Former Raider Matuszak Is Dead at 38

Former Oakland Raiders defensive lineman John Matuszak was pronounced dead Saturday night after he was rushed to a hospital for an undetermined ailment, officials said.

“He came into the hospital, and he has expired,” said Karen Marlin, a nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The cause of death would be announced by the Los Angeles County coroner, she said.

Ms. Marlin said additional information was being withheld, pending notification of family members.

Matuszak, 38, was a big, mobile and aggressive lineman. He played with the Oakland Raiders football team from 1976 to 1982, the year the Raiders moved to Los Angeles. He was a member of two Super Bowl championship teams.

The 6-foot, 280-lb. defensive end was the first pick in the 1973 National Football League draft, taken by the Houston Oilers.

He played in 1975 with the Kansas City Chiefs before joining the Raiders, then based in Oakland, as a free agent just before the second game of the 1976 season.

Matuszak played under coaches John Madden and Tom Flores.

After his retirement, Matuszak starred in a short-lived 1985 prime time television series, “Hollywood Beat.”