Tyrann Mathieu just wanted to do hoodrat stuff with his friends. It’s unfortunate that those actions will land him in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
At first everyone wondered why the Honey Badger got himself dismissed from the LSU football team on Aug. 10 for a still-unspecified violation of team rules.
After the arrests of Mathieu and former LSU players Jordan Jefferson, Karnell Hatcher and Derrick Bryant on Thursday, it’s perfectly clear marijuana is the reason No. 7 is no longer taking what he wants on the gridiron.
LSU wouldn’t comment on last season’s “suspensions” of Mathieu, Tharold Simon and Spencer Ware while they sat out against Auburn. It wouldn’t even say why a 2011 Heisman Finalist was suddenly not a member of a team he was the star attraction of not even a year earlier.
But it doesn’t have to say anything. Mathieu’s actions speak for themselves.
I saw this coming from a mile away.
A Division I football player has his day mapped out for him. It’s not the glamorous lifestyle movies and television shows make it out to be.
You have to go to class, spend hours on the practice field and then sometimes manage to get some homework done in between. There’s no time to get into trouble, right?
Wrong.
Mathieu managed to get booted from the LSU football team, for marijuana or not, while under the strict guidelines to which LSU football players are held. What made anyone think he was going to be a completely changed person with no schedule to follow?
This isn’t a problem simply handled overnight. I questioned the legitimacy of Mathieu’s guidance by former NBA-star turned drug counselor John Lucas from the start.
When was the last time someone spent two weeks in rehab and came out clean?
Mathieu rushed back to the lifestyle he loved, only with fewer responsibilities. He didn’t have to worry about practice every day or having his class checkers make sure he was in class.
Who knows if he had any intention of returning back to the program next season? Passing class would then be optional as well.
The Honey Badger returning to LSU had Tiger fans giddy about him being back next season. But what if all he really wanted to do was find an excuse to spend a year in Baton Rouge before bolting for the National Football League?
That being said, if Mathieu had any chance of returning to the Tigers for the 2013 season, he can kiss it goodbye. There’s no way Miles allows him to join his teammates and bring along the media circus that surrounds him.
Let’s not throw the Honey Badger under the bus just yet. This is still his first arrest and the details of what really happened Thursday afternoon are still hazy.
He’s still a 20-year-old young man trying to find his place in life. Maybe this was just a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Let’s think about just how big of a celebrity Mathieu has become. It’s not like he was some gimmick that went away after a few weeks.
Before he deleted the famous “TM7_Era” Twitter handle, he had more than 100,000 followers. He wasn’t some overnight celebrity; he was a legitimate superstar in only his third year on his own.
When the world keeps telling you how great you are, it’s hard not to buy in. It’s easy for us to say we wouldn’t, but we aren’t in his shoes.
Whatever Mathieu’s plans were, I’m pretty sure they came to a skidding halt with his arrest Thursday. But I can’t say I’m surprised he finds himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons yet again.
This columnist’s views do not represent those of The Daily Reveille.
