CMIII: I've got to look out for number 1

Problem is, it doesn't seem like just a poor choice of words here.  Sometimes what the microphone gets is out of context, but other times they get admissions and the truth. This seems like the latter: it wasn't a debilitating injury that kept him from being able to help the team, it was "a bunch of things"  that left him "not confident in putting (himself) out there," such that he "had to take care of #1."

 

If that's out of context, I'd sure like to hear the whole interview.  Those quotes sure sound like he could have played (albeit banged up), but that he chose not to.  And no it wasn't the reason we lost, but it sure didn't help.  

 

Anyway, it's not a witch hunt.  IMO a little fan backlash won't hurt CMIII, it can only help.  He said it, not us.  If it is out of context or a poor choice of words, then prove us wrong there Goldilocks!

Name a great player who chose to stay on the bench when the season was  on the line.

 

Willis Reed?

 

Michael Jordan?

 

Kellen Winslow?

 

Kirk Gibson?

 

Aaron Rodgers?

 

That American gymnast girl who stuck her landing with a broken leg?

 

Thanks Clay.

I can only guess that Clay didn't see the blowing it that badly and thought they could close it out without him. Even on the 2 point try it took a fluke play to make it. None of that is on Clay. It doesn't exonerate him at all, he still benched himself with the game on the line, but the loss is not on him. If the D closes the game without him then this is an absolute none story, but because we lost everyone is looking for finger pointing. Does Clay at 60% or 70% make the difference in the game? No way to say, but probably not IMHO. If he's at 100% and we lose the game because Wilson wasn't under any pressure, that's a different discussion. We were getting there without Clay, just didn't finish.

They are best when caught thru the ice. 

 

As for Clay taking himself out, remember Reggie White took himself out of a key series in Super Bowl XXXI.  The difference is he came back in, sacked Bledsoe 3 times and the Packers won. 

There are injuries you absolutely can exacerbate by playing on. If you've been playing hurt and then get something new or your condition changes, why wouldn't you play it safe until you know?

 

There may be heroes but there are no superheroes-feet of clay and all that.

 

feet of clay-weird.

Can anyone imagine Nitschke or Butkus having that attitude? And as someone said, Aaron Rodgers was playing that game on one leg. We didn't hear him looking out for number one.

 

Kind of makes me wonder if any bitterness will result from that quote.

Seasons over

And there is your dagger!

Not the best choice of words by Clay but this is a non-story that just further reminds me that I want the season to hurry up and start. All we have is these camp filler stories since there is nothing to talk about

I suppose we can't really know, but my money is on Clay not doing something that had a Butkus (and other player's mentioned) had similar hurts, he'd have been in there.

 

Surprised I remember, but the woman gymnast's name was Kelly Shrug.

Kerri Strug.

Oops!  Well, I was close!

I believe some of what you are saying comes into this too Pistol GB.

 

Was thinking what it must have been like for him. Maybe the new injury didn't allow him to cut in a certain direction, or something to that effect, where he thought he would be a real liability, and a backup would be able to produce better.

 

Once you make that decision though, then you have to live with it, sitting on the sidelines. I bet if he could do it all over again, he would have kept himself out there. Maybe not. We don't know severity in the moment.

 

And, I'm a huge Nitschke fan. Regardless, Clay Matthews will be taking that into this new season as well. Hopefully, he can stay relatively injury free this season.

Up until last week, there was criticism of Aaron Rodgers play against Seattle and failure to close in the red zone. And there was concern about the beating Clay might potentially take in 2015 if he was forced to continue playing in the middle. 

 

Now Clay is soft and Aaron played on one leg. 

 

IMO a lot of this has to do with the way that game ended. Fans have to try and make sense of something that may never make sense. 

 

Maybe Clay made the comment to draw 100% of the questions and attention to himself and away from everyone else on the defense. Let them focus on 2015 and camp. I don't know. In general I don't think there's a story here though. 

 

 

I'll tell you, ChilliJon, Clay Matthews will be a different player this season. He has obviously trained differently this offseason to add weight and mass to better take on the load in the middle. It is noticeable. I believe he is going to be one hell of a force at ILB this season. 

Considering Matthews' missing five days because of a sore knee, and now who-knows-how-long with a sore elbow, I am beginning to wonder, "What's next?" I'm not passing any judgement at this point, but I'm really going to be interested to watch his play (or non-play) this season. I'll just say for now that I'm not optimistic about the kind of contribution the Packers are going to get from Mathews this year and beyond. His words after the Seattle debacle mean nothing until we see what he does next.

I've always thought that about Clay: he's one injury after another. When he's on the field he's a beast, but the trick is keeping him on the field for an entire year. He throws his body around so much, and sometimes unwisely so, that he is his own worst enemy. As for the NFCC game, I am of the Ditka school: As long as I'm breathing, I'm playing in that game to the end. Just having Clay on the field changes how the offense attacks. If I saw Clay trot off and Hawk in there? Guess where I'm going to attack? No, Clay not being in there didn't lose the game, but I help but wonder what difference just his presence would have made...

I've been thinking all along they are just keeping Clay out to get more reps for the younger guys. Clay will be fine stepping right in and starting at ILB, which I firmly believe he will.

After that Seahawks game I was so pissed off at Clay. In a game they could only lose if 20 consecutive plays went against them, how could Clay take himself out? If he stayed in and made just one more play, GB is in the Super Bowl.

 

Reading his recent comments made me pissed off again.

 

Then I read this article today on ESPN. And I'm now disgusted with myself that I ever questioned the toughness of these guys who sacrifice future life quality for our entertainment.

After reading that, I think Borland has mental issues. He is really full of himself.

Unlike internet posters who want to dictate the health, safety and life decisions of athletes?

As someone who loves the KRACKEN, I'm disappointed in how this came out.  However, what he said is true.  It's obviously a team game, and we have no idea why he couldn't go out there (maybe he couldn't change direction, or had no speed, etc.).  We don't know, what we do know, is that his teammates probably would've called him out, if he could play.  Also, I have no ill will, when players make business decisions on the field.  We (as fans) expect them to play with a broken leg, etc, those days are over.  There might be players that do that, and that's great, but I'm not going to dog on a player, who doesn't do that.  

 

I think CMIII deserves the benefit of the doubt, that's just me.  

 

   

RE: Borland. It makes sense- A guy who actually uses his brain should be cautious with it.

Expecting a player to be out there "no matter what" sounds like a lot of hot air and arrogance.  What good is any player if he is not effective enough not to hurt a team's chances to succeed?  I don't know the extent of his injuries in the NFCC game either but considering his reckless abandon style of play, I'm going to guess he was handicapped to the point of knowing he couldn't do his job well enough.  Just making a guess based on him not really having a reputation for babying himself.  I think the real sticking point of this whole issue/non-issue is his "I have to look out for #1" quote.  He may not have chosen his words wisely.  However anyone reading the article needs to not get blinded by one comment.

 

His seemingly increase in being prone to injuries that sideline him is another topic and one that bears the real concern.

He quit. Now he just needs to get a life. Doesn't need to go out of his way to have his brain studied and pretend he isn't trying to not be some sort of spokesman against the "violent" sport of football.

Seems like he has a life.

 

He should get his brain studied.  It is a good thing he is going out of his way to get his brain studied.  

 

He might be a self promoter, but it seems like since this is a story, journalists will write stories.  Hard to blame him for answering questions.  

 

Football is violent.  

Perhaps the 30 concussions have caused these? Perhaps, the 30 concussions led to the brain tests. 30 concussions doesn't sound insane to you? This is a crazy sport.

 

He could be BSing us like Abbrederis and his "er, I've only had one before" statement, shortly after he suffered one on a play he wasn't even hit. Instead he walked away from the money with, hopefully, his health intact.

I tried to get worked up over this, but I just couldn't.

 

Enough others have pretty much stated my thoughts.  It's a whole much ado about nothing.  Are any of us surprised?   We know his disposition from the outside.  Should anyone be dismayed about him coming out of the game?  Meh.  I am sure he, like all of us, figured the win was a lock.  He didn't feel like he could do the job and thought his replacement could hold the line.  They could not.  I still feel there's better and more 'guilty' parties to blame.

 

Meh.

 

Whatever.

 

Just play hard as you can and hit the damn QB.  I will be happy.

I maybe off base, but I don't think clay was BSing. My thought, he had a concussion, and likely didn't want to go through protocol, assuming at the time they were still going to win the game.
Or maybe, he was so exhausted that he may have been unable to defend himself without real injury risk. Anyone who watches him play regularly knows, that nobody on the field is giving more of themselves on any play on either side of the ball. That's what makes him special. He goes harder than anyone I've ever witnessed

I, too, think he worried about a concussion but didn't want to risk the diagnosis during the game.

 

I also think it was BS that the penalty against him wasn't tacked on to the yardage after the sack. Late hit obviously. Should've made it third down and 60...

IMO a lot of this has to do with the way that game ended. 

 

You are damn right it is.  It ended with Clay on the sideline when his team needed him most.

The concussion angle always seemed likely to me. Post-game up through today anyone associated with the team has given these fuzzy explanations, nothing crisp. Matthews had really gotten rocked on a couple of hits in the 3rd quarter, there was one with a tight end that stands out. Sideline shots of Matthews just showed him on the bench, not stretching to work out a knock, not talking to the physios.

 

Teams have been warned a lot about avoiding the protocol following the Colt McCoy imbroglio from 2013 with the Browns. I think Clay was avoiding treatment hoping to clear his head and get back in once he could count to five. Packers' equivocating about what happened seems to support this.

The team needed better than 9 points in 3 red zone visits. The team needed Ha Ha to knock the 2pt conversion pass down. The team needed Morgan to keep running. The team needed Q to catch a 3rd down pass. The team needed Bostick to understand he had 1 job. The team needed Hawk and/or Jones to make 1 play. The team needed Clay. 

 

If his comment makes him everyone's blame target and off everyone else I think he's perfectly fine with it. 

 

The guy played out of position and took a beating half the year for the team. If he doesn't do it the team probably isn't playing a game in Seattle and in a position for just about everyone involved on the team to completely **** up the final 4 minutes and 35 seconds.  

 

 

All of the points are valid- and why I'm totally convinced this team will win it all this year.

Yes, Music City, changes WERE made. Talent amped up, I think, with a good draft and UDFA signings....

With the right leadership, a heartbreaking loss can push good to great. I think they have that leadership on this team...