Mathieu arrest fallout: the effect on his family, NFL future and LSU

Sports Illustrated, which wrote a cover story on troubled LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu last week, caught up with Mathieu's family after Tyrann's arrest on Thursday.

SI found that Marie Mathieu, Tyrann's maternal grandmother, had two strokes on Thursday, before Tyrann was arrested on marijuana possession charges.

"I can only handle one thing at a time," Mathieu's mother Tyra told SI.com. "I'm just trying to get through this."

Mathieu's sister Darrineka expressed an opinion that seems to have a lot of people scratching their heads: Why was Mathieu still in Baton Rouge, a place where he got into so much trouble in the first place?

Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel expressed that sentiment as well.

"I just feel like Tyrann should have never went back there because you're surrounding yourself with the same environment that you already got in trouble with," Mathieu's sister Darrineka told SI.com. "I'm hurt for him. I'm sorry that it happened to him, but there's nothing else I can do."

We're left to wonder what happens next to the popular cornerback, who was a Heisman Trophy finalist less than a year ago.

Nobody seems to think Mathieu will ever play for LSU again, a dream he appeared to be keeping alive by attending LSU as a student this fall even after he was kicked off the team before the season. Only about 2 percent of readers who responded to a New Orleans Times-Picayune poll about Mathieu's future thought he would play for LSU again. As of Friday morning, almost 44 percent thought he would never play football again. That was the most popular answer among readers.

He is eligible for the NFL draft in April, but this week's news won't do him any favors. CBSSports.com says his draft stock has plummeted because of his off-field issues and an unnamed scout told the site it was possible he doesn't get drafted at all. It wouldn't be surprising to see Mathieu slip badly in the draft considering he doesn't have elite size or speed like recent LSU cornerbacks Patrick Peterson or Morris Claiborne. There was already a chance that Mathieu was going to be drafted later than expected once teams closely examined his physical skills, and his off-field baggage just exacerbates that problem.

Having four former players including Mathieu and Jordan Jefferson, the Tigers' starting quarterback at the end of last season, arrested in Baton Rouge on drug-related charges doesn't look good on LSU. The school had no comment because the incident involved former players, the Times-Picayune said. The paper said former LSU player T-Bob Hebert shot down the notion that there is a drug problem on the Tigers team during an interview with ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge:

"I can say without a shadow of a doubt that is not the case," Hebert said, according to the paper. "We are easily one of the most drug-free teams in the SEC. We get tested all the time. Our compliance [department] stays on us."

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