The Honeybadger may not care — but he sure is rich.Tyrann Mathieu has had already career to remember, even if the LSU alumnus is just entering his fourth season as a pro. He just agreed to a new five-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals, the defensive back signing for reportedly 62.5 million to continue his playmaking ways in the red birds’ secondary, much to the delight of fans backing the NFC finalist.
Mathieu signing for such a deal seemed somewhat remote a few years ago, when LSU coach Les Miles kicked the then-Heisman hopeful off the team after repeated violations of the school’s substance abuse policy. It was a jarring blow to Mathieu as well as his fans — he made his name terrorizing opposing offenses in a variety of plays and from a plethora of spots on the field and became the very rare defensive player who finished as a finalist for the Heisman trophy — he was the first defensive back to be a Heisman finalist since Charles Woodson in 1997. He also won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s best defensive player as a sophomore.
He spent a year out of football before entering the 2013 NFL Draft. While others have played professionally after such a dismissal, it’s not a very positive indicator of their chances for future success. The idea that a player would fail a drug tests or tests, then repeatedly do so, with the potential to earn millions of dollars around the corner doesn’t bode well. Nor did Mathieu’s size for that matter — as prolific as he was as a Tiger, there were very real questions about how his 5’9 height would play at cornerback or safety.
But Mathieu became the exception. He checked himself into a drug rehabilitation facility in Houston and sought counsel from former NBA player and coach John Lucas, who himself battled substance abuse and has become a mentor for athletes in recovery.
The Cardinals weren’t deterred, selecting Mathieu in the third round. And, man, have they been happy about that decision. He stood out over his first two seasons but truly exploded last year, intercepting five passes — naturally, he returned one for a touchdown — and recording 17 pass defenses. He’s also not afraid to tackle, recording 89 of those.
The Cardinals took a chance on Mathieu, for sure. We see all the time in football how far trust and accountability goes. Young, seemingly more athletically gifted players sit behind the crusty old veteran. Fans grumble. We writers write … and grumble. Coaches don’t care. If you can’t be trusted to be available, you aren’t trusted. If a quarterback doesn’t know where you’ll be on that 5th route of the game, he’s not going to want you on that field with him. Mathieu would likely be drug tested, and often — and if he fails, the men responsible for making the decision to draft him take the fall.
Instead, he rewarded that plunge.
And now, the team rewards Mathieu, in kind. The Honeybadger could have been a cautionary tale. Instead, he’s a franchise cornerstone—and, indeed, learned to care along the way.
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