"Oregon needed a play. Casey Matthews set about making one.

Down by eight, with less than five minutes to go in college's national championship game, desperately needing the ball back, Matthews came flying at Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

With his long hair falling across his shoulder pads, who could watch and not think of his older brother, Clay Matthews III, a quarterback-hunting linebacker with similar locks? Those with longer memories might recall their father, Clay Matthews Jr., a four time Pro Bowler.

Of course Casey Matthews would be here chasing the Heisman Trophy winner, the latest member of a football family tree that keeps sprouting branches.

But Matthews, his family and coaches say, has built his own story. He's proud of his family, but intends to make his own name.

He'll have a chance in Philadelphia. Drafted by the Eagles in April, he is the most prominent addition to a linebacking corps in need of fresh faces. Despite being a fourth-round pick, he is probably the most well-known member of the Eagles' draft class.

In part that's due to his lineage, but much of the acclaim also came after that game on college football's big stage, a landmark moment in a single-minded football career that began when he was a boy."