Meet Chris Matthews, Kentucky’s Super Bowl Cinderella story
By Ethan Levine
Published:
Just 18 months ago, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Chris Matthews was working full-time at Foot Locker, and it seemed at the time that his playing days were officially behind him.
This week, he’s the Cinderella story of the NFL, even though his Seahawks lost Sunday night’s Super Bowl.
Matthews led Seattle with four receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown in its 28-24 loss to the New England Patriots, which is even more remarkable considering he had never caught an NFL pass before the big game.
You read that right — the player on the short list of Super Bowl MVP candidates had Seattle won had never caught an NFL pass before Sunday night. It’s these kinds of stories that make sports so great.
But Sunday was far from the first time Matthews overcame steep odds to achieve greatness on the gridiron.
He began his career at Los Angeles Harbor College (not quite an established college football powerhouse), where he played for two seasons from 2007-08 in relative anonymity. He transferred to Kentucky, one of the least accomplished programs in the SEC, and spent two seasons playing Robin to Randall Cobb’s Batman.
Even his best season at Kentucky — a 61-catch, 925-yard, 9-touchdown senior season in 2010 — was overshadowed by Cobb, who earned first-team All-SEC honors that year despite catching two fewer passes.
Matthews then went undrafted in 2011, failed to catch on with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent, and wound up with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
He was the CFL Rookie of the Year that year and his career appeared to be back on the upswing, but an injury-riddled second season in 2012 left him out of football seemingly forever.
So he took a job at Foot Locker and proceeded on to the next chapter of his life.
That is, until the Seahawks called last season and asked him to fly to Seattle for a tryout. Matthews almost turned the offer down, telling Sports Illustrated that he told the Seahawks “I have to work until 9 p.m. I don’t know if I’ll make it.”
Just a few minutes later, Matthews agent called him at work and demanded he leave to pack and make the trip. It’s a good thing he did. Matthews latched on with the Seahawks, recovered a pivotal onside kick in this year’s NFC championship game to earn Seattle another Super Bowl bid, then shined as the brightest star on Seattle’s offense in the biggest sporting event of the calendar year.
Rags to riches doesn’t even begin to describe the path Matthews took to reach the Super Bowl. His abilities were doubted time and time again, and he routinely had to take circuitous routes to get to the biggest stages football has to offer.
He couldn’t reach Division I football without making a stop at junior college first, and even when he did he went to a program with zero championship potential (sorry Kentucky, but you’re not Alabama).
He couldn’t reach the NFL without first proving himself in Canada, where the rules are different and the enthusiasm surrounding the sport is greatly diminished.
And he couldn’t work his way into Seattle’s offense without first proving himself on special teams, making one of the Seahawks biggest plays of the year on that onside kick against Green Bay.
Even though Seattle lost the Super Bowl, and even though nothing in the NFL is guaranteed beyond today, Matthews may have finally reached his ceiling as a football star. It’ll be difficult to keep him out of the league next year, and even tougher for fans of the Seahawks and Patriots to forget the impact he made on Super Bowl XLIX.
“Man, I almost messed up, bad,” Matthews told SI of nearly missing his opportunity with Seattle in favor of working a shift at a shoe store. “And look at this now.”
Pretty remarkable, indeed.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
