Why Chiefs’ Tyrann Mathieu spent 20 minutes in a freezer... and what it says about him
When the Chiefs were evaluating personnel to substantially upgrade their defense in the offseason, new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was struck by an intangible factor when it came to free-agent safety Tyrann Mathieu.
As he thought about it Thursday, Spagnuolo recalled a friend who had worked with Mathieu saying something like this:
“He changed the building the minute he walked through the door.”
That’s proven true in numerous ways, from his smart, tenacious play on the field to the galvanizing influence he has on a much-improved defense to the vibe he’s added to the locker room with such gestures as typically hosting teammates at his home on Thursday nights.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Spagnuolo said as the Chiefs prepare to play Denver Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. “It’s dynamic. It’s a lot of energy. A guy to gravitate to, serious about what he’s doing.”
Whatever it might be, as it turns out.
On a team teeming with community-minded men, perhaps most visibly including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and punter Dustin Colquitt (named Thursday for the third time as the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for community service), Mathieu this week reinvigorated his own compelling charitable profile.
Perhaps appropriately enough for a guy whose nickname, “Honey Badger,” stemmed from a viral video, it came in the form of an animal-related clip — a counterpart to another in which he’d taken part in 2015 and has been viewed more than 70 million times.
Turns out that unlike the Honey Badger, a moniker that Mathieu has tried to disavow but nonetheless stays with him, Mathieu does care.
Cares enough about immersing himself here that before he played his first game with the Chiefs he met with then-Mayor Sly James (and since with Mayor Quinton Lucas) to talk about ways to help financially disadvantaged children.
Cares enough to vigorously promote his foundation work, including recruiting teammates to a Celebrity Waiters Dinner last month.
And in this case, cares enough to shut himself in a freezer for 20 minutes to raise awareness of the agony of dogs left outside in the cold during the winter months.
In the video made on behalf of PETA, a sequel of sorts to the one he did in a car to bring attention to opposite perilous conditions in Arizona, Mathieu can be seen shivering, trying to drink water that has turned to ice and bite into a candy bar that is too frozen to eat.
“All my body (wants) to do is huddle right now,” he said in the video, later adding, “Imagine being forced to live outside, chained or caged, 24-7. That is no life for a dog. It’s a life sentence.
“Bring your dogs inside, treat them like members of your family and report neglect to authorities immediately.”
When I asked Mathieu why this cause resonated with him, he started by saying he’d always been “a nature person,” one who was apt to skip breakfast to get straight outside in the mornings back home in Louisiana. Amid a tumultuous upbringing, he always enjoyed animals, often watching Animal Planet on the Discovery Channel.
He has two Yorkies now.
(When he was playing for Arizona, he called his Yorkie, King, one of his best friends and said they had similar personalities since everyone on his team is bigger than him. Growing up, he added, “I always had to run from the big dogs, so I never really liked big dogs.”)
“Some of my best friends are avid dog lovers. So I feel like I’ve always kind of been around that passion,” Mathieu, who was contacted by PETA for both videos, said Thursday. “And I think given my situation, especially in Arizona with the heat, it was important to kind of raise awareness for that.
“And you know, me coming here with these cold winters, you know, why not do it on the opposite end?”
Being from New Orleans, he added with a smile, “I think anything below 60 (degrees) is a bit too cold.”
After about 20 minutes in the freezer, Mathieu said he couldn’t take any more and got out. In the video made in the car on a 90-degree day four years ago, he lasted eight minutes and got out in some distress with the temperature inside climbing to 120 degrees.
In each case, he was fortunate to have an option that neglected dogs don’t.
“If you’re going to make a dog part of your family,” he said in the Arizona video, “treat him like part of your family.”
All of which is further testimony to what Spagnuolo was told about Mathieu, who in another recent interview told me “being a great teammate, it might be better than being the best player on the team.”
And the persona that enables him to change a building is rooted in a mindset dedicated to using his profile to change a lot more, just another reason signing him was a monumental move by the Chiefs.