Clay Matthew tells funny story of how Aaron Donald cost him $250K

Clay Matthews played one season with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019, which turned out to be his final year in the NFL. Before the season, he signed a two-year deal worth $9.25 million and though he only stuck around for one year, he earned $5.5 million for his lone season in L.A.

He could’ve made an extra $250,000 if not for Aaron Donald.

Advertisement

Donald took sacks away from his teammates all the time because of how quickly he got to the quarterback, but he stole a half-sack from Matthews after the fact in 2019 and cost his teammate a quarter of a million dollars in the process.

Matthews had an incentive in his contract for an extra $250,000 if he reached 8.5 sacks, which he thought he did until Donald reported a sack the two of them shared to the NFL and had the stat corrected to give himself the full sack.

“I finished the season at eight sacks, and I actually had eight and a half,” Matthews recalled on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast recently. “Aaron Donald reported the sack we shared together, it was for a safety against the Steelers, so they gave it all to him and I lost $250,000.”

Matthews was asked if he ever talked to Donald about it, and although he didn’t, he heard the future Hall of Famer talk about it on a podcast once.

Advertisement

“I heard him talk about it on one of his podcasts where he was like – I came on Monday and I was like, ‘Yo, bro! They took my sack away!’ And Aaron was like, ‘Oh, man. That’s messed up,’” he said.

“AD was getting 20 sacks a year. I’m like, you couldn’t hook your boy up with just a half. So I lost $250,000, and then the organization wouldn’t give it to me either.”

It’s unfortunate that the Rams wouldn’t pay out the extra $250,000 for Matthews, especially considering he played just 13 games that season. But at least it made for a funny story to tell after the fact.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Clay Matthew tells funny story of how Aaron Donald cost him $250K