It would be easy to write about Robert Mathis the football player. A remarkably distinguished 14-year NFL career provides a ton of material for that: 123 sacks, six Pro Bowl appearances and 2013 AFC Defensive Player of the Year award, just to name a few of the accolades. Clearly, he was a phenom, and typically those types aren’t grown on trees nor easily found.
All of the football superlatives aside, Mathis is clearly more impressive as an individual than most people in this community will ever realize. Sure, his terrorizing of the opposition’s backfield is what he’ll probably be remembered most for, but the quiet and proud player Colts fans have cheered for all these years, in my opinion, pales in comparison to the one who prefers no spotlight while he quietly works off the field to improve the lives of those less fortunate.
While his tremendous support of The Children’s Wish Fund here locally is well documented, Mathis has done much more for the community in which he has prospered, and no doubt is content to keep his contributions relatively quiet.
That’s where yours truly comes in to highlight just a few examples of his great generosity. Be it celebrity softball or commandeering a bowling alley to ensure many children living in poverty have a Christmas gift, the intensely private, yet indeed benevolent, Mathis has surpassed the vast number of football accomplishments he’s beloved for with all his generosity locally.
I would be remiss, however, if l didn’t talk a bit about his 2014 four-game suspension for violation of the NFL’s drug policy. Many in the local media assumed Mathis had used performance-enhancing substances, just as many of those throughout the NFL commonly and routinely do. Shortly after the suspension, it was publicized he had, in fact, used a fertility drug to assist in the process of conceiving a child. While some felt Mathis should’ve checked to see if the composition of the prescribed drug was indeed a banned substance, there are those close to him who say he knew it would cause him to be suspended, and the fine was worth the blessing that a child would bestow upon him. No one other than Mathis truly knows what happened, and honestly, it’s nobody’s business.
It is fair game to speculate, and I’m willing to wager, he quickly chose family over football. That’s both honorable and refreshing when you look at the high number of irresponsible players who trot out in stadiums every Sunday of the season; but clearly, that’s not Mathis.
There’s no question he’ll be missed in the locker room and on the field, but fortunately it appears he’s going to call Indianapolis his home now that his storied career has come to an end. That’s good news for the community, and hopefully the example he set will be one we can all strive to follow.
I once told him what he’d done for local children was far more significant than anything he could ever do in football. He simply smiled, thanked me and quietly walked away. That’s the Robert Mathis I will always remember, and it’s exactly the one you should, too.
Danny Bridges, who thinks that pound for pound, inch for inch, Robert Mathis is one of the greatest defenders ever, can be reached at (317) 370-8447 or at Bridgeshd@aol.com.
