Tyrann Mathieu’s been through a lot in his life, but what Wednesday presented him with something new. When the Cardinals made the decision to release him over their contract disagreement, it was the first time he’d ever been cut from a team. Ever.
“Obviously, I was expecting it,” Mathieu told me a couple hours after getting word from the team. “But when it happened, I was still kind of shocked. I was supposedly one of the best players on my team. Now, I’m cut. It was shocking.”
And therein is a lesson for all players signing deals this week: Check your contract, look for the first out the team has in that deal, and know that no matter how great things may be going now, nothing is guaranteed past that point.