Tyrann Mathieu was back in New Orleans this weekend to host a youth camp. Many people were surprised Mathieu back in his hometown only months after the shooting death of Will Smith, a former NFL player. Smith’s death had led Mathieu to take to Twitter and call out the shooter’s cowardice and all the problems in his hometown.
It’s one of the topics that ESPN’s Mike Triplett dives into for his new feature on Mathieu.
“This was a place I grew up at, a place that means a lot to me. All my family’s here,” Mathieu said. “The most important thing is that I lost a lot of family members here. So I spoke from an emotional place, a personal place. And you never want to see anybody lose their life. So that was really the gist of my saying what I said at that time.”
Heart of a Badger, Mathieu’s new camp, was attended by approximately 400 kids on Saturday.
“I just want to encourage them and inspire them,” Mathieu said. “Most of them just need some direction, some sense of leadership. Hopefully I can give that to them today.
“I think a lot of people should stand up and speak out and give back. I’m just fortunate enough that I have a platform that I’m able to do that. And it was a good turnout today.”
There were two VIP guests at the camp as well: Les Miles and Leonard Fournette.
“It’s a wonderful thing, a beautiful thing,” Fournette said of Mathieu’s camp. “It’s very important, because where we’re from, kids don’t have that kind of motivation and support that you really need.”
Fournette and Mathieu both have motivation to try claim the title of St. Augustine High School’s best alumnus, the school both attended prior to LSU.
“I don’t want to say myself, because I feel like Leonard is really taking the cake right now. But for now, I think it’s me. Then in about two years, it will probably be Leonard.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
