Chris Matthews chose the Seattle Seahawks over Footlocker

While much of the Big Blue Nation was supporting Randall Cobb and the Green Bay Packers and their quest for a Super Bowl on Sunday, the most unlikely hero emerged and helped key the Seattle Seahawks to their improbable victory.  And despite not catching a pass in the NFL, former Kentucky Wildcat Chris Matthews has become a part of Seahawks football lore.

Now, everyone knows who Chris Matthews is, thanks to this play in the NFC Championship game.

It has not been easy for Matthews since leaving Kentucky.  He had bounced around for a few teams and never was able to stick on a roster.  He was out of football and was  working for Foot Locker when he got the call from the Seahawks about a year ago.

"Matthews was a 6-foot-5, 218-pound wide receiver with a lukewarm scouting report. Heavy feet, coaches told him; a step too slow. So he went from a JUCO in California to the University of Kentucky to signing a free agent contract with the Browns. He was one of the last cuts at 2011 training camp. Matthews spent a year out of the game, latched on with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for two years, and spent his offseason working two jobs: one at Foot Locker, the other as a security guard. One day,  around this time last year, his phone rings. It’s a Seahawks official, and they want Matthews to come to a tryout. Tonight. Matthews looks at watch, pauses, and says, “I don’t get off of work until 9 p.m. I don’t know if I’ll make it.”“Alright,” the caller said. “We’ll let you know.”Click.A few minutes later, Matthews agent calls. “What are you thinking! Get yourself home, pack up and go. Are you out of your mind?!”Matthews made the flight.“Man, I almost messed up, bad,” he says, sheepishly, as he leans into his locker stall on Sunday. Then his grin returns. “And look at this now.”"

Matthews signed his free agent contract with Seattle on February 18, 2014.  But there were still struggles.  Matthews toiled on the practice squad most of the year and the Seahawks had actually cut the 2012 Canadian Football League Rookie of the Year two times.  But he kept getting called back.

Apparently he made some type of impression on Pete Carroll with the Seahawks as Carroll does not seem to recall his earlier interactions with Chris Matthews.  Seems that if fate had intervened then, Matthews could have spent his college ball at USC rather than UK.

"But Matthews said Monday that he had dreamed of playing for hometown power Southern California. He told Sports Illustrated that while visiting a junior-college teammate he found out that Carroll, then USC’s coach, lived next door.“So I ran out to my car, and I had a box of DVDs of my highlights,” Matthews told Sports Illustrated. “I took a disc — and this was real bold of me, but I was real desperate.”He wound up giving the DVD to Carroll’s wife, Glena.“I said, Hey, my name is Chris Matthews, and gave her the whole rundown and she said she’d give it to him. And that was it. No call.”Matthews eventually signed with UK, but it wasn’t the last he’d see of the Carrolls.“She didn’t even remember me,” Matthews told Sports Illustrated, “and when I met Pete I was like, C’mon man, why didn’t you recruit me. I gave you my tape. And he was like, really? When did this happen?“It’s kind of funny now.”"