OH, BROTHER!

He’s an offensive lineman, so who really cares at a time like this, when quarterback Kurt Warner is better than any Disney character ever imagined? But Bruce Matthews is really very old, and so that’s why he’s a Super Bowl story and is surrounded by a bunch of reporters.

He’s so old, his former college teammate is now his head coach with the Tennessee Titans. So old that his former teammate with the Houston Oilers--the pre-move Titans--is his offensive line coach. He has blocked for 14 quarterbacks and 24 running backs. His favorite music artists are Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The guy blocked for Earl Campbell. We’re talking ancient.

“I don’t feel like I’m an old guy playing this game,” Matthews, 38, said. “If I wasn’t reminded of it all the time by the media and my teammates, I probably could play a few more years. I mean, I have felt the same all along, but all of a sudden I’m this old guy. It’s always puzzled me--when was the day or date when this exactly happened?

“I guess it hit home with some people when Jeff Fisher came to be our head coach and they were flipping through the media guide and their jaws dropped when they noticed that I had played with him at USC. But remember, he was three years older.”

Matthews remembers watching Tommy Prothro’s TV show and jumping on the bandwagon as a fan when the Rams went to the Super Bowl the last time, while he was at USC. Titan defensive end Jevon Kearse, meanwhile, was awaiting his fourth birthday.

“I peek to see what he eats,” Kearse said. “I want to know how he keeps that body going after all these years.”

He’s in his 17th season in the NFL, and this will be his first Super Bowl. His father, Clay Sr., who is in the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame, played for the 49ers in 1950 and then again from 1953-55, and his brother, Clay Jr., played in the NFL for Cleveland and Atlanta for 19 years.

“I remember when Clay was with the Cleveland Browns and was playing for the AFC championship and lost two straight years to the Broncos,” Matthews said. “Those losses hurt me more than any game I have lost. He never made it to a Super Bowl, and I know that was troubling to him. But he’s happy for me now, and asked how many tickets I can get him.”

Before this magical season in Tennessee, the Matthews boys had played in 526 games and had never made it to the Super Bowl.

“I saw this stat on TV where Clay and I combined were like the super no-shows at the Super Bowl, and that starts to wear on your thinking,” Matthews said. “You start telling yourself, ‘I had a good run, it doesn’t matter much if I get to the Super Bowl.’ But feeling the excitement in Nashville the last few weeks, and what’s happened here so far, there would have been a void in my life if I hadn’t made it to the Super Bowl.”

It’s a Super Bowl appearance, he said, that he will share with Clay in the Georgia Dome on Sunday.

“Part of the reason for my competitiveness is Clay,” he said. “We were moving a lot while we were growing up, and we were very close as a family. Clay and I would make up games to compete with each other. We played a baseball game with a 2 x 4 and we’d throw darts at each other. The object was to catch the dart in the end of the 2 x 4, and that was a hit.

“That was fine until we had our first beanball, and our parents retired that game. We still compete, but not like we used to. He doesn’t like to lose to me, but my children are now into it. They want me to play longer than ‘Uncle Clay.’ ”

Matthews has already passed former Ram Jackie Slater’s previous record for most games played by an offensive lineman in the NFL. Slater played in 259, and Matthews has now played in 264.

“I’m not sure I’m supposed to tell you all this,” said Titan offensive lineman Brad Hopkins, “but when Bruce got recognition for passing Jackie Slater, his brother Clay called and left a message on his answering machine. He said, ‘Congratulations, Bruce, this a true testament to your greed and ignorance.’ ”

That’s life in the Matthews family, as well as the trenches, making his dependability and consistency all the more amazing. He has started 200 consecutive games, the longest streak among active players, and needs to play in 15 more games to pass his brother’s mark of 278 games played--third in NFL history behind Jim Marshall at 282, and George Blanda at 340.

“My parents’ approach in everything was, if you start it, you better finish it,” said Matthews, who apparently took what they said literally. “I realize how blessed I have been. There have been some great offensive linemen to play this game, and for me to have played in the most games, man, I’m just some stiff. It’s very humbling.

“But the thing is, I have a body that can stand a pounding. But Clay was the same way, and that’s the thing. You know, it always galled me to watch rookies from other teams play in the Super Bowl. But finally one of the Matthews boys makes the Super Bowl.”

His teammates have paid homage to him as if he is the elder of their tribe, one by one, having made their way to him to congratulate him on finally making it to the Super Bowl.

“I was one of the first people to congratulate him because I feel for him,” said Titan wide receiver Kevin Dyson, who is 24. “I told him, ‘I don’t know if I could have waited 17 years.’ He stayed with the same franchise, and that’s so rare, which makes this even more special.”

The music they play in the locker room over the years seems to have become louder, the names above the adjoining lockers have changed regularly, and Matthews has hunkered down as old reliable.

“We’re apologetic that it took him that long to get here,” Hopkins said. “It was a long road for him to travel . . . he’s had all these records, but this is something that has eluded him.”

He has not only avoided serious injury--he has never missed a game because of being hurt--but he has stayed with the same organization, despite opportunities to move as a free agent.

“The lowest point in my career was signing a new contract on my birthday and then, three days later, it was announced the team was moving from Houston to Tennessee,” Matthews said. “At the time of the move, the small crowds, no true home-field advantage, you really started to question whether this is all worth it.

“But at the same time, all of our success is directly attributed to what we went through. We have a mental toughness and edge from what we went through before settling into Nashville. We’re not conventional in the way we win; we don’t put up points like the Rams. But we find a way to win, and that’s from all the toughness we developed from what we’ve experienced the last couple of years.”

His body is whacked on every play, and after having been the ninth player taken in the 1983 draft, he’s still playing like one of the game’s premier players, earning his 12th consecutive trip to the Pro Bowl.

“I know people ask me if I think I’ll see anyone like him again,” said Fisher. “The answer to that is no.

“The guy just keeps going. The only thing Bruce has lost is his privilege to cover punts. He’s losing six to eight snaps a game because he’s not our deep snapper anymore. He’s the best deep snapper I have ever seen, but to ask Bruce to snap the ball and run 40 yards six times a game with his head on a swivel is just too much.”

He began playing football as a seventh grader in Illinois, and broke his leg. Now his contract calls for him to continue playing for three more seasons, which would give him 20 in the pros and three more opportunities to revisit the Super Bowl.

“If they say anything about me when I’m done,” Matthews said, “it would be nice if they said, ‘He played hard and didn’t take any cheap shots, didn’t let up, and whether they were ahead or down, you couldn’t tell by how hard he was playing.’

“I understand the end is very near for me, but I’m too selfish to set a date. Coming here like this, it’s, like, ‘Oh man, let’s come back and do this three or four more times.’ That’s the thing about winning. That feeling you get just never gets old.”