{"id":5412,"date":"2016-09-16T11:11:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T16:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=5412"},"modified":"2016-10-13T09:38:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:38:04","slug":"tyrann-mathieus-learning-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2016\/09\/16\/tyrann-mathieus-learning-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyrann Mathieu’s Learning Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Danny Garrett<\/p>\n

A\u00a0poor memory is a shameful thing. It forsakes you more often than not, both for minor and major events. The lack stings sharpest for the major ones.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, I was walking towards my kitchen from my living room, and the TV stopped my progress. Or, rather, what the TV showed. The commercial showcased Tyrann Mathieu, the All-Pro safety from the Arizona Cardinals and former LSU football star.<\/p>\n

Most know him as the Honey Badger. I cannot recall what the commercial sold. Was it Nike shoes? Under Armour leggings? The NFL itself? The 2016 season starts in less than four weeks, after all.<\/p>\n

My memory is slippery.<\/p>\n

However, I do remember one thing about the commercial. One person, actually. Tyrann Mathieu. He looked resurrected. Light surrounded his football jersey. An even brighter light exuded from his visage. His whole aura was Lazarus-like.<\/p>\n

And, despite my inability to recall his exact words, I remember the overarching theme of Tyrann\u2019s message: He is back. He\u2019s returned to electrify the football field with his clairvoyant picks and rapacious blitzes behind the line of scrimmage. He\u2019s also returned to prove that past mistakes, a litany of injuries, and the poor circumstances of one\u2019s birth don\u2019t equal a failed future.<\/p>\n

To start with his pot usage, which got him evicted from LSU, is silly and myopic. Tyrann is a young man who hails from New Orleans\u2019s Fifth Ward. His mother didn\u2019t want him; his father killed a man in cold blood; and his grandpa died from heart failure \u2014 the heroin got to him.<\/p>\n

Growing up in this environment, Tyrann assumed he\u2019d join this line of tombstones.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t. He\u2019s a survivor.<\/p>\n

His moral and physical resolve stems from his grandmother\u2019s love. When Tyrann\u2019s mother dumped him on his grandparents, the abandonment was a blessing in disguise. His grandmother\u2019s name was Marie Spellman Mathieu. With her husband, Lorenzo, she raised 11 kids, and then raised their neglected grandkids. Tyrann has described this house as \u201csort of like our church \u2014 or halfway house,\u201d and described his grandmother as \u201cstraight love.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder. People came and went in Marie\u2019s house. Cousins and nieces, ex-cons, and those suffering from drug addiction.<\/p>\n

When Tyrann eulogized Marie in March, he spoke powerful words from the pulpit. \u201cWith her, it was always about \u2018we,\u2019 not \u2018me,\u2019\u201d he said, \u201cand we\u2019re put on Earth to help out other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those powerful words fueled his resurgence. Tyrann\u2019s now back with a stronger body, and most important of all, a stronger mind.<\/p>\n

Tyrann isn\u2019t Plaxico Burress, and he isn\u2019t Eric Naposki. Neither is he Robert Edwards nor Clayton Weishuhn. The latter pair are players whose careers were cut short by injuries: battered knees, overly pulled groins and hamstrings. The former pair are players whose careers were cut short by legal troubles.<\/p>\n

Injuries are unavoidable and sad. Legal troubles are almost no different. Even though it\u2019s hard to see how in our country. In America\u2019s moral landscape, free will is gospel. In science\u2019s landscape, free will is a fiction.<\/p>\n

However, if there\u2019s something the Honey Badger doesn\u2019t care about, it\u2019s that. He cannot afford the free will debate. The ancient argument cannot be his guide.<\/p>\n

As an NFL player in the spotlight and as now a patriarch within the Mathieu family, Tyrann knows he\u2019s held to a higher standard. It took time for him to reach this realization, and that\u2019s OK. He was born with an ever-widening learning curve. His trials by fire and his ability to survive using his grandmother\u2019s selfless words as his guide have shrunk this curve tremendously.<\/p>\n

After ripping everything imaginable in his knees \u2014 ACL, LCL, MCL, and meniscus \u2014 in a four-year span, one might think this was his death sentence.<\/p>\n

\"Sep<\/a><\/p>\n

Sep 13, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu reacts prior to the game against the New Orleans Saints at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After night terrors of spending a night in a Louisiana county cell and years of football fans and NFL teams, other than Arizona, seeing him as a thuggish drug head, one might think this was another death sentence to end Tyrann once and for all.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

He just trained harder \u2014 physically and spiritually. With less than 40 days left till opening season, he runs intervals of seven-minute miles on a treadmill called the Uploader, which comes equipped with a harness attached to pulleys. He squats 245 pounds on his war-torn knees. And he eats well, too. His diet: no sugar, no dairy, no soy, and no fried foods.<\/p>\n

He even practices yoga at Sutra Yoga in midtown Phoenix. Atop his mat, his Warrior III pose is as steady as his faith. He attends megachurch North Phoenix Baptist. The place suits Tyrann well. Scott Savage, the young pastor of the church, loves to sermonize about \u201cresurrection people\u201d from the pulpit. Tyrann always reflectively sits in the pews and listens attentively. Savage also speaks often of hope and self-sacrifice in his homilies, too, and Tyrann feels as if the pastor speaks directly to him.<\/p>\n

His altruistic and God-fearing grandmother would agree.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals were in the Super Bowl in 2009. Last year, they went 13-3 during the regular season, won the NFC West division title, and defeated Green Bay to earn a berth in the NFC Championship. They\u2019ve built a team of veterans, with Tyrann included; perhaps this is the year for their first championship win since 1947.<\/p>\n

The team has a resurgent and resurrected Tyrann Mathieu, after all \u2014 the Bednarik Award winner and Heisman finalist.<\/p>\n

The winning will be beautiful and redemptive for Tyrann. But the most beautiful and redeeming fact about all of this is that Tyrann will be back to do what he loves. Playing football, yes. But also making enough financially to support his family and his New Orleans community, which is priority number one for him.<\/p>\n

Last season, as he retired from the Eagles field in Philadelphia, he ruminated once more on his purpose, \u201cMy whole purpose is to take care of my family. I want my sons to have the best life. I don\u2019t want them to do the things I did. It was gut-wrenching, because it wasn\u2019t just about football. It was about me providing my family a life they\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

That learning curve. It\u2019s shrunk into nonexistence. The lessons have been learned. He is now whole. He is ready.<\/p>\n

The photographic memory that I wished I had \u2014 I don\u2019t want it anymore. Two weeks ago, as I tried to pass from my living room into the kitchen, a gifted memory wasn\u2019t necessary to recall what I had seen on the TV. My selective memory sufficed.<\/p>\n

My mediocre memory allowed me to remember Tyrann Mathieu and his resurrected glow, and this remembrance led me down a path to ponder and appreciate a new man with a strong body, but an even stronger mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Danny Garrett A\u00a0poor memory is a shameful thing. It forsakes you more often than not, both for minor and major events. The lack stings sharpest for the major ones. Two weeks ago, I was walking towards my kitchen from my living room, and the TV stopped my progress. Or, rather, what the TV showed. 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