Crystal Ball Run with a fantastic piece on Mike Mitchell and his unique story.
What makes Mitchell even more unique is that even as he gets set to sign with one of the top college football programs in the country, it’s up for debate whether he’s even the best athlete in his own home (unless you ask Mike of course). For that matter, it’s also up for debate whether Mike is even the best football player living under the Mitchell roof.
That’s because while Mike’s play has landed him on the top of just about every recruiting service’s ranking within the last year, he spent a good chunk of his youth largely overshadowed by his younger brother Mickey, who is widely considered to be the best sophomore basketball player in the country (as well as a highly coveted football recruit as well). Not to mention that Mike’s father Ken actually played in the NFL for four years with the Atlanta Falcons, and that incredibly, the eldest Mitchell’s time in the NFL wasn’t even necessarily Ken’s own greatest athletic accomplishment. Ken played minor league ball in the California Angels organization as a teenager before he eventually walked onto the UNLV football team, where he is still in the Rebels’ record book with the third highest single season sack total in school history (11 in his senior year). Since retiring from the NFL, Ken has run Ironman triathlons and a couple years ago became the first person ever to climb Mt. Everest with a knee replacement.
