Hair today, gone tomorrow: 10 of our favorite Clay Matthews pop culture moments

Darius Rucker gave him a shout-out at the Resch Center, Wisco Kidz name dropped him in "Run the Table," and Young MC wore his jersey when he busted a move on the I Love the '90s Tour.

On the field, Clay Matthews is the Green Bay Packers all-time sacks leader. Off of it, he was a rock star.

Matthews, who signed Tuesday with the Los Angeles Rams, was one of the Packers' most recognizable faces on a national stage. The long-haired linebacker had a knack for turning up in movies, TV shows, commercials and even the WWE ring.

Here's a look at 10 of our favorite pop culture moments, courtesy of No. 52.

1. The perfect State Farm commercial sidekick. Lambeau Field aside, Matthews’ absence might hurt the most in the State Farm ads with Aaron Rodgers. As last year’s campaign proved (sorry, Gabe), they’re far less fun without Matthews as the sidekick who shows up and effortlessly delivers the punchline. There was the wayward drone and the fly and golf club, but it was the one in 2017, with he and Rodgers checking into a hotel with rooms next to each other, that elevated him to MVP status. While Rodgers tried to get some rest, a very enthusiastic Matthews unknowingly found numerous ways to annoy him. We'll always have Clay in his bathrobe singing Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” in the bathroom mirror.

2. Ellen DeGeneres made sure his tight end was covered. Fresh off the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV win, Matthews was a guest on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to celebrate the victory — and show off the gold boxers the talk show host had sent him. He gave TV viewers a peek by pulling up his shirt. “So your tight end is covered?” DeGeneres joked.

She also asked the really tough questions about his hair, suggesting that it might be better to tuck it up inside his helmet rather than getting it pulled all the time. “I do that during the week of practice. I keep it nice, tucked up. so it doesn’t get caught, but Sunday is kind of when I let my alter ego come out," Matthews told her. "I let the hair down and that’s when the wild man comes out and I can have some fun out there.”

3. Climbing into the WWE ring and never breaking a sweat. Chants of "We want Clay! We want Clay" broke out during the taping of WWE's "Friday Night SmackDown" in 2011 at the Resch Center, after cameras showed Matthews and teammates Tom Crabtree, Bryan Bulaga and others sitting ringside. It was just two nights after he had hoisted the Lombardi Trophy with Aaron Rodgers at Super Bowl XLV. He would show up later in a referee uniform for the final match between Edge and Dolph Ziggler to do the count and proclaim Edge the winner.

4. Getting "Bootylicious" in “Pitch Perfect 2." The Packers' all-time sack leader, yes, but let’s not forget his contributions as a song-and-dance man. Matthews and Packers offensive linemen David Bakhtiari, T.J. Lang, Josh Sitton and Don Barclay sang and danced to Destiny’s Child “Bootylicious” in a riff-off in 2015's “Pitch Perfect 2,” the sequel to the 2012 a cappella comedy hit. Bakhtiari spearheaded the players’ cameo with the Barden Bellas, recruiting players who were fans of the original movie. It took some arm twisting, however, to get Matthews on board.

Bakhtiari told the Press-Gazette he pitched it to him like this: “Dude, just do me a favor. Just go home and watch the riff-off, and just know this will be our part in the second film. Just watch it and give me a call.” It worked. Matthews called back and said, “I’m clearing my schedule. I’m in. Let’s do it.”

5. His sister is a model Packers fan. If there was any doubt good hair runs in the Matthews family, Packers fans got confirmation when his only sister, Jennifer Matthews, was among the 2014 models for the national NFL Women’s Apparel Campaign. She sported green and gold in ads that appeared in Marie Claire, Glamour, Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

In an interview with the Press-Gazette, she laughed when asked about her brother’s smitten female fans. “I’m very used to people calling him their boyfriend or telling me they have a crush on him,” she said. “It’s all ages, literally. I’ll get everything from teenage girls to women in their 70s. They’ll say, ‘That brother of yours is ...’ It’s just funny, because I think when it comes down to it, he’s just my little brother.”

6. Hanging out with Sasquatch. From Wonderful Pistachios to Suave shampoo to Gillette razors — and a whole lot of products in between — he’s never been shy about being a pitchman. The spots for Jack Link’s jerky that paired him with Sasquatch as a hot new NFL prospect who finds a mentor in Matthews wasn't exactly State Farm quality, but it was amusing to see the two “man-beast hybrids” with long hair discover their mannerisms are the mirror image of one another.

7. A Marvel when it comes to "Thor." It wasn’t exactly a stretch that Clay Matthews would show up in an ad for a movie about Thor. There is that whole resemblance to the god of thunder thing. He flexed his comedic muscle, along with teammates Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb, in a 2017 teaser for Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok.” Jeff Goldblum was in character as the Grandmaster and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, but it was Matthews who landed the big punchline at the end.

8. That time he got “Tanked.” When you’re a 255-pound linebacker building your dream home in California, a desktop aquarium probably isn’t going to cut it. Matthews and his wife, Casey Noble, called in the stars of Animal Planet’s “Tanked” to build a custom, wall-sized, 500-plus-gallon eel tank. The coral goalposts and frozen tundra faux icicles were a nice touch and all, but for Packers fans, the real thrill was getting a rare peek into Matthews’ home life.

9. "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night" and No. 52. Even when the Packers weren’t playing on “Sunday Night Football,” Matthews was there representing as part of the opening theme song with singer Carrie Underwood. The NFL players featured each season came and went, including Aaron Rodgers, but not Matthews. He was a fixture of the NBC broadcast for five years running. (We're pretty sure it was the hair.)

10. Who's the Boss? Clay is for Hugo Boss. The guy cleans up nicely. Along with Victor Cruz and DeMarcus Ware, Matthews was one of three NFL players featured in a 2014 campaign for Hugo Boss Parfums called Success Beyond the Game. A suave, slicked-back Matthews in a designer Hugo Boss suit was shown in ads promoting Boss Bottled.
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Contact Kendra Meinert at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.