No One Believed These John Matuszak Stories! Until They Watched This!
Legends of the Game of Inches
9,162 views
No One Believed These John Matuszak Stories! Until They Watched This!
John Matuszak — NFL's #1 pick, two-time Super Bowl champion, Raiders enforcer — died at 38 from a prescription painkiller his doctor gave him that morning. This is the story they never told you.
Before he was Sloth in The Goonies, John "The Tooz" Matuszak was a grief-stricken kid from Milwaukee who watched cystic fibrosis take both of his younger brothers before they reached school. That grief followed him everywhere — through a felonious assault at Missouri, a courtroom restraining order served on a football sideline, a heart that stopped in a Kansas City hotel room, and four teams that threw him away before he turned 26.
Then Al Davis called. The Oakland Raiders gave Matuszak the only family he ever trusted, and he repaid them with two Super Bowl rings — including the legendary 1981 championship week where he partied on Bourbon Street past curfew and told a reporter, "Too early for my game face, Johnny."
After football destroyed his back, Hollywood gave him a second life. His role as Sloth — fifteen prosthetic pieces, five hours in the makeup chair, wearing a Raiders jersey under the monster suit — became one of the most beloved characters in movie history. Director Richard Donner called him "a sweet, gentle lion."
On June 17, 1989, a doctor prescribed him Darvocet for chronic back pain. That evening, John Matuszak lay down on his couch and never woke up. He was 38 years old. His brain was never examined for CTE.
Al Davis and John Madden both delivered eulogies. They buried him a few miles from where a skinny boy once watched two small coffins lowered into the ground.
🏈 More legends from this channel:
▶️ Ken Stabler — The Snake Who Lit the Candle at Both Ends: No One Believed These Ken Stabler Stories!...
▶️ Jack Tatum — The Assassin Who Never Apologized: No One Believed These Jack Tatum Stories! ...
▶️ Lyle Alzado — The Man Who Blamed the Needles: No One Believed These Lyle Alzado Stories!...
▶️ Junior Seau — The Smile That Hid Everything: No One Believed These Junior Seau Stories!...
▶️ Dick Butkus — The Most Feared Man Who Ever Played: No One Believed These Dick Butkus Stories!...
⏱️ Chapters:
0:00 — Cold Open
1:28 — Two Small Coffins in Milwaukee
3:06 — Fifty-Eight Feet Eleven Inches
5:05 — The Courtroom on the Sideline
6:46 — Vodka and Valium, the Breakfast of Champions
8:28 — The Island of Misfit Toys
10:24 — The Day They Carried Madden Off the Field
11:56 — Too Early for My Game Face
13:51 — The Sweet, Gentle Lion
15:47 — Eighty-Nine Days
17:54 — The Quiet Saturday
#JohnMatuszak #NFL #Raiders #TheGoonies #Sloth #SuperBowl #NFLHistory #OaklandRaiders #AmericanFootball #NFLLegends
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No One Believed These John Matuszak Stories! Until They Watched This!
Legends of the Game of Inches
9,162 views
No One Believed These John Matuszak Stories! Until They Watched This!
John Matuszak — NFL's #1 pick, two-time Super Bowl champion, Raiders enforcer — died at 38 from a prescription painkiller his doctor gave him that morning. This is the story they never told you.
Before he was Sloth in The Goonies, John "The Tooz" Matuszak was a grief-stricken kid from Milwaukee who watched cystic fibrosis take both of his younger brothers before they reached school. That grief followed him everywhere — through a felonious assault at Missouri, a courtroom restraining order served on a football sideline, a heart that stopped in a Kansas City hotel room, and four teams that threw him away before he turned 26.
Then Al Davis called. The Oakland Raiders gave Matuszak the only family he ever trusted, and he repaid them with two Super Bowl rings — including the legendary 1981 championship week where he partied on Bourbon Street past curfew and told a reporter, "Too early for my game face, Johnny."
After football destroyed his back, Hollywood gave him a second life. His role as Sloth — fifteen prosthetic pieces, five hours in the makeup chair, wearing a Raiders jersey under the monster suit — became one of the most beloved characters in movie history. Director Richard Donner called him "a sweet, gentle lion."
On June 17, 1989, a doctor prescribed him Darvocet for chronic back pain. That evening, John Matuszak lay down on his couch and never woke up. He was 38 years old. His brain was never examined for CTE.
Al Davis and John Madden both delivered eulogies. They buried him a few miles from where a skinny boy once watched two small coffins lowered into the ground.
🏈 More legends from this channel:
▶️ Ken Stabler — The Snake Who Lit the Candle at Both Ends: No One Believed These Ken Stabler Stories!...
▶️ Jack Tatum — The Assassin Who Never Apologized: No One Believed These Jack Tatum Stories! ...
▶️ Lyle Alzado — The Man Who Blamed the Needles: No One Believed These Lyle Alzado Stories!...
▶️ Junior Seau — The Smile That Hid Everything: No One Believed These Junior Seau Stories!...
▶️ Dick Butkus — The Most Feared Man Who Ever Played: No One Believed These Dick Butkus Stories!...
⏱️ Chapters:
0:00 — Cold Open
1:28 — Two Small Coffins in Milwaukee
3:06 — Fifty-Eight Feet Eleven Inches
5:05 — The Courtroom on the Sideline
6:46 — Vodka and Valium, the Breakfast of Champions
8:28 — The Island of Misfit Toys
10:24 — The Day They Carried Madden Off the Field
11:56 — Too Early for My Game Face
13:51 — The Sweet, Gentle Lion
15:47 — Eighty-Nine Days
17:54 — The Quiet Saturday
#JohnMatuszak #NFL #Raiders #TheGoonies #Sloth #SuperBowl #NFLHistory #OaklandRaiders #AmericanFootball #NFLLegends