Top 5 NFL Stars That Should Play In The XFL

#2. Clay Matthews

Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears

Clay Matthews has just about done it all in what has arguably been a Hall of Fame worthy NFL career. The linebacker with a non-stop motor was integral to the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl XLV win. Green Bay was in peril when the team lost two of its on-field leaders in Donald Driver and Charles Woodson. Both succumbed to injuries in an intensely played game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Matthews had to take over and he did. It was Matthews after all, who caused a game-changing fumble. The man known for his ability to attack NFL passers, played the run flawlessly and absolutely hammered Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall coughed up the ball and it was quickly recovered by Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop. The rest was history and the Green Bay Packers were once again Super Bowl champions.

That was eight years ago. Flash forward to the 2018 season and things aren't going well for Matthews, who has been the subject of two highly controversial roughing the passer penalties that cost his team victories over the Vikings and Redskins respectively.

The game has drastically changed and not in Matthews' favor. The league lacks star power at the quarterback position. This coupled with declining ratings, has caused the league to go into overdrive when it comes to protecting the position. A form tackle is no longer legal in the NFL. Matthews found this out the hard way two weeks in a row:

A dumbfounded Matthews took to the media to express his frustrations with the league's new rules,

"Unfortunately, this league is going in a direction I think a lot of people don't like. I think they're getting soft. The only thing hard about this league is the fines that they levy down on guys like me who play the games hard. I don't know. I mean, I'm just going to keep playing hard. Maybe now, pass rushers, guys getting after the quarterback, you just have to attack the ball, which is -- I've been playing this game for over 20 years -- that's how you tackle. So we'll see. Something's got to change because the league's not."

A soft league doesn't mesh well with a defender who plays the game with as much passion and intensity as Matthews.

He said it best himself,

"Something's got to change because the league's not."

That something could very well be a move to the XFL, where old-school style tough football is a promise. His style of play is increasingly becoming a relic in an NFL that is increasingly resembling flag football.

XFL CEO Oliver Luck recently promised,

"We want to make this build a serious sustainable league that football fans can enjoy, that families can enjoy, that’s family affordable, that’s as safe as can be while still respecting the great rock ’em sock ’em game of football, which we know and you know better than I, is a very physical rough game."

The rock 'em, sock 'em game of football is the game Clay Matthews adores and he will rekindle his first love in the XFL. Matthews' contract with the Green Bay Packers runs out at the end of this season.