He is 235 pounds of trouble and he is coming for Tom Brady.
Robert Mathis has one Super Bowl ring and hungers for a second, and the only way to get it is to get to Brady so Andrew Luck is the best quarterback on the field Saturday night.
“You have to make sure he’s uncomfortable, you have to make it a long day for Tom Brady,” Mathis told The Post by phone. “If not, he’s going to kill you.”
Mathis, who is like a fine wine at one month shy of 33, has taken his game to another level in his new role as a rush linebacker. His league-high 19¹/₂ sacks has many banging the drums for his Defensive Player of the Year candidacy. He would have made Deacon Jones, one of his idols, proud.
“He approached the game with reckless abandon,” Mathis said. “When he came off the ball, you knew he hated quarterbacks.”
I asked Mathis (111 career sacks) if he hated quarterbacks.
He chuckled and said: “I hate quarterbacks — except my own.”
I said, “But quarterbacks are nice people.”
“Whatever. … That’s the enemy — except Andrew Luck, No. 12. He’s the only one I like,” Mathis said.
Mathis has sacked Brady five times and understands Brady will be quite aware of his presence.
“But I don’t think it’s going to affect him,” Mathis said. “He goes about his business better than anybody I’ve seen. He’s a student of the game. He doesn’t leave any stone unturned. He has the blueprint.”
Mathis has made a career of having the black-and-blueprint, even as an undersized defensive end opposite former longtime bookend Dwight Freeney. It helps having the heart of a lion.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” Mathis said.
On his stomach is a tattoo “It Can’t Be Done,” the title of an Edgar Guest poem introduced to him seven years ago by members of his Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Alabama A&M.
“I can apply it to every facet of my life,” Mathis said.
He is living proof that it can be done. He has wrecked many a game with his signature strip sack.
“You just work on it every day in practice,” Mathis said. “You do it often enough, you get it down. Derrick Thomas was a guy I watched growing up. He created that tomahawk sack.”
I ask Mathis if he has a favorite quarterback to sack.
“A quarterback,” he says.
I ask him what it’s like sacking Tom Brady.
“Because he’s so hard to get to, it’s a pleasure in itself,” Mathis said. “At the same time, just to get any quarterback is satisfying.”
“Who are the quarterbacks you haven’t sacked that you want to sack?”
“I don’t discriminate,” Mathis said. “It’s so hard, if you’re able to get any one of them, whether it’s the second-or third-team quarterback, you’ll take it.”
A young, long-armed Nate Solder will be standing between Mathis and Brady.
“He’s a good, young tackle,” Mathis said. “He’s good against speed and power. You got your work cut out for you.”
So does Solder. Because Mathis will keep coming the way Lawrence Taylor would keep coming, the way Smoking Joe Frazier would keep coming. Like Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather, Mathis is adept at finding a way to win in the heat of battle.
“The way you go into the game is not necessarily the way you’re going to end the game,” Mathis said. “Everybody makes adjustments and changes throughout the game. The older you get, the more you’re able to do that.”
Mathis is fifth among active sack artists, behind just John Abraham, Jared Allen, Julius Peppers and DeMarcus Ware.
“All of those guys are relentless,” Mathis said. “They bring their own special twist to the game. I like to keep my motor running and just keep going.”
Mathis has an appreciation for undersized competitors in other sports.
“I really do, because you’re the underdog, people don’t expect a lot from you,” he said. “When you’re able to prove people wrong, it’s a feel-good story.”
For Mathis, boy, did winning that Super Bowl over the Bears in Miami feel good.
“Top of the world, just knowing you’re the best,” Mathis said.
The feeling is seven years old now, and Mathis want to reach the pinnacle again.
“Oh, you miss it dearly,” he said. “It makes you hungry to do it again. You don’t get complacent. You want to do it again.”
Several years back, Mathis showed his Colts teammates his Super Bowl XLI ring. Will he now?
“I’m still debating,” he said.
Why is that?
“We got put out in the first round, so I’m hesitant,” Mathis said.
He won’t be hesitant Saturday night when Tom Brady is in his crosshairs.