Robert Matheson (November 25, 1944 – September 5, 1994) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played 13 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played in three

Super Bowls The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

for the Miami Dolphins, including their 1972 and 1973 championships. A linebacker at Duke University, he was drafted in 1967 by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the NFL Draft, was the first year of the common draft between the AFL and NFL. He was then acquired by the Dolphins prior to the 1971 season, after Miami defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger requested head coach Don Shula to do so. Miami gave up their second round draft pick in 1972 in exchange. Matheson went to Miami one year after the Dolphins acquired Paul Warfield from Cleveland. Matheson was often used by the Dolphins as a fourth linebacker in passing situations. This defensive alignment was often referred to as the "53" defense, named for Matheson's No. 53 jersey. This is also referred to as a 3–4 defense, with three linemen and four linebackers. After leaving the Dolphins in 1979, Matheson returned to Duke as an assistant coach. He later coached special teams and linebackers for five years with the Miami Dolphins. He then joined Duke alumni John Gutekunst as an assistant coach at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. In 1993, he returned to Duke to work at its Comprehensive Cancer Center. Matheson died on September 5, 1994, at Duke University Hospital from complications of Hodgkin's disease, which he had had for 13 years.

References

1944 births 1994 deaths American football linebackers Cleveland Browns players Duke Blue Devils football coaches Duke Blue Devils football players Miami Dolphins coaches Miami Dolphins players Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches People from Boone, North Carolina Coaches of American football from North Carolina Players of American football from North Carolina Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma Deaths from cancer in North Carolina Deaths from lymphoma in the United States 20th-century American sportsmen {{linebacker-1940s-stub