On Friday, the entertainment and paparazzi news website TMZ published photos of former Los Angeles Rams linebacker – and the internet erupted.
The 40-year-old former footballer’s face appeared to have significantly changed. So much so that he is almost unrecognizable from before. The report photographed the former linebacker while he was getting groceries, potentially in Los Angeles.
This story is being updated. Many wondered if the former linebacker got a plastic surgery. Such was the drastic difference between how Clay Matthews used to look that even X added a community note under TMZ’s social media post claiming that the photos are AI.
“You won’t believe how much he spent just to look this,” added another .
It is likely that the photos are indeed AI-generated as Clay Matthews appeared recently on a podcast where he looked normal, very much like he used to look before. It is unlikely that such a transformation took place within a few hours. “The post uses AI-generated images falsely depicting Clay Matthews after cosmetic work. No credible sources report any such change,” the community note claim. Needless to say, social media erupted with claims of plastic surgery after Clay Matthews’ photos were published by TMZ.
However, what many missed was a hashtag reading “#ad” alonside the caption. “Clay Matthews got reconstructive surgery to look like the gigachad meme 😭,” wrote one .
