As he sat in a jail cell, Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu said suicidal thoughts ran through his head.  Police found marijuana in his apartment during which would be his third college season, he had been kicked off the LSU team and he felt his world crumbling around him and his dreams slipping away.

“I’ve tried committing suicide. But I didn’t, look at me now,” Mathieu wrote on his Twitter account.  He later removed it saying ”I didn’t think it would go viral.”

“I’m sitting in that jail cell thinking, ‘I don’t know if I want to go back out there and face the music,’ ” he said. “I didn’t know how I was going to commit suicide in the cell, but that was the direction my life was heading.”

So what stopped him from committing the act?  Some unexpected words of encouragement.

“Believe it or not, my cellmates were encouraging me, telling me I was a good football player; telling me I don’t need to be thinking about this,” Mathieu said. “That’s probably why I really didn’t do it, but there was an actual moment where I was thinking about, and I’ll never forget that feeling.”

Since they were able to him, Mathieu now wants to help others.

“I think the biggest thing is to be open about it,” he said Tuesday after the first day of Cardinals minicamp at the team’s practice complex. “Part of it is reaching out to others trying to help; part of it is self-counseling, talking about it, not shying away from it. Most people try to isolate themselves and pretend like things are all good when a lot of times, that’s not how it is.”

“I want to start a foundation called Second Chance,” he said. “I was given a second chance, so I want to reach out to different groups of people. It would be nice to give that opportunity to others.”

He’s already spoken with his agent and marketing people and is ready to get the ball rolling.

h/t Fox Sports

– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)