Some players – no matter what the sport – always seem to be around the ball.

Larry Bird was one of those guys in basketball.

Before him, John Havlicek, from Bridgeport High School (he was All-Ohio in three sports) and Ohio State (he was an integral part of the 1960  national championship team) and later the Boston Celtics (all those titles, including the one in a season when play-by-plan announcer Johnny Most exclaimed, “Havlicek stole the ball”), was that man.

In football, Chris Spielman was that guy. When he was at Massillon High School, I saw him, in a playoff game against Berea 40 years ago at the Rubber Bowl, help deflect a long pass down the right sideline and then, on the next play, he sacked the quarterback while coming from the left side). At Ohio State, he had more tackles than specks of sand along the Olentangy River. In Detroit, he made enough tackles to help lead the Lions to their lone conference or league championship game appearance – still – since 1957 (versus the Browns).

Another guy in football – a linebacker just like Spielman, in fact – was former Brown Clay Matthews, who is a semifinalist for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The four most memorable plays described here these last several days are all ones in which he was around the ball.

That counts for something. It counts for a lot, in fact. The ball is the most important part of any sport. Control of the ball equates to winning. The Browns won a lot during Matthews’ time.

And that’s yet another reason why Clay Matthews should be enshrined in Canton.

Steve King