Jeremy Cluff

azcentral sports

Tyrann Mathieu's grandmother died earlier this week.

The Arizona Cardinals safety took to Twitter on Tuesday to mourn her and celebrate her life.

His grandmother, Marie Spellman Mathieu, helped raise him.

In one tweet, Mathieu said that he wears his No. 32 in honor of his grandmother.

"In essence she is my mother," Mathieu told ESPN last week. "She always kept me strong. She was always that ear I needed. When everybody else didn’t really understand me, she always did. I guess all grandmothers are like that, but to me she was more like a mother because she fed me bottles, when I cried she rocked me to sleep."

ESPN reported that Mathieu spent a day with his grandmother in New Orleans earlier this month.

Some of his tweets:

@Mathieu_Era: "I'll share a few of my greatest granny Stories throughout today...Not because you care, but because I NEED you to know who she was"

@Mathieu_Era: "I ran away often as a kid and not knowing who to run to I always found myself knocking on my granny door & she always opened it.."

@Mathieu_Era: "She use to give me and my 5-10 cousins 5 $ to go across the street to get her some luncheon meat and government cheese. She fed all us,W 5$"

@Mathieu_Era: "Grams cussed out every girl, I ever brought around her, guess she knew that they would not love me how she did and that was the standards"

@Mathieu_Era: "Granny always listened me, never judged me. She always told me the truth."

@Mathieu_Era: "All my people got evicted, my granny let them stay at her house, never asked them for a dime"

@Mathieu_Era: "That #32 I wear is for her... 2930 orleans ave. 5 th ward New Orleans 3+2=5"

@Mathieu_Era: "She always told me to LOVE my adopted parents. She never threw shade like others in my family, she was happy that I had a better life"

@Mathieu_Era: "She never had a job, drivers license or anything material..All she had was love in heart.. She raised all us, even my homies from the block"

azcentral sports' Kent Somers tweeted: "Check out @Mathieu_Era timeline on loss of his grandmother. Most of us had someone like that in our lives, I hope"

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