NEW ORLEANS – We’ve all been there, navigating a shopping mall with an express objective in mind and not wanting to be re-routed on a side quest. Or even leisurely strolling through one – while armed with ironclad knowledge that there are certain places one just has no intention or interest in setting foot into no matter how insistent the salesperson at a given establishment’s threshold is.
(Yet there I was Monday, trying to score a belt on the banks of the Mississippi River at New Orleans’ Riverwalk Outlets … before finding myself ushered into a Lavelier store by a very kind woman, simply doing her job, but completely adamant that her skin care products could do wonders around my eyes – while dually sure myself that my eyes are pretty much just fine and/or that nothing is going to reverse the aging process we’re all subject to.)
It was a benign enough encounter, one I had to extricate myself from by claiming I was late to meet a colleague for lunch as she tried to sit me in a makeup chair, yet one I would have already flushed from the memory banks.
Until I was reminded Tuesday that NFL players – even outsized ones from faraway lands who are about to play in the Super Bowl – well, they’re just like us.
So there I was, parked at the podium of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jordan Mailata as he answered questions about the upcoming game … and whatever else. If you don’t know anything about him, he’s gargantuan – even by NFL standards – listed at 6-8, 365 pounds. He’s also arguably become the league’s best left tackle – which is all the more notable as Mailata, 27, is a native Australian who’s only been playing football for seven years after making the transition from professional rugby and going through the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program.
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Remarkable an accomplishment as that is, what’s perhaps even more compelling about Mailata, who’s also emerged (seriously) as a talented musician and singer, is his personality – which includes a willingness to patiently answer questions with intentional responses, which are frequently interspersed with his sharp sense of humor and some left-hand turns. He can even be a bit of a storyteller.
Take that time in New Orleans, where he was also blitzed at the Riverwalk Outlets.
“I’ve done a couple walkabouts,” said Mailata, using a signature Aussie term, when asked what he’d had a chance to do in the Big Easy when taking a break from preparing for the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Got trapped in the Lavelier store. … I was trapped there for about half an hour. They were trying to sell me on a couple products, and I didn’t have it in me to just get up and walk out.”
The thought of Mailata patiently listening to those sales pitches – for 30 minutes – while being shoehorned into one of those chairs. It’s simultaneously humorous and admirable. However he also ultimately used his stomach as a means to escape.
“Just kinda told the lady, ‘I’m late for dinner, about five (more) minutes, that’s all you’ve got,” Mailata said.
“She was kind enough to let me leave.”
Just don’t expect Mailata to pay that forward to Chris Jones and Co. on Sunday night.
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