Sports Illustrated - USA (2022-05)

partner; that fall, a stronger, bigger Thibodeaux netted

nine sacks and won Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year.

Over three seasons, Thibodeaux collected 19 sacks and

35 ∏ tackles for loss, despite losing critical weeks to a pan-

demic and injuries. Cristobal cites Thibodeaux’s last four

college games as his best stretch, with Oregon fighting for

postseason position. In that month alone, he registered three

sacks and wrecked offenses by demolishing double teams

and, if it must be emphasized, playing with maximum effort.

Cristobal cannot remember when he first heard others

criticize Thibodeaux’s desire and habits. Only that they

did, and someone else did, and notions that make little

sense to him started to gain traction. “Every year someone

is subjected to it,” he says, pointing to recent examples

from his Oregon program, which he departed after last

season for Miami. Like

Herbert, who overcame

draft doubts to become

one of the NFL’s best young

QBs; and Penei Sewell, an

offensive lineman who had

a promising rookie year

in Detroit. “I don’t know

who these ‘experts’ are,”

Cristobal says. “I have made

it clear how exceptional

those guys were. KT can be

as good as those guys.”

Cristobal starts build-

ing out his argument. How

would Thibodeaux have

maintained his speed while

growing from 213 pounds to 250 without desire? How would

he have maintained his dominance in 2021 while playing

the season’s first month on a badly sprained left ankle?

Hadn’t he returned before he fully recovered, because he

wanted to win?

Thibodeaux made All Pac-12 first team, twice; earned

MVP honors in the conference title game as a sophomore

(with 12 quarterback pressures!); and won a Rose Bowl. But

somewhere along that route, in the past month or two, he

also lost control of his own story. Cristobal could say what

Thibodeaux will conf irm only when pressed, that the ankle

injury bothered him far more than the public knew.

The coach wonders: Where’s the context? The nuance?

Or, more simply, a single phone call?

THERE’S A MIX of celebrity, scrutiny and endless fasci-

nation fueled by social media that Thibodeaux must navi-

gate. Speak too much, and you’re all about yourself. Speak

too little, and you’re the star with nothing to say. Focus on a

sport and hear how you lack other interests. Focus on a life,

sport included, and you’re not focused enough. It’s easy to see

why athletes like Thibodeaux wonder whether they can win.

Collins believes strangers mistake Thibodeaux’s pas-

sion for arrogance. But as Thibodeaux steers the Mercedes

toward his agent’s office, Klutch Sports in Beverly Hills, he

pivots from that notion. He believes the environment is what

changed the takeaway. Where much smaller classmates dealt

with his size—presence, he calls it—in “a controlled setting,”

there’s little he can control in the modern incubator of NFL

draft analysis. Other students could get to know him. Those

who doubt his NFL bona fides never will.

He, Kayvon Thibodeaux, would like them to understand

a few things. 1) That he operates from a “place of conscious-

ness,” every action performed with methodical intent. He’s

the type of person who creates a 38-page PowerPoint

presentation when asking Gaines to be his business man-

ager; 2) that he worked his ass off, even if others now debate

whether he cares; 3) he does care, more than any one of

those critics would know; and 4) but he doesn’t care about

their opinions.

“Everyone fears the unknown, what they don’t under-

stand,” he says. “Once people get to know me, they’ll see

what I stand for, what I had to sacrifice. They’ll realize why

I was meant to be in this position.”

He’s rolling, in the Mercedes and in spirit. “I had already

been that person,” he says. “Before people thought I was

that person. It’s like Jay-Z says. I’ve been a boss before you

knew about it.”

Thibodeaux is only 21. His story is probably on Chapter 4

or Chapter 5. But he’s not just telling a story; he’s learn-

ing how to tell it. Asked how his life should, ultimately,

be framed, Thibodeaux says it should be “frameless” but

centered on his legacy. That story, concerns and all, is still

in the rough draft stage. But he can see it taking shape, and

what he wants will be what drives him.

DRAFT PREVIEW

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44 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

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“Once people get to know
me, they’ll see what I
stand for,” Thibodeaux says.
“They’ll realize
WHY I WAS
MEANT TO
BE IN THIS
POSITION.”