The Rams haven’t seen Tre Mason since last season, but his bigger problem is that his mother doesn’t recognize him.
After the latest of Mason’s bizarre adventures, which involved leading police on an ATV chase, his mother told Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies last month her son has “10-year-old’s mindset” as the result of head trauma related to football.
Via Jorge Milian of the Palm Beach Post, the dashcam video of the latest incident showed his mother pleading with cops, an openly questioning whether his football career is to blame.
“Tre is not himself at all,” Tina Mason said during the July 27 stop. “He’s not making good decisions.”
Of course, the bigger issue is his own well-being. Four days earlier, he was admitted to a hospital for an evaluation, after his mother called the police to her home saying he was behaving erratically. But the exchange during the ATV shows how deep the despair of his mother is.
The officer reporting to the scene pointed out to his partner that Mason should have been in training camp at that point, saying: “His career is going down the tubes.”
“No, actually he shouldn’t. … ,” Tina Mason says. “There’s CTE and this head-injury thing. You can say he should be playing football, but this is not what it is.”
She said her son’s behavior was clearly different after the 2015 season: “Clearly, we could see the change. Like, completely. . . .
“As much as he’s accomplished, as hard as he’s worked, as much as he’s built his character, in record-breaking time it’s going downhill because of what’s going on. He doesn’t even know. He’s not conscious enough.”
Of course, there’s no way to know whether there has been a diagnosed head injury which would cause Mason to behave the way he has this offseason, or whether there are other factors. But what’s obvious is those closest to him are deeply troubled by how quickly things have changed.