Los Angeles Rams

Tre Mason is lost and needs to be found

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Los Angeles Rams running back Tre Mason is lost in the shadows, desperate to be found.

The first weekend of the 2016 NFL season has come and gone. The Los Angeles Rams made their big city debut on Monday Night Football in Santa Clara, Ca., against the 49ers, and Tre Mason was not there. It’s a wonder where Mason is at all these days. Even when his physical location is known, which is becoming less and less frequent, he is not fully there. He is vacant. He is lost, and he doesn’t seem ready to be found.

Rams officials have repeatedly stated that they have not been in contact directly with Mason since the 2015 season finished. It has been reported that Mason changes his phone number so often that it has become nearly impossible to track him down. And since last season ended, Mason’s personal avalanche began.

Most recently another arrest warrant was issued for Mason on September 9 after failing to appear in court on September 7 for a mandatory court date before a judge after he was stopped for driving with a suspended license in Palm Beach, Fl., on August 13. Over the last several months, he has frequently gone missing, vanishing amid a swirl of question marks so often that he himself has become a question mark.

Mason’s health is more important than anything else — his successes as an Auburn Tiger, where he rushed for 2,979 yards and 32 touchdowns in three seasons (1,816 of those came in 2013 alone, which surpassed an Auburn record held by Bo Jackson), his fledgling career as a Los Angeles Ram after two serviceable NFL seasons, all of it. Mason is technically still a Ram, on the team’s reserve/did not report list. But, forget that.

This is a 23-year-old young man with a life ahead of him, as long as he remains here to live it. And as of right now, that is the headlining question—will Mason make it out of this mess, and if he does, will his mental and emotional state be healthy enough to live a productive life on or off of a football field?

On the morning of September 12, ESPN Rams reporter Alden Gonzalez appeared on SportsCenter Coast to Coast with anchor Cari Champion. He ended their on-air conversation about Mason with this: “I’m not sure that anybody truly knows what happened with Tre Mason.”