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Matt Millen probably was the best when it comes to inside linebackers who played for the Las Vegas-Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders.
The 6-2, 250-pound Millen was selected in the second round (No. 43 overall) by the Raiders out of Penn State, where he was an All-American defensive tackle for one of the best college teams in the nation.
Millen told legendary Penn State Coach Joe Paterno: “The Raiders) are going to make a linebacker out of me, and I can do it.” Responded Paterno: “You can’t play linebacker,” and Millen responded with: “Hey, Joe, you can’t coach, either, but that doesn’t stop you.”
As far as Millen playing linebacker for the Raiders, he was right.
Millen started at middle linebacker for the Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders over the next nine seasons, including victories of 27-10 over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV, when he made four solo tackles, and 38-9 over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII when he added five tackles and a sack of quarterback Joe Theismann.
“Our week of practice in Tampa (before playing the Redskins) ... I remember it being extremely physical,” Raiders defensive end Howie Long said, adding that the Raiders were not pleased that the Redskins had been made 10½-point favorites.
“Matt Millen, on the first day of Super Bowl week practice, got in a fight with someone. You would have thought it was training camp. It was on. That was the mindset of our team. It wasn’t about the 10½ points. It was about we were going to kick their ass.”
Which the Raiders did, even though they were underdogs.
That wasn’t an accident, as defensive line coach Sam Boghosian of the Raiders wanted to pick the intensity at practice, and thought a little fight might do the trick, so he picked Millen to start it, and the Silver and Black got into the Super Bowl mood on the first day.
Millen also got into fights with tight end Kellen Winslow of the San Diego Chargers, running back Otis Wonsley of the Washington Redskins, and others, and in practice with defensive end John Matuszak, his Raiders teammate, during his career.
Millen also punched out General Manager Patrick Sullivan of the New England Patriots after a 1985 divisional-round playoff game in which the Patriots upset the Raiders 27-20. Millen claimed Sullivan had been trash-talking him and Long throughout the game and telling his players to block the Raiders below the waist from behind, risking serious injury.
And Millen did not apologize, calling it: “A good hit.”
Millen played in his only Pro Bowl in 1988, his final year with the Raiders. He’s another player who probably was hampered by tackles not yet being an official NFL statistic. Still, he had 11 sacks, nine interceptions that he returned for 132 yards, and eight fumble recoveries during his career.
After leaving the Raiders, Millen played for the San Francisco 49ers for two seasons and the Washington Redskins in 1991, adding two more Super Bowl rings to give him four during his NFL career.
Following his playing career, Millen was President and CEO of the Detroit Lions from 2001-08 but was fired after the Lions compiled a 31-97, the worst eight-year record in modern NFL history.
Ever since, Millen has been a football commentator for several national television and radio networks, including Fox, ESPN, NBC, the Big Ten Network, Westwood One, and the NFL Network.
In 2018, Millen was diagnosed with a form of cancer called amyloidosis, which produces amyloids—a protein formed in the bone marrow—and completed more than 40 rounds of chemotherapy.
In addition, Millen underwent a heart transplant on Christmas Eve, 2019.
“It’s ironic that the thing that failed him was probably the single thing that you’d use to describe Matt—all heart,” Long said.
However, Millen has gone back into the TV booth, recently was the color commentator in the Penn State Blue-White Game, and as you might expect, he has continued to fight.
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