On a recent episode of his podcast, In the Bayou, former NFL player Tyrann Mathieu spoke about his time at Louisiana State University (LSU) and revealed he went to some extreme lengths to try and pass his drug tests.
“I done tried everything in the books,” he said after his co-host asked if he ever had someone pee before him to help influence the results of his drug tests. “You know, I've used other people’s urine, you know, they got the fake penises… I’ll tell you a funny story—not funny, I could have died—but like a couple of tests before I realized it was going to kick me out of school, I'm sitting in a circle and I'm like, I'm on Google trying to figure out, man, how the fuck [can] I pass this test. Like these folk keep threatening me. And I'm just scrolling, scrolling. And I come across some shit that say, ‘Man, just put some bleach in the top… Put a little bleach in the top and put it in your Coca-Cola. And so I did that.”
Needless to say, the experience of drinking bleach did not go particularly well for him.
“I'm like, yo, what the fuck? Like, it felt like my whole insides was just like erupting. You know what I'm saying? I ended up throwing that shit up,” he continued. “And I was at that point, I'm like, ‘Man, fuck it. I done ran out of tricks.’ I don't know what to do. And yeah, bro, like I remember sitting in front of that building, man, with a fucking cap full of bleach in a Coke bottle. And I thought that was going to save my life. It didn't. It backfired.”
During his time playing for the LSU Tigers, Mathieu ran into problems because he failed multiple drug tests. In 2011, he was suspended for one game, while in 2012, he was dismissed after multiple test failures. He entered a drug rehabilitation program in Houston, Texas, the same year. Ultimately, he was able to overcome his drug issues, despite an arrest for marijuana possession following his dismissal. He entered the NFL Draft in 2013 and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, whom he played for until 2017.
He also had a brief stint with the Houston Texans, played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2019 to 2021, and the New Orleans Saints from 2022 until his retirement in 2024. “As I hang up my cleats, I'm filled with gratitude… This isn't goodbye—it's just the next chapter,” he said upon announcing his retirement last year.