Mrazek: 'a major character-building moment'

Matt Mrazek has thought about being a lawyer and a professional football player “my whole life”, and choosing which path to take after his final season at Lafayette “would have been a difficult decision no matter what,” he told me on the day on which he started his final semester at the college.

“This decision would have been more difficult had the season gone differently and had I put up numbers similar to my junior year,” the 6-4 wide receiver said.

He was on track to become Lafayette’s all-time leading pass receiver and at the same time help first-year head coach John Garrett turn around the program after it posted just three wins in 2015 2016 combined. He needed only 58 catches to pass Mark Ross for the top spot. It seemed like a no-brainer. Instead, he wound up with just 28.

“If a player has a complaint, he’s quick to be branded as selfish or something, but it was never about me,” Mrazek told me. “The whole point was I knew I could do more to help the team win. I thought we could have competed and won the league championship this year if I was used more. It was very frustrating.”

But even as the numbers on the field didn’t come – “this year was tough, without any sort of an explanation,” he said – “the more I researched (law) schools and the opportunities I would have, it just felt like the logical progression.”

Despite the Leopards’ 3-8 season, Mrazek said he did, indeed, have an invitation to an NFL Pro Day at Northwestern University, thanks in part to Bob Heffner, a former Lafayette offensive line coach and now an assistant with the Wildcats. He even thought about hooking up with former NFL wide receiver Don Beebe to help get ready.

But then things began to happen on the academic side, too.

He told me he has been accepted at five schools at this point, and, based on his score on his law school admissions test (LSAT), his application and an interview, a very tempting offer from the University of Miami heads the list. Miami offers the option to go for a joint degree in both JD Law and a master’s in Sports Law. He could be admitted on the honors track.

He’s also interested in Loyola of Chicago, which would be close to his La Grange, Ill., home, but he hasn’t heard from them yet. So, the final choice won’t come for a couple of months, after all the results are in.

Thinking about what might have been in football hasn’t always been pleasant. He has been bombarded with questions for which he has no answers. He said he would talk with wide receivers’ coach Gunnard Twyner, who would “relay messages to Coach Garrett. We had a dialogue, but I never really understood what was happening.”

He admits that hearing the same questions over and over has been difficult, but he’s also been appreciative of all the support he has received, including from Lafayette alumni congratulating him on his career.

“I think me going through this year personally and now having had more time to think about what I want to do, I’m coming to peace and getting excited about m0ving forward despite how (the football season) ended. To continue and hopefully stay in the field of sports.

“It’s been hard for my family to handle the switch, too, because I’ve always been the athlete of the family. I had a great ride in terms of support my entire life. It’s going to be a big change. Five years from now, things will be much different. This is a major character-building moment for me. This entire season was, and hopefully, it can motivate me to further success down the line.”