re: .

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Tyrann was named king of the 7th ward park he played at in NOLA for being the best player in pee wee league when he was 10. Was he smoking weed then? Not likely.



"Since 5 years old, I mean, that's what we was taught..."

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He didn't say he started smoking weed at 5. What you're taught and what you do are two different things. I was taught not to have sex before I was married. Anyway...

No doubt he was around weed at a young age coming from where he comes from in New Orleans. And I believe what he is saying there. But they don't exactly give the stuff away to youngsters. He's talking about his surroundings and what he learned at an early age.

quote:

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He didn't say he started smoking weed at 5. What you're taught and what you do are two different things. I was taught not to have sex before I was married. Anyway...

No doubt he was around weed at a young age coming from where he comes from in New Orleans. And I believe what he is saying there. But they don't exactly give the stuff away to youngsters. He's talking about his surroundings and what he learned at an early age.

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I didn't say he smoked weed at 5. I just provided the link to the interview.

I'm not going to argue about the first time he got high. I'm just saying that obviously marijuana has been a part of his life for a while, and he was an incredible player with a very unique mentality toward the game of football.

I'm not saying using marijuana caused TM to be the great player that he was. But I am saying it could have been a factor. I don't really know. But, based on my experience, marijuana can give you a different perspective on things and allow you to enter different states of mind that you would not otherwise experience.

I think we can agree that TM had a very unique mental approach to the game. I mean, he was a good athlete, but you can very easily find guys that are bigger, stronger & faster. I'm just allowing for the possibility that cannabis was a part of the equation for Mathieu. To what degree, I have no idea, but he obviously liked it very much.

Maybe like tubucoco said, marijuana calmed him and brought him a sense of relaxation/peace off the field that he would not otherwise have been able to achieve. If that's the case, then the marijuana played a pivotal role in helping TM achieve balance in his life, which IMO is a fairly hard thing to maintain in our world, but very important.

I really don't want to go much deeper into this, obviously there are a number of factors that went into making Mathieu the great player that he was. Work ethic, instincts, physicality, toughness, etc. Again, I'm just allowing for the possibility that marijuana was a part of that equation. I just think it's something interesting to consider.

And, BTW, in assessing the factors that went into Mathieu being such a great player at LSU, I don't think John Chavis gets nearly enough credit. He put TM in a phenomenal position to have success in the defense. I've mentioned it before on this board, in 2009 the Wisconsin Badgers gave unheralded true freshman Chris Borland a similar role in their defense, and he had a very Mathieu-esque season.

Season Stats

2009 - Borland - 54 tackles, 10.5 tfls, 5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 1 int

2010 - Mathieu - 57 tackles, 8.5 tfls, 4.5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 2 ints

Interesting side note on Borland - in 2009 he also returned 6 kickoffs for 106 yards and kicked 3 extra points.

I also want to temper my positive sentiments on marijuana a bit by saying that it affects different people in different ways. We all have a different biochemical makeup. I've seen it have negative effects on people too.