As noted by Drekeem the other day, it was recently reported that Clay Matthews III was linked to a possible racist group on the internet group site Facebook. The group that Matthews joined during his time at USC was "White Nation." Several of you questioned (and rightfully so) whether we should pick a racist player in the first round and make him one of the faces of our franchise. Luckily we don't have to make that decision, and it looks like no one else does either because it isn't true.
It was a joke. I admit it was in bad taste that prospective draftees should be more aware of, but that just goes to show how things are changing now that everyone has a camera/internet phone (Matt Leinart hot tub party), MySpace (Santonio Holmes' naked pics) or Facebook (this case).
Anyways, per Mike Florio of PFT, the group joke was started by USC assistant coach Todd McNair, who is black. The report goes on to say that Matthews' best friend and roommate in school was LB Keith Rivers, who is black, and Clay's longtime girlfriend is also black.
I think the only thing that Clay is guilty of is not realizing how under the microscope he would be during the draft process. Remember, we're talking about something that Matthews did when he was a 21 year old college kid. Imagine if some of the things you did when you were 21 were scrutinized by the media.