Tyrann Mathieu and Leonard Fournette, ex-St. Aug and LSU stars, go from the 7th Ward to the Super Bowl

Kansas City Chiefs teammates L’Jarius Sneed and Clyde Edwards-Helaire were a lot like most kids who grew up playing football in Louisiana in recent years.

You wanted to be the next Tyrann Mathieu, which is why Sneed hijacked the nickname “Honey Badger” and used it for himself when he played at Minden High School.

Or you wanted to be the next Leonard Fournette.

“Just watching him run all over guys in Louisiana, I wanted to do the same,” said Edwards-Helaire of Baton Rouge.

Mathieu, the Chiefs’ ball-hawking defensive back, and Fournette, the Buccaneers running back, both graduated from St. Augustine High School and are two of the most beloved football players to ever come out of Louisiana.

One was thought to be too small, yet always played much bigger than the 5-foot-9, 190 pounds at which he’s listed.

The other was just the opposite, always a man among boys, much as he has been in Tampa Bay’s postseason run, during which he has transformed to “Playoff Lenny,” the nickname he has picked up.

As different as they are physically, they are just alike on the inside.

They are products of the city’s Seventh Ward, where the purple and gold of St. Aug runs just as proudly through their veins as the purple and gold No. 7 LSU jerseys they later wore.

They aren’t just from New Orleans.

They are New Orleans.

It’s why the 656-mile journey from 2600 A.P. Tureaud Ave., where St. Aug is located, to Raymond James Stadium for Super Bowl LV is so sweet.

Two former Purple Knights — Sir Tyrann (Class of 2010) and Sir Leonard (Class of 2014) — get to share football’s grandest stage, serving as an inspiration to everyone back home.

“It’s going to be a special moment for us,” Mathieu said. “St. Augustine, obviously growing up in New Orleans, I think it teaches you a lot. Not only as a person, but the person you want to become in the future. The discipline, the different teachers and the coaches that we had that were really hands-on — and I like to say that that school definitely put us in that mindset to dream big and work hard.”

Mathieu, 28, is looking for his second straight Super Bowl title after helping the Chiefs win it all last season. The fact that he’s back for another Super Bowl shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the Chiefs were one of the favorites when the season began.

But Fournette, who turned 26 in January, knew he’d be here someday, too. A tweet from his senior year of high school resurfaced this week to remind us.

“Can’t wait til I play in that Super Bowl,” Fournette tweeted Feb. 2, 2014.

“It’s crazy how you manifest things and speak it to existence,” Fournette said Tuesday.

The NFL still has plenty of work to do, as New Orleans-born Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy would surely be able to tell you.

Now he’s here, just five months after he wasn’t even on a team. The Jacksonville Jaguars cut him after three seasons, and Fournette admits he was hurt when he arrived at the gate at the Jaguars’ facility that day and heard the coach wanted to see him.

“It was a terrible feeling,” Fournette said. “I took a week off and had to get my mind right. I just took time and chilled with my kids. The kids are my ‘why.’ They are why I play. I tried not to lose focus on the bigger picture.”

A week later, he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who revamped their roster all offseason, starting with the signing of Tom Brady. Fournette can perhaps credit Buccaneers linebacker Devin White, a former LSU teammate, for helping find him a team.

“The moment I saw Jacksonville cut him, I was on the phone with him; I was on the phone with B.A. (Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians),” White said. “I was like, ‘Man, we have to get him. He’s going to be a tremendous help for this football team.’ Weeks later, look what he’s doing for our football team. He can be one of the best backs when he’s on his ‘A’ game. I feel like this is the Leonard we’re going to get from here on out. He’s rejuvenated.”

Perhaps Fournette’s resurgence shouldn’t come as a surprise. The first words of St. Aug’s alma mater are “Rise, Sons of the Gold and Purple.”

Years ago, Mathieu had a similar bounce-back.

He had been dismissed from the LSU football team during the 2012 preseason for failing multiple drug tests. It was less than a year after he’d been named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. That was a season in which the Honey Badger had captivated the nation with his game-changing, playmaking ability. That could have been the end of his football-playing days. But it wasn’t.

“Even when things weren’t easy, you put your head down, you challenge yourself before other people challenge you, and you embrace the struggle, you embrace the grind,” Mathieu said at last year’s Super Bowl. “Because in your mind, you see something much bigger. You see a better version of yourself.”

Now he’s one of the most respected players in the NFL, a role model both on and off the field.

“My favorite draft choice of all time,” said Arians, who coached the Arizona Cardinals when they selected Mathieu in 2013. “I just love him, his passion for football. I’m so proud of the man he’s become. He’s a great football player, but he’s a better man.”

Mathieu and Fournette are both proud fathers. But they also make sure to do their part to give back to the kids in the city that aren’t their own. 

David Johnson, now the running backs coach at Florida State, coached both of them at St. Aug. He coached Mathieu his senior year and coached Fournette from the time he was in the eighth grade through his sophomore year. He knew right away that both were special players.

There was the time he took his St. Aug team to the west bank to play No. 2-ranked West Jefferson. Johnson had told Mathieu that he would let him play both ways, but Mathieu didn’t practice on offense leading up to the season opener.

Darrel Williams knows a thing or two (or three, or four) about patience.

Mathieu was concerned.

“Coach, I don’t know the plays.”

Johnson’s response?

“You don’t have to know the plays. I’ll tell you what to do.”

Right before halftime, Johnson told Mathieu what route to run, and he scored on a 60-yard touchdown.

And then there was Fournette’s sophomore year when St. Aug started the season 0-4 and Johnson went to the locker room to have a heart-to-heart talk with the team. Fournette interrupted him.

“Coach, I’ll take it from here.”

“He talked to the team and we won nine games in a row. … It’s just a joy to know how hard these young men worked and the sacrifices they made to get to this point,” Johnson said.

Now they are in the Super Bowl. To celebrate the occasion, Mathieu and Fournette’s pictures are on a billboard on the interstate that runs through the heart of the city where their football journeys began.

Aulston Taylor; St. Aug’s chief development officer who handles the school’s fundraising events, worked at the school when both were there.

“Every play when they were on the field, you expected something extraordinary to happen,” Taylor said. “We are thrilled to know the next Tyrann Matthieu and Leonard Fournette will soon emerge at our school because of the impact they had on our young men.”

Whoever that is will have some huge footsteps to follow, coming behind two guys who have always had the ultimate respect for each other from the very beginning.

“Me and Leonard go way, way back,” Mathieu said. “I knew he was going to be special because he loved football. He was bigger than me back then, and he’s still bigger than me. But at the end of the day, he knows I’m the big brother. It’s going to be fun to compete against him. I’m sure 40 years from now, 50 years from now, we will laugh and talk about this special moment.”

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