‘Mamba mentality’ in NFL
Bryant transcended basketball, inspired and motivated those in other sports.
MIAMI — When victorious Kansas City Chiefs running back LeSean McCoy returned to his locker after Super Bowl LIV, he looked at the hanging No. 8 Kobe Bryant jersey next to his jeans and smiled.
“I just want to honor him,” McCoy said. “When I was a kid, he inspired me. In my neighborhood and in my city, he was a hero. This is just to show love for him. I pray for his family, his wife and his daughters. He was special. He touched so many people. I have a lot of love for him. I lost a friend, a mentor, and I lost a role model.”
Across the celebrating locker room, Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, who is from Los Angeles, put on a No. 24 Bryant jersey.
“That’s my one and only idol,” he said. “Kobe meant everything to me. I looked up to him more than anybody.”
Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players ever, but his popularity and impact transcended the sport. Many NFL players and coaches were inspired by the Mamba mentality.
As the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers were f lying into Miami on Jan. 26 to play in the Super Bowl, they found out the news that Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash.
“It took a lot of joy out of this trip, to be honest,” McCoy said. “I was on the plane, and Pat [Mahomes] showed me the report from
TMZ that Kobe had passed and it was emotional. We were all in disbelief. I still can’t believe it.”
McCoy first met Bryant in 2011 when he was an AllPro running back for the Philadelphia Eagles. Bryant, who was born in Philadelphia, was a big Eagles fan and knew exactly who McCoy was before the running back could even introduce himself.
“I saw him at a basketball game, and he called me ‘Shifty Shady,’ ” McCoy said. “I remember texting my mom and telling her, ‘Kobe knows who I am!’ ”
He was far from the only football player who grew up a Bryant fan and was amazed that their favorite player knew who they were.
“I was at a Lakers game six years ago, sitting front row against the Celtics, and he came running by and said, ‘Gronk! Gronk!’ ” former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said. “I was 23, and my eyes just lit up. My dad was sitting next to me, and I turned to him and I said, ‘Dad, Kobe just said my name.’ It just put a big smile on my face.”
Bryant and Patriots coach Bill Belichick developed a friendship, and Bryant spoke to the Patriots in 2018 before their Super Bowl season. Belichick said he had never seen a group as captivated as they were the day Bryant addressed his team.
“Belichick became really close with Kobe,” former Patriots defensive end Willie McGinest said. “That’s why he had him speak to the team. That’s how much he thought of him motivating and inspiring the team.”
Since he retired in 2016, Bryant spoke to several
NFL teams. He addressed the Chargers a couple of times because his offices were next to the team’s headquarters in Costa Mesa. He also talked to the Eagles when they were on the West Coast to play the Rams and Seattle Seahawks during their Super Bowl season.
He told the Eagles that his goal when he stepped on the court was to make his opponents second-guess their career choice. He wanted his favorite football team to adopt that same mind-set when they took the field.
“He talked about his mentality, and he gave us some words of encouragement,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “He was inspiring. The conversations about Kobe right now are less about what he did on the court and more about what he did as a person and as a father.”
Bryant relished the opportunity to be a role model for other athletes, regardless of the sport they played. He met DeAngelo Hall one time when Hall was a cornerback with the Washington Redskins and Bryant was in Philadelphia to watch the Eagles play the Redskins. They exchanged numbers but didn’t see each other again.
Five years later, when Hall tore an Achilles tendon against the Eagles in 2014, one year after Bryant suffered the same injury, one of the first texts he got was from Bryant.
“I was on the plane and my first reaction was to call him, so I called Kobe on the plane before we took off,” Hall said, “I said, ‘Bro, who did your surgery? I got to get back. I can’t end it like this.’ He started talking me through the whole process of what he did. To have a guy I look up to reach out like that was motivating. To have a person like that tell me that they believed in me was inspiring. He gave me that Mamba magic. His words inspired me.”
When he died, Bryant was en route to the Mamba Sports Academy, a training facility he bought in Thousand Oaks for professional athletes and youths. Rams All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald trained there several times and cherished the experience.
“Even though I played football growing up, you gravitate towards greatness,” Donald said. “You try to imitate that and the success he had, and you try to do that in your sport. As an athlete he already had the platform, and then he did so many great things off the court and people gravitated towards him. He touched a lot of people.”