Matthew Wilhelm (born February 2, 1981) is a former American college and professional football player and a current radio/TV football analyst. He was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for eight seasons during the early 2000s. He played college football for

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

, and earned All-American honors. He was drafted by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

in the fourth round of the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936. ...

, also played for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

of the NFL, and was a member of the Packers'

Super Bowl XLV Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

championship team that beat the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

. He is currently a football analyst/show host for

WKNR WKNR (850 AM) – branded as ''850 ESPN Cleveland'' – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio and the AM flagsh ...

AM 850 and

WEWS-TV WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by ...

5 in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

Early years

Wilhelm was born in

Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students. The town is the birthplace of t ...

, and grew up in

Lorain, Ohio Lorain () is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of ...

. He attended

Elyria Catholic High School Elyria Catholic High School (ECHS) is a private Catholic high school located in Elyria, Ohio, United States. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and is the only Catholic high school in Lorain County. Elyria Catholic was bu ...

Elyria, Ohio Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles southwest of Cleveland. As of the 2020 cen ...

. He amassed 100 tackles, 26 for loss, and 11 sacks as a senior, and was named a first-team All-Ohio selection. He also played

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense (sports), offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide ...

and

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

. In 2002, his high school retired his No. 34 jersey.

College career

Wilhelm attended Ohio State University, and played for coach John Cooper and coach

Jim Tressel James Patrick Tressel (born December 5, 1952) is an American college football coach and university administrator who is currently the president of Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. Before becoming an administrator, Tressel was th ...

Ohio State Buckeyes football The Ohio State Buckeyes football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing Ohio State University in the East Division of the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State has played their home games at Ohio Stadium in ...

teams from 1999 to 2002. Wilhelm was moved to middle linebacker before his sophomore season and started every game. In his first game as a starter against Fresno State, Wilhelm intercepted a David Carr pass and ran it 25 yards for a touchdown. The following year, he earned the

Randy Gradishar Randy Charles Gradishar (born March 3, 1952) is an American former professional football player who was a middle linebacker in the 1970s and 1980s for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). A native of Ohio, Gradishar was a t ...

Award as the team's top linebacker and made all of the defensive calls. As a senior in 2002, Wilhelm was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, and helped his team win a

BCS National Championship The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college foo ...

with a team-leading 11 tackles in a 31–24

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

victory over the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

. Wilhelm ended the year with a career-high 121 tackles and ended his career with the 6th most career tackles for loss for Ohio State all-time.Chargers.com - Team » Roster » #57 Matt Wilhelm , LB

Professional career

San Diego Chargers

Wilhelm was drafted by the

in the fourth round of the

. He spent the first four years of his career mostly on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

and as a backup. In 2007, he became a full-time starter after

Donnie Edwards Donnie Edwards (born April 6, 1973) is a former American football linebacker from San Diego, California. He played for thirteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL) for the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers. He began his car ...

signed with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

. He was released by the Chargers on July 24, 2009.

Philadelphia Eagles

Wilhelm was signed by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

on August 4, 2009 after starting middle linebacker

Stewart Bradley Stewart Harris Bradley (born November 2, 1983) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft and also played for the Arizona Ca ...

suffered a season-ending knee injury. He was waived on September 5, 2009.

San Francisco 49ers

Wilhelm was signed by the

on October 19, 2009 after reserve linebacker Jeff Ulbrich was placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. He was re-signed to a one-year contract on March 4, 2010. He was cut on September 3, 2010.

Green Bay Packers

Wilhelm was signed by the

on October 26, 2010.

Retirement

After winning

as a member of the Packers, Wilhelm decided to retire from the NFL. In 2013, he was hired by

radio station

AM 850 to be a football analyst, co-host of ''

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

Daily'', and serve as a co-host for the station's Ohio State Buckeyes pregame show. He also appears on Cleveland

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate

5 as a Buckeyes and Browns analyst. In 2016, Wilhelm's hometown paper, The Morning Journal, changed the name of its annual high school football Player of the Year award to The Matt Wilhelm Award in recognition of Wilhelm's lifetime of football achievements. In 2017, Wilhelm was announced as a member of the 2017 Lorain Sports Hall of Fame class.

Awards and honors

High school

*1998 All-Ohio First-team

College

*2002 All-Big Ten First-team *2002 Consensus All-American *2002 National Championship (as a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes)

NFL

winner (as a member of the Green Bay Packers)

References

External links

Green Bay Packers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilhelm, Matt 1981 births Living people All-American college football players American football linebackers Green Bay Packers players Ohio State Buckeyes football players People from Oberlin, Ohio Philadelphia Eagles players Players of American football from Ohio San Diego Chargers players San Francisco 49ers players Sportspeople from Lorain, Ohio