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Ex-Heisman Finalist Hoping for Fresh Start

INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrann Mathieu woke up at 4 a.m. for his drug test at the scouting combine, hoping to shed his reputation along with the nickname he now shuns.

Honey Badger, the funny moniker that helped make Mathieu a YouTube sensation and led him to stardom, seemed to fit when Mathieu was the diminutive but electrifying returner and cornerback with the breathtaking change-of-direction ability. The name, like the player, was hard to ignore.

That was the player who was a consensus all-American and Heisman Trophy finalist in 2011. It was also the player who failed so many drug tests that he was thrown out of Louisiana State in August and then went into a drug rehabilitation program. And when he was arrested on a charge of marijuana possession in October, the headlines said the honey badger did it.

On Sunday, Mathieu set out to impress the N.F.L., and one step was to ditch any remnant of a period that he said ended Oct. 26 — the last day he used an illegal substance. Mathieu still has the blond Mohawk he has long favored. But even though the nickname is gone, Mathieu’s baggage made him one of the combine’s biggest curiosities and freighted his performance here — on the field, in team interviews, in his news conference — with as much meaning as Manti Te’o’s.

“I want them to be able to trust me,” Mathieu said of N.F.L. teams. “I hold myself accountable for everything I’ve done, and in this past year it’s been tough. At the end of the day, I want them to know that I’m a football player. I want to be a great teammate, and I want to be the same leader on the field that I know I can be off the field.”

He added: “I’m not totally asking them to trust me right now. What I have asked is for them to give me an opportunity to play the game. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on it, especially without football. It’s really given me a different outlook on life, and it’s just about being the right kind of person.”

Mathieu’s news conference was not as heavily attended as Teo’s, in part because he is not viewed as an elite prospect. Mathieu could be a fourth-round selection, the NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said. Mathieu was measured at a little less than 5 feet 9 inches — short for the N.F.L. — and he does not possess top-end speed, although he said Sunday he hoped to run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds this week.

Photo

Tyrann Mathieu scoring for L.S.U. on a punt return against Georgia in the SEC title game in 2011.Credit
Tami Chappell/Reuters

While he compares himself to Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed, Mathieu could project as a nickel corner and a returner in the N.F.L. The last year, he figures, probably cost him “millions.”

While Mathieu does not consider himself a project for an N.F.L. team, he acknowledged he was not as focused on football as on correcting the mistakes he had made in life. Mathieu now has a sponsor to help him stay away from drugs. But he has also sought the guidance of an all-star set of football mentors, and is in regular contact with the N.F.L. defensive backs Patrick Peterson, Darrelle Revis, Morris Claiborne and Corey Webster.

In interviews, teams have mostly asked Mathieu whether he can still be the kind of playmaker he was at L.S.U.

“My best friend right now is honesty,” he said. “I want to be as open as possible because I’m trying to rebuild people’s trust, and I want those guys to be able to trust me, and I hold myself accountable.”

The concern among teams, though, will be whether Mathieu can resist the temptations available to players in the N.F.L. — where positive drugs tests could lead to a suspension — after he succumbed in Baton Rouge and gave in again even after being booted from his team. Mathieu acknowledged that there was marijuana use in the N.F.L., but he said he thought the past year would help him manage his future.

“I think half of it is you actually start believing the hype,” he said, explaining what led him into trouble. “You actually start believing the newspaper clippings and the other half is, hey, I’m young and I want to have some fun. But at the end of the day, I have to be a different kind of person.”

“I know what it’s like to be humiliated,” Mathieu said later. “To go back down that road — there’s not a chance in the world, not a chance in my lifetime. Everything’s a process. I’m not saying I’m totally there. However, I am taking strides every day to be the best person that Tyrann can be.”

EXTRA POINTS

Sunday was speed day at the combine, when the wide receivers and running backs ran the 40-yard dash. Cornerbacks will run Tuesday, but Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson — who set the 40-yard-dash combine record when he ran it in 4.24 seconds in 2008 — retained the mark for at least a few more days. But it was close. Wide receivers Tavon Austin and Marquise Goodwin were unofficially hand-clocked at 4.25, but when the official numbers came in, Goodwin was at 4.27 and Austin at 4.34.

But it was Auburn running back Onterio McCalebb who really got the attention of Johnson, who was watching on television and posting on Twitter about it, making it clear that he very much wanted to hold on to the record. McCalebb was unofficially timed in 4.21 seconds, prompting Johnson to post, “Listen 4.21 that’s childish.” But when the official number for McCalebb, who is just 5-10 and 168 pounds, came in, it was 4.34. “Can’t lie that one scared me,” Johnson wrote.

A version of this article appears in print on February 25, 2013, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: Ex-Heisman Finalist Hoping for Fresh Start. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe