Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu admitted he contemplated suicide after he was arrested in Louisiana in October 2012, according to Fox Sports Arizona.
Mathieu let the world know about his thoughts by changing his Twitter profile to say:
“I’ve tried committing suicide. But I didn’t, look at me now.”
Mathieu took the post down, but explained to Fox Sports his reason for sharing the information.
“I’m sitting in that jail cell thinking, ‘I don’t know if I want to go back out there and face the music,'” he told Fox Sports Arizona. “I didn’t know how I was going to commit suicide in the cell, but that was the direction my life was heading.”
The second year safety admitted that his cell mates actually talked him out of his plan.
Mathieu, who’s out recovering from a torn ACL and LCL, told Fox Sports Arizona that his cellmates talked him out of suicide by “telling me I was a good football player, telling me I don’t need to be thinking about this.”
“That’s probably why I really didn’t do it, but there was an actual moment where I was thinking about, and I’ll never forget that feeling,” Mathieu said.
Mathieu was arrested Oct. 25, 2012, along with three other Louisiana State football players after police found marijuana in his Baton Rouge, La., apartment. The arrest ended any shot he had of returning to LSU.
“I think the biggest thing is to be open about it,” he said. “Part of it is reaching out to others trying to help; part of it is self-counseling, talking about it, not shying away from it. Most people try to isolate themselves and pretend like things are all good when a lot of times, that’s not how it is.”
