Arizona Cardinals star defensive back Tyrann Mathieu opened up about his childhood and a number of other topics in a feature article in Men's Journal byPaul Solotaroff (warning: link contains NSFW language).
Mathieu, 24, revealed the tremendous amount of loss he's suffered throughout his life:
He walks me through the liturgy of his dead. The first cross is for his grandpa Lorenzo, who took in Mathieu when his mom abandoned him at birth. "The heroin got him, though he died of heart failure." Beside Grandpa is Uncle Donell, dead of AIDS, "from dirty needles.