Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Tyrann Mathieu has found many inspirations in life.
He’s drawn inspiration from his upbringing in the Fifth Ward of New Orleans. He’s been inspired by players like Patrick Peterson who mentored him when they were teammates at LSU and on the Arizona Cardinals. One of Mathieu’s top inspirations is the subject of a new ESPN documentary.
Iconic martial artist Bruce Lee is someone who has long inspired Mathieu, specifically in his mentality and preparation. Mathieu even has a tattoo of Lee, along with Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X on his leg. He spoke about that tattoo ahead of the 2019 season.
“I think Bruce Lee — I feel like he always knew his opponents,” Mathieu told GQ Sports in September. “I think that’s the most critical thing to not only understand myself and my game but to understand who I was going against.”
The upcoming documentary is titled “Be Water” and is directed by Bao Nguyen. It offers an unseen look, chronicling the trailblazing career and life of Lee as told by archival film, Lee’s writing and collaborators.
Mathieu was recently asked to give a few words on what Lee meant to him in a trailer for “Be Water” which he shared on his Twitter page.
“Be Water”, the latest 30 for 30 film directed by Bao Nguyen, premieres Sunday 6/7 at 9pm ET on ESPN and will be available to stream on ESPN+ following the debut pic.twitter.com/xjQg1BhA31
— Tyrann Mathieu (@Mathieu_Era) June 7, 2020
“The ability to conquer the mind and to understand our weaknesses,” Mathieu said of Lee in the trailer.
These are all things that Mathieu has been able to take from Lee and his martial arts and apply to his own career as an NFL player. It seems quite unique to see a martial artist and film star having such an impact on a professional athlete.
Here’s a description of “Be Water” from ESPN’s press release on the film:
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland, Hong Kong. Over the next two years, he’d complete four iconic films that would define his legacy, a legacy cut short when he died, stunningly, in the summer of 1973. He was 32 years old.
“Be Water” is a gripping, fascinating, intimate look at not just those final, defining years of Lee’s life, but the complex, often difficult, and seismic journey that led to Lee’s ultimate emergence as a singular icon in the histories of film, martial arts, and even the connection between the eastern and western worlds.
The film chronicles Lee’s earliest days, as the son of a Chinese opera star born while his father was on tour in San Francisco, and then raised in Hong Kong over what became an at times troubled childhood. Sent to live in America at the age of 18, he began teaching Kung Fu in Seattle, and established a following that included his future wife, Linda. His ambition ever rising, Lee eventually made his way to Los Angeles, where he strove to break into American film and television. There, despite some success as a fight choreographer and actor, it was clear Hollywood wasn’t ready for an Asian leading man – and so he returned to Hong Kong to make the films that would in fact make him a legend, his international star skyrocketing just as his life was cut short.
“Be Water” is told entirely by the family, friends, and collaborators who knew Bruce Lee best, with an extraordinary trove of archive film providing an evocative, immersive visual tapestry that captures Lee’s charisma, his passion, his philosophy, and the eternal beauty and wonder of his art.
You can watch “Be Water” on Sunday, June 7 at 8:00 p.m. CT on ESPN.
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