played for both of them. Allen got the first crack after a waiver claim, but he decided to throw him back in the pool. Asked why he released Matuszak, Allen said, “Vodka and Valium, the breakfast of champions.”
Oakland was the last stop on the way out of the NFL and that’s where “The Tooz” finally stuck. He fit right in with that band of renegades. One night quarterback Ken Stabler was woken up to pay his roommate’s bail. As Mike Downey recounted in the Los Angeles Times, ” The Tooz had been weaving all over the freeway, shooting at roadside signs. When the quarterback got to the jail, he found Matuszak standing outside a cell, wearing only three things – handcuffs, his Super Bowl ring and a pair of powder blue, elephant skin cowboy boots.”
“That’s my roommate, Stabler said, I’d recognize him anywhere.”
Davis, who’s motto was, “Just win baby,” won two Super Bowls with Matuszak. So it was all good with him.
The Super Bowl XV victory over Philadelphia, turned out to be Matuszak’s last game. Of course, there’s a story to go along with it. The game was played in New Orleans, a city of many temptations. However, the man claimed he’d turned over a new leaf, proclaiming, “I’m going to see there’s no funny business. I’ve had enough parties for 20 people’s lifetimes. I’ve grown up. I’ll keep our young fellows out of trouble. If any player wants to stray, they got to go through ‘Ol Tooz.”
What do you know, Matuszak was spotted drunk on Bourbon Street at three in the morning. Coach Tom Flores gave him the obligatory thousand-dollar fine. When asked about it, Eagles Coach Dick Vermiel said, “If he was an Eagle he’d be on a flight back to Philadelphia right now.”
Matuszak laughed and said, “Why would anybody want to go to Philadelphia in the winter?”
The Raiders won the game. Matuszak hurt his back the following year, spent the season on injured reserve and then retired. He was not the type to walk off into the sunset. There was a bare-butt spread in “Playgirl.” The role he played in the movie, “North Dallas Forty”, while he was still with the Raiders, led to roles in “Caveman” and “The Ice Pirates.” His signature role may have Sloth in “The Goonies”, a part that required a five hour a day makeup job.
The 1987 autobiography he wrote with Steve Delson, had this blurb in the dust jacket: “It’s all here. The booze. The parties. The broads. The out-of-control substances. The brawls. Don’t miss your chance to go ‘Cruzin With the Tooz’.”
Unfortunately it was all too true. John Matuszak died of an overdose of prescription drugs June 17, 1989. He was 38.
Jadeveon Clowney may turn out to be a bust like Brown, sensational like Selmon and Smith, or very good like “Too Tall” and Bubba, but you can count on him not being like John Matuszak. “The Tooz” was one of a kind.