Grant Mattos

Grant Logan Mattos (born March 12, 1981) is known as a former NFL wide receiver and special teams player who played for three different teams over a four-year career, and a contestant on Survivor: Redemption Island.

High school and college career

Grant went to Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California. He then played college football at the University of Southern California after transferring from Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California and graduated in 2003.^[2] In 2003 he was part of the teams Orange Bowl Triumph. During his time at USC he received high praise from teammate Carson Palmer, a future NFL star QB who said of Grant: "Having a guy like Grant Mattos come in has been great, he's really gonna set the tone for the receivers. He's out there working harder than anyone on this team and he'll catch any ball, his hands are unbelievable. He's big and physical too so we can put him at tight end or receiver and he's strong enough to do both. It's gonna be exciting to see what he does this year. His story of how he got here is amazing, I'm not surprised at all that Coach Chow went out and found some guy from some place and brought him in with a chance to start"^[3] "He has awesome hands and he doesn't drop anything. He's a lot like (ex-USC receiver) Matt Nickels. Only he has more potential. He's bigger and stronger and capable of more." ^[4]

NFL career

After college, Grant played for the San Diego Chargers.^[5] He would earn a spot on the Chargers roster in 2003 with his impressive performances in training camp, despite having not even been initially recruited by a major college.^[6] He would last two years with the Chargers, and four years in the League overall, also being signed by the Denver Broncos, and later the Tennessee Titans. Knee problems would limit his effectiveness and chances of game action in later years.^[7][8]

Survivor

Mattos appeared on Survivor: Redemption Island, the 22nd season of the reality TV show Survivor. On the Ometepe tribe, Mattos quickly formed a close friendship and strong alliance with eventual winner Rob Mariano. He would be part of the majority alliance of 6 formed early with Rob Mariano, Ashley Underwood, Matthew Elrod/Wyatt Nash, Andrea Boehlke, and Natalie Tenerelli; with Phillip Sheppard then replacing Elrod in the alliance of 6 after Elrod's Day 5 blindside. This alliance became commonly known as both the "Ometepe 6" and also as "Stealth R Us", a term coined by the eccentric Sheppard. Mattos also established himself as perhaps the physically strongest person in the game, dominating many of the pre merge challenges to help Ometepe hit the merge with the numbers advantage over the opposing Zapatera tribe. When the tribes merged, the former Ometepe members used their majority to systematically eliminate those outside their alliance. Mattos was nearly voted out in the first tribal after the merge, but survived 6 votes to 5 against Elrod, fooling Elrod to vote for proposed target Steve Wright.^[9] On Day 35 after intended target Underwood won the Immunity/Reward Challenge, Mattos was blindsided and voted out, as he was deemed by Mariano and the other tribe mates to be the largest threat of all the games remaining players to win the jury's vote at the end. Mariano would be the deciding vote to eliminate Mattos, electing to vote him out instead of Tenerelli, another close ally, but one considered far less of a jury or immunity challenge threat.^[10] Mattos was then officially eliminated by coming last in the final Redemption Island duel, behind all of Boehlke, Chiesl, and Elrod, dropping his final finish in the game down to 8th. This would be controversial to many observers, who felt it an injustice Grant would have dropped all the way from 5th to 8th due to the newly incorporated Redemption Island, a controversial and largely unpopular twist which would be nonetheless brought back for a couple of future seasons. Mattos was very bitter and upset by Rob's choice to vote him out, to the point where he has refused to make amends with Rob, even after the game ended.^[11][12] According to a December 2015 interview with fellow castaway Tenerelli, Mattos and Mariano are still not talking to this day due to Mariano's choice of voting Mattos out so close to the end instead of her or Sheppard. ^[13] According to fellow alliance members such as Underwood or Boehlke, Mattos would have beaten anyone other than acknowledged Zapatera tribe leader Mike Chiesl or perhaps Elrod in a final jury vote had he reached the end, and would have easily defeated any of the members of the "Ometepe 6" or "Stealth R Us" alliance, imparticular Mariano.

Mattos holds the distinction of having dropped the most places in Survivor history through the Redemption Island twist (5th to 8th). A new twist added this season, which was used on and off as an experiment, through Survivor seasons 22 to 27, before being dropped for good due to its general lack of success and impact on the game. He also holds the record for having officialy finished below someone initially voted out a whole 30 days before them (Elrod, the 7th place finisher), by far the highest in Survivor history. Although 2 other former major league professional athletes- Tyler Fredrickson and Gary Hogeboom (ironically each also ex NFL players), hold a slightly higher finish official finish of 7th, Grant holds the record for the most days played among them lasting 35 days, and having been closest to reaching the Final Tribal Council by being 3 tribal councils and 4 days away.

Personal life

During the Survivor: Redemption Island reunion, Grant confirmed that following his return from competing in the game, he married actress Christina Cox. They were married by eloping. The date of their elopment and marriage was October 1, 2010, only about a week after returning from the airing of that seasons Survivor. ^[14] They now have one daughter named Flynn, born on December 30, 2013.

Before and in the years after Survivor, Grant worked as full-time yoga instructor at City Yoga LA.^[15][16] He then became a yoga instructor at Moda Yoga International in Los Angeles, California from mid 2013 onwards,^[17] until late April 2015, when he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He moved to New York City in September 2015 and works at Moda Yoga NYC.^[18] Grant no longer works at Moda Yoga NYC, having not taught any classes there since late October 2016.

He also joined Team Gleason,^[19] a team that is headed by his friend and ex NFL player and ALS sufferer Steve Gleason. In February and March he ran a fundraising campaign for the Steve Gleason team, which was one of many efforts by various team members to raise awareness and money to help research for the ALS disease, and also medical care for the many who suffer with it.^[20] As the climax of the campaign Grant participated in the 10 km fundraising run in New Orleans on March 26, 2016. ^[21][22] He was the 2nd highest fundraiser of the large team, raising $1750, and the team collectively went well beyond their $20,000 goal by raising more than $66,000. ^[23]

He has 3 siblings.^[24][25][26] An older brother Derek, younger brother Zac, and older sister Adrienne. Adrienne was an ex All American swimming star, who came close to qualifying to the Olympics.

References

External links

• Grant Mattos at NFL.com
• Grant Mattos at TSN
• Grant Mattos biography for Survivor: Redemption Island at CBS.com

See also

• Survivor: Redemption Island