Mitchell stays in tune with honey principle
Some thought the Piano Man struck a sour note after rejecting NFL, but for him life is sweet enough
KAMLOOPS — In the literal sense, B. C. Lions defensive tackle Khalif Mitchell doesn’t march to the beat of his own drummer. He is a pianist, after all, not a percussionist.
But there is no doubt Mitchell is a different cat, one the conservative, hidebound world of professional football has trouble understanding.
This is a player who rejected a package from the Miami Dolphins — for about $ 500,000 US — and voluntarily elected to return to the CFL for much less fame and lucre because an inner voice told him “the time wasn’t right.”
At the same time, the selftaught musician, who enters the world of Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt when his muses move him to the keyboard, declares that his fondest wish is to one day own a grand piano.
Not just any Steinway, Yamaha or Young Chang, mind you. He wants a Fazioli, handmade in Italy, one of the most exclusive — and expensive pianos — in the world, priced from an entry- level $ 86,000 model to the priciest creation at $ 400,000.
There is a Fazioli in the lobby of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver, and Mitchell knows that fact because he’s caressed the keys and sampled its rich, mellow sound.
“They [ hotel workers] told me I’m the only person who’s ever played it,” Mitchell said Monday, following his second day of training camp. “They’re not even allowed to touch it. The only other person who’s touched it is the person who’s made it [ Paolo Fazioli]. Hopefully, one day, he’ll come to Vancouver, we can play a duet together, and my dream will come true.”
A conversation with Khalif Mitchell, as you may have gathered, may start with football, and end up, 10 or 15 minutes later, in a very different place.
When asked why the all- CFL defensive tackle would turn his back on the NFL — a place that 99 per cent of his football brethren aspire to be — he brings up the name of Bernie Madoff, the Ponzi scheme artist who betrayed and duped thousands of investors, including some of his close friends.
Madoff has come to portray the embodiment of greed, and Mitchell says he represents a wake- up call to a society which puts too much emphasis on net worth.
“Some people live their life on The Money Principle,” Mitchell said. “Some people think it’s a sin to pass on the [ Dolphins] contract I left at the table. Those are the people who live off The Money Principle. I live off The Honey Principle. My life is sweet enough, where I don’t need any sugar, I don’t need any false ideas of happiness. I think a lot of money doesn’t create happiness, as we’ve seen with the Madoffs. He gave a lot of money to his kids, but he left a lot of evil on his kids.” ( Madoff’s son, Mark, took his own life because of the scandal).
While few doubt Mitchell’s physical ability as a football player — he was all- league in his first year as a Lions’ starter — and his uniqueness, there are at least a couple of individuals who question his sanity.
In the course of having tryouts arranged, settling on the Dolphins, then rejecting them and returning to the embrace of the Lions, Mitchell went through two different agents in the course of a month. Andrew Bondarowicz and then David Canter threw their hands up after their NFL spadework went for naught.
“Khalif has always been an individual who marches to the beat of his own drummer,” Bondarowicz told The Vancouver Sun. “There never has been any question about him performing physically.”
Bondarowicz said Mitchell never did provide him with a proper explanation. Not surprisingly, the player said he now represents himself.
“The Man upstairs doesn’t make mistakes,” Mitchell explained Monday. “He helps you and guides you to different places — even if it doesn’t look like the best position to be in — you’ve just got to listen to that voice inside of you that tells you — ‘ It’s OK, it’s all right’ — no matter how many people may laugh at you or call you crazy.
“Some people don’t know what motivates me, and they look on it as a threat to mainstream thinking, going against the grain.”
The man of history to which Mitchell genuflects, Ludwig van Beethoven, went against the grain in his era, identifying a particular style, challenging accepted practice, even though he was lacking a sense — Ludwig was deaf — that would seem to be the most important of all for a composer.
“He was authentic,” Mitchell said. “People didn’t say it at the time, but they learned to appreciate him later. Somebody said I’m the first person to ever reject the NFL for the CFL, and they think I’m crazy for doing that.
“But we’re all unique, and doing some different always starts with one person, right?”
On a different note, the Lions’ Piano Man certainly is.