Prior to 2010, if you asked anyone in Louisiana if they ever heard of a honey badger, they probably would have said it was either a cartoon character or a mythical creature.
But by the middle of the 2011 season, Honey Badger, which is a real animal found in Africa and Southwest Asia, was a household name because of Tyrann Mathieu.
LSU fans couldn’t get enough of the YouTube videos that compared Mathieu’s fearless play on the football field to the Honey Badger’s fearless attitude in the wild.
How many times have you heard the phrase the “Honey Badger takes what it wants.”
If you said that in Louisiana in 2009, someone would have thought you were speaking some crazy French.
If Mathieu played during the NIL era, he might have been the highest earner of all college athletes, because of all the Honey Badger T-shirts and merchandise.
And he did take what he wanted, despite his 5-9, 175-pound frame.
Mathieu forced 11 fumbles during his LSU career, an SEC record. In 26 games with the Tigers, the Honey Badger had 96 total tackles, 16 tackles for a loss, six sacks and four interceptions.
Mathieu led the team in tackles in 2011, the year he won the Bednarik Award, which goes to the nation’s top defensive player.
He also made his impact on special teams. Mathieu averaged 15.6 yards a punt return in 2011 and had two touchdowns, including a 62-yard return against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game that sparked a 42-10 beat down of the Bulldogs.
Mathieu was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy that season, becoming the first LSU finalist of the Heisman since Charles Alexander in 1977.
It was a sad day on August 10, 2012, when LSU announced he was dismissed from the team for violating team rules.
The 2012 Tigers lost three games that year by a combined 13 points. There’s a good chance if Mathieu is on the field, he makes a play or two that would have turned those losses into victories.
But Mathieu took that huge disappointment of not playing his junior season at LSU and produced a 12-year NFL career that’s Pro Football Hall of Fame worthy.
Mathieu’s life is a lesson for anyone who hits rock bottom that if you put your head down and put the work in, you can accomplish anything you want.
And maybe take anything you want.
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