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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals and All-Pro defensive back Tyrann Mathieu have agreed to a five-year contract extension, a rich reward for a player once considered a high-risk draftee.A person with knowledge of the agreement says the contract totals $62.5 million, with $40 million guaranteed. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the terms were not revealed.The agreement, announced by the team on Tuesday night, comes despite major injuries to both of Mathieus knees in his first three NFL seasons. He has yet to play a full NFL season.Mathieu, known as the Honey Badger to his multitude of fans, sent a tweet earlier Tuesday that said simply, blessed.The agreement is further evidence of his remarkable rise after being out of football for a season following his dismissal from LSU for marijuana-related offenses.Mathieu was considered a risk when the Cardinals chose him in the third round (69th overall) in the 2013 draft, but he quickly developed into one of the teams top players and evolved into a vocal leader with no off-field issues.Mathieus first contract had $800,000 guaranteed with a multitude of drug tests, but much of the money was spread over four seasons because of concerns about his earlier problems.The new contract would be the largest for a safety in NFL history. Although he is listed as a safety and earned All-Pro honors at that position, Mathieu had more plays at cornerback last season. Basically, hes a do-everything defensive back.It was unclear whether the contract had contingencies if Mathieu suffers further serious injuries. The guarantee may be unprecedented for a young player who had undergone two knee surgeries in such a short period of time.Mathieu tore his left ACL and LCL on a brutal hit against St. Louis in December of his rookie season and tore his right ACL in a non-contact injury following an interception late in a one-sided victory at Philadelphia last Dec. 20. The Cardinals defense was noticeably less effective after losing Mathieu, who brings an emotional edge to his game as well as his considerable physical skills and instincts.Coach Bruce Arians voice cracked with emotion when he revealed to reporters the extent of Mathieus injury the day after the Eagles game.When Mathieu returned in his second season, he had difficulty adjusting to playing with a knee brace.The second injury was far less serious, but Mathieu opened training camp last week on the physically unable to perform list.Mathieu was to receive a base salary of $1.4 million this season. The $265,000 roster bonus that was part of his rookie deal was spread over four years.He has become one of the most charismatic and accessible players on the team. His spirited approach to the game was prominently on display in the All or Nothing video series by NFL Films on Amazon.com that documented Arizonas 2015 season.A dynamic defensive back at LSU, Mathieu was a Heisman Trophy finalist as a sophomore in the 2011 season, the first defensive back so honored since Charles Woodson won the award in 1997. But he was dismissed from his college team in August 2012 and was arrested on marijuana-related charges that December.He came to the NFL under that cloud of suspicion but readily talked about his problems and peppered his many tweets with inspirational thoughts and sayings.Mathieu also became a voice for social justice, decrying the violence in his hometown of New Orleans.Several of his Arizona teammates exulted in news of the contract.When I say my boy his own money, defensive lineman Calais Campbell said on Twitter, I mean the boy has his own MONEY.All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson, a teammate of Mathieu at LSU who took the player under his wing with the Cardinals, said in a tweet, Man Im soo happy for my baby brother (at)Mathieu-Era he deserves every penny!!!---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL Custom Cubs Jerseys . -- Quarterback Will Finch threw for 252 yards and three touchdowns, and Yannick Harou rushed in two scores as the No. Lou Brock Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. http://www.customcubsjersey.com/custom-carlos-zambrano-jersey-large-400n.html . 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LOS ANGELES -- As roughly 21,000 fans gathered at Staples Center in Los Angeles for the League of Legends World Championship, two of the countrys most well-known media influencers and businessmen, Peter Guber and Bruce Stein, sat in the Los Angeles Lakers suite in the arena.Guber and Stein are former executives at Sony Entertainment, and Guber is a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles FC. Their time at the League of Legends World Championship affirmed what they believed to be true when their ownership group purchased one of the most popular esports teams in the United States, Team Liquid, several months ago.Guber says there were two reasons his new esports ownership group, aXiomatic, invested in the bourgeoning esports industry.One, Im attracted by the sport itself, which is a digital play, millennial play, its an over-the-top play in a sense, Guber told ESPN on Saturday night. Its an engagement that can be at home. You get the chance to get very close to the players, which is not as easy in other sports. You can participate in the sport easily; some of the games are very complicated -- like, wow -- but you can participate in it. You can follow the sport in a way thats unique and unique to that audience.According to research company Newzoo, esports has over 148 million fans, with an additional 144 million occasional viewers. Furthermore, within the United States, of the 20 million people who are esports fans, six million do not watch other traditional sports. Gubers second reason for investing comes from these demographics and similar numbers that he believes makes this investment worthwhile.I saw the psychographics and demographics of the audience, and Bruce and I talked about that; the idea that it isnt a fad, the median age keeps getting older, older and older as it goes through it and the bottom is also growing too, Guber said. So you get both things growing -- the tail and the head grows. Its a tsunami, it has that effect. Its an influencer, too -- it influences product, it influences sponsors, it influences behavior. It has all the components that makes it a viral activity.Talk of Gubers investment in the space began in early 2016 as he and his associates discussed a potential purchase of Team Liquid. The deal was finalized in late September, a day after the Philadelphia 76ers announced they had purchased Team Dignitas and Apex Gaming.The seeds of both deals, and perhaps other NBA interest in esports, were planted after a late-2015 NBA Board of Governors meeting, which featured a presentation on the growth of esports. Guber, for his part, says esports was already on his radar before that presentation.Really, it just drew out of my experience of being around Sony and running Sony and part of my experience of way back, he said, being an amateur radio operator and building my own rigs. [It] came out of my experience of recognizing that Im in the audience business. When you own the Dick Clark company with all of the attractions, when you own sports teams, big sports teams, and sports media companies, youre in the entertainment business.Youre engaging audiences. Thats what your job is, to engage audiences, and when you see an audience that is engaged as this, its magnetic, its exciting and you want to try and be a part of it.While Guber did not say exactly why his deal with Liquid took the better part of a year to complete, he did say that he and his associates felt it was best to take it slow before moving into the esports officially.Bruce and I have a view: You can put all the ingredients together and if you take it out of the oven too soon, its chocolate pudding, he said. If you leave it in the oven enough, you get a soufflé. Were in the soufflé business.Out of multiple options possiblle, Guber and Stein both say Liquid was the obvious option for a number of reasons: brand authenticity, popularity and the willingness of the organization to think outside the box with the deal to be purchased.ddddddddddddThe [Team Liquid] brand was incredibly strong with gamers who view authenticity as valuable, Stein said. Its a very valuable and authentic brand.Two, management: [Liquid co-CEOs] Steve [Arhancet] and Victor [Goossens] were really important to this. When you have short-term player contracts as a sport, it has in almost every game, you have to have a very responsive group that can deal with the changes. Steve and Victor were the two people who stuck out to us as partners that we could be invested with both in time, energy and resources over the long haul.Guber and Steins group has chosen to retain Arhancet, formerly of the Curse Gaming esports team which merged with Team Liquid in late 2014, and ?Goossens, the original founder of the Team Liquid StarCraft clan in 2000. The 76ers instead moved the Team Dignitas and Apex Gaming founding members, Michael ODEE ODell and Michael Slan, to operations manager positions.When asked why aXiomatic decided to keep Goossens and Arhancet in their current positions, Guber laughed.Seventy-sixers, Warriors, 76ers, Warriors, Guber joked, in reference to Golden States rising success in recent seasons. You do the math.Steve and Victor are progamers at heart, Stein said. If we lost a drop of the authenticity, there would be brand diminishment. Our intention is to keep every bit of the authenticity and add best practices from other areas. I think we want to take what Steve and Victor have done, acknowledge the dynamic that has changed in the business [money and other management], and add an ownership group from NextVR, Dick Clark Enterprises, every sort of imaginable traditional business and bring those practices to the sport. Thats what we add.As far as team management, players and constructing it, were advisers and partners of Steve and Victor, but thats what we think of it, and were following their lead in that regard.Joining Stein and Guber in their endeavor is Ted Leonsis, former AOL CEO and current owner of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals?and the Verizon Center; and Hall of Fame point guard Earvin Magic Johnson.[Ted is] a leader in digital technologies and software, he owns the Washington Capitals and the Wizards and a whole bunch of other sports teams, too. Hes just giant and over the top, Guber said. Hes an unbelievable leader with resources, hes a major participant and player, a full owner and partner in this, and his leadership, strengths and talent is going to be fundamental to us being successful.Moving forward, Guber says aXiomatic isnt just interested in owning an esports team. Guber compares his ambitions to that of what he has done with the Warriors since the purchase by him and majority owner Joe Lacob in 2010. Since the purchase, the team won a NBA championship in 2015 and is planning to open a new stadium in San Francisco by the 2018-19 season.I would say that [aXiomatic] should become a platform for the elements that are center and surround [esports], whether its engagement of venues, merchandise, peripherals or products that support the teams, Guber said. This a multifaceted enterprise, this sport is a multifaceted enterprise.If youre in baseball, youre in -- bam -- youre in venue management, youre in hospitality, youre in fan management, memorabilia, youre in a lot of other elements that depend on the success of the sport and the success of your team. We expect to grow [our new] business horizontally as well as vertically. ' ' '