by Bo Marchionte

Twitter @BoMarchionte

The journey of any undrafted player that finally makes it on the NFL stage is always a celebrated moment. It is why we all feel such admiration for a guy like Kurt Warner who was stocking grocery shelves before becoming a Hall of Fame quarterback and Super Bowl champion.

Warner spent time on the Green Bay Packers practice squad before stops in both the Arena Football League and NFL Europe, all before he ever took a single snap in a regular season NFL game.

Sunday, another player was following a similar path like Warner and achieved a personal milestone. A task regarded as the bare essential for any defensive player – He made a tackle. Although when you are undrafted the fight to gets live reps is unheralded.

A single tackle can be the springboard to unleashing a bounty of opportunities.

That was the case in Dallas, as Steelers Henry Mondeaux (pronounced mon-dew), made his first tackle in an NFL game. The casual fan would have thought nothing of the play even though it drew a favorable review from Fox announcer Jim Nantz.

“What a play,” Nantz said during the telecast as Mondeaux came off the block to make a tackle for loss on Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. Forcing a critical third and seven with just five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“Great job,” Tony Romo said another undrafted player who knows the hardship of being the last horse at the trough, in the world of the National Football League.

As both Nantz and Romo struggled to come up with right pronunciation of his last name, Mondeaux finally reached one of the pinnacles of his career by wrapping his arms around Pollard and bringing him to the ground behind the line of scrimmage.  

Mondeaux earned the Tough Man Award at Oregon, in 2017, his final season with the Ducks. The season before that he was the recipient of the team’s Most Outstanding Defensive Lineman, but when the 2018 NFL Draft arrived, he never heard his name called.

Relegated to the practice squad since 2018, with stops in New Orleans and Kansas City, Mondeaux finally was upgraded to the active roster this October (23rd). When you begin to learn about the process of being in this situation it is a whirlwind of highs and lows. The everyday unknown becomes the normalcy for plenty of players around the league.

“It sucks man,” Xavier Grimble said former Steelers tight end and undrafted out USC. “Just imagine having to break (apartment) leases. Move stuff. Have movers coming in all the time. Rental cars and getting to try to get everything back when you have been flying cross country to different teams to workout. It’s tough.”

Grimble faced the same challenges Mondeaux is currently experiencing as he tries to prove he is more than a practice squad participant.

“It’s a roller coaster,” Grimble said while with the Steelers last season. “Especially getting signed and cut again. Man, I kind of feel it has shaped me as a man and human being, my character.”

Gimble has bounced back and forth between the active roster and practice since 2014. Currently on the practice squad in Baltimore, Gimble has been with seven different teams in as many seasons in the National Football League.

Mondeaux has been on three different teams since 2018.

That is why when Mondeaux made the tackle for loss against the Cowboys it coincided with the trials and tribulations he has endured since 2014. A game of Russian roulette where being signed or unsigned is as common as a cup of hot coffee in the morning.

“After every game I call my girlfriend and call my parents,” Mondeaux said. “Their all proud of me.”

Family, friends, and former coaches saw the person they know and love. For those closest to Mondeaux a celebration of a lifetime commitment to football reached a climax with that tackle in Dallas.

Steelers fans saw that number 99 and had to immediately think of that long-bearded legend Brett Keisel (I know I did) who fortified the defensive tackle position for 13-years in Pittsburgh.

Mondeaux sports his own unique style. While the beard is not as epic as Keisel, he has those long flowing locks of hair fighting out of his helmet for exposure.

“I’ve always kind of had my hair long,” Mondeaux said. “Kind of became part of who I am. Its easy for parents to see me when I’m playing cause I’m the guy with the long hair.”

It might become easier for his parent to see him if he keeps earning reps and making plays. He had several opportunities to pad his stats if you will be those plays eluded him but remain intrenched in his mind.

“There are a couple plays I left on the field,” Mondeaux said. “I know I missed a sack. Those ones kind of haunt me.”

You can’t bust your ass for three years without that focus to keep reaching higher and higher. That is the mindset of a grinder. 

A brief celebratory pat on the back for his first tackle, but the sack that eluded him, ‘haunts’ him.

A single tackle that has taken a lifetime to achieve.

Now let’s see if Mondeaux has a dance prepared after he registers his first sack.