The St. Louis Rams coaching staff has promised Tre Mason that he’ll start for the team Week 1. But if you’d asked Mason what he envisioned for his future when he was in high school, he would have said he’d be playing basketball, not football.
“My freshman year of high school I didn’t play football,” Mason told ProPlayerInsiders. “I thought I was going to the NBA; thought I was Lebron James.”
But Mason re-evaluated those dreams when his size didn’t match up on the court.
“It was a dream since I was young,” Mason said. “I’m a dream chaser, and now I’m just trying to make a dream into reality.”
“Obviously, I’m not 6’8. I’m half that,” the 5-9, 205-pound Mason, said. “I noticed my height was plateu-ing and I wasn’t quite scoring 50 points like I thought I was going to. So, then I was like, ‘you know what? I’m just going to go back to running the football.’ And it kind of just worked out for me.”
I’d say.
In his first college game against Utah State, Mason returned a kickoff return 97 yards for a touchdown.
In the 2013 SEC Championship Game against Missouri, Mason set a SEC Championship rushing record (304), touchdown record (4), rushing attempts record (46) as the game’s MVP.
In the 2014 BCS National Championship Game, Mason rushed for 195 yards on 34 carries and a touchdown although the team was defeated 34-31 by Florida State.
Mason was a first-team All-SEC selection and one of the six finalists for the 2013 Heisman Trophy. He finished his season with 1,816 rushing yards, breaking the Auburn record held by Heisman winner Bo Jackson’s 1,786 set in 1985.
“I think my greatest achievement, this past year, was breaking Bo Jackson’s rushing record,” Mason said. “I don’t know if I can top that one.”
But the NFL is a whole new playing field; one Mason is clearly excited about.
Gotta love watching the reaction from @TreMason21 with friends and family as he’s drafted: https://t.co/pDxC4wZb3M #Auburn #WarEagle
— Auburn Tigers (@AuburnTigers) May 10, 2014
At the Rookie Premiere, where the NFLPA aims to teach players about the business side of football, Mason is already way ahead of the game. “I also want to be like a big time investor, like a business man. From my dad being who he is, I always knew the value of money and was always business minded growing up,” Mason said.
His father, Vincent Mason, is a member of the hip hop group De La Soul.
“I always wanted to start life after football now, while I’m playing football,” Mason said.
This foresight could pay off, especially as Auburn’s no. 21 just became the Rams’ No. 27.
Same 27, new team for @TreMason27 . #Rams #RookiePremiere . pic.twitter.com/97GUdYv636
— photographer (@NFLPA_photos) May 31, 2014
More stories you might like
