Matthew L. Chatham (born June 28, 1977) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 ...

. He played college football at

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. He played 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) for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

and

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

Early life

Chatham attended Sioux City North High School in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, Woodbury and Plymouth County, Iowa, Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, fo ...

, and won All-State honors in football and baseball.

College career

Chatham attended the

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is t ...

. As a junior, he made 95 tackles and six interceptions. In his senior year he made 74 tackles and one interception. He was a double major in English and Criminal Justice at South Dakota. Chatham received a Masters in Business Administration from

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

in 2011.

Professional career

Chatham was signed by the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

as a rookie free agent but was released before the start of the regular season. He spent the first six seasons of his career in New England, including contributing to three of the Patriots'

Super Bowl 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 ...

victories ( XXXVI,

XXXVIII 38 (thirty-eight) is the natural number following 37 and preceding 39. In mathematics *38 ! − 1 yields which is the 16th factorial prime. *There is no answer to the equation φ(''x'') = 38, making 38 a nontotient. * 37 and 38 are the first ...

, XXXIX). He was known as one of the leaders of the Patriots' special teams. During the 2003 season, he recorded his first and only NFL touchdown when he recovered a

Tiki Barber Atiim Kiambu "Tiki" Barber Sr. (; born April 7, 1975) is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 10-year career as a running back for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college fo ...

fumble in a game against the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and returned it for a 38-yard touchdown. XXXVIII, he tackled streaker Mark Roberts, who had come onto the field just before the second-half kickoff.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Retirement career

Chatham now runs an NFL informational column in the Boston Herald called "The Chatham Report" and appears every Sunday morning on WEEI with Kevin Faulk, Dale Arnold and Christopher Price. He can be found on Twitter under @chatham58. He is a regular columnist on the Football By Football website. Chatham is also an in-studio football analyst with

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of the Boston ...

. He has also received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

and has started a creperie restaurant franchise called Skycrepers.

References

External links

NFL.com BioESPN's Greatest Super Bowl moments
1977 births Living people American football linebackers Babson College alumni South Dakota Coyotes football players New England Patriots players New York Jets players People from Newton, Iowa Players of American football from Sioux City, Iowa North High School (Sioux City, Iowa) alumni 20th-century American sportsmen {{linebacker-1970s-stub