Joshua Pullen is a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. He is working in the Public Relations Lab with the Sun Devil Athletics team and will graduate in the spring of 2023.
Former Arizona State University football player Kenny Mitchell is a down-to-earth person who handles himself with tremendous class and humility. The longtime law enforcement officer has achieved many things throughout his life. From being one of the leaders of the famed ‘96-’97 ASU football team to making sergeant at the Phoenix Police Department, Mitchell is a role model in his community.
Mitchell attended Arizona State from 1995 through 1998, graduating with a degree in integrated arts education and family studies. During his tenure at ASU, Mitchell played wide receiver and was an integral part of Bruce Snyder’s Sun Devil offense alongside quarterback Jake Plummer.
After graduating, Mitchell signed as an undrafted free agent with the Washington Redskins but injuries got in the way of fulfilling his NFL dream. Mitchell came back to Arizona wanting to become a fighter pilot, but after a mixup with paperwork, he found a different calling instead.
“I originally applied for the Air Force,” Mitchell said. “The guy handling my paperwork kind of screwed up and at the same time I took the police officer’s test as a backup plan. My dad was a cop, my uncle was a cop, my grandfather was a cop, so cop just ran in the family.”
#BeforeTheBadge, Sergeant Kenny Mitchell was a star wide receiver for @ASUFootball🏈
— Phoenix Police (@PhoenixPolice) February 14, 2022
Mitchell went on to spend time in the @NFL, XFL and @OfficialAFL before he found his true calling with #PhoenixPolice! 🚔 pic.twitter.com/oyJPFXDf1v
Although policing might not have been Mitchell’s first career choice, after 18 years on the force, he understands the significance of what his job entails.
“As an officer, you meet everybody on their worst days,” Mitchell said. “I think of success as getting the worst of the worst off the street. It’s giving that family a little bit of justice, becoming that extra bit of security. You have to be ready to do something you necessarily don’t want to do.”
At the department, Mitchell, 44, has the opportunity to work “hands on” with his officers in efforts to guide them in the right direction.
“I teach [my officers] some of the things I’ve learned over the past 18 years,” Mitchell said. “I’m trying my best to share my wisdom with them, a passing of the torch if you will.”
I think of success as getting the worst of the worst off the street. It’s giving that family a little bit of justice, becoming that extra bit of security. You have to be ready to do something you necessarily don’t want to do.
On weekends Mitchell stays quite busy spending time with his newlywed wife and 15-year-old daughter, citing that he’d most likely be at his daughter’s volleyball game.
It might have been long ago that Mitchell traded in his pads for a badge; however, that does not stop Mitchell from reflecting back on the 1996 Pac-10 Champions.
I couldn’t tell you what the news was saying [about the team] that year,” Mitchell said. “I look back at ESPN classic or Pac-12 classic and I’m like wow, we were really that good. We wouldn’t have known that we were that good at the time because we didn’t care. We just went out and played football one game at a time.”
"I teach [my officers] some of the things I’ve learned over the past 18 years. I’m trying my best to share my wisdom with them, a passing of the torch if you will.
While Mitchell might not necessarily remember how well the team played, if you ask him, it felt like just yesterday he was singing Deep In The Heart Of Texas with his fellow Sun Devils.
“During warm-ups what we would do is he would yell ‘the stars at night are big and bright’ and the whole team, while stretching, will clap and I'd yell out ‘deep in the heart of Texas’,” Mitchell sang.
The “he” Mitchell is referring to is 10-year NFL veteran, Jake Plummer, but at this time was the lead singer and quarterback of the ASU Football team.
After graduating, Mitchell and Plummer would go their separate ways but reconnect at a team tailgate 15 years later. Seeing Plummer all those years later, Mitchell was prompted to remember their special handshake after the quarterback jokingly reminded him.
“Jake was like ‘come on Warbird, don’t tell me you forgot our handshake,’” Mitchell exclaimed. “So I was like ‘let's do it again.’ So we go do it again after 10 or 15 years since we last saw each other because of life and everything and that was pretty special.”
While Mitchell is a sergeant, he will always be referred to as Warbird by his former teammates and officers. The nickname came from one of Mitchell’s designed plates called I-Right Warbird Right
In the play, Mitchell would line up on the left side as a tight end. Once the ball is snapped he would pull off the line and take the handoff from Plummer, following his left guard to the right. The play was only run once.
“So we ran it,” Mitchell said. “I get the handoff from Jake and I am miles ahead of my guard like I am gone. He is nowhere to be found, I beat him to the other side and I am in open space with no lead blocker.”
Now all alone, Mitchell sees two linebackers coming his way. He cuts back towards the middle of the field and at the same time his left guard catches up and knocks down both defenders in one block. Mitchell then cuts back to the outside and gets tackled.
“We got one yard on the play, it was a first down which was good but one yard,” Mitchell said. “We would end up scoring on the drive but only one yard on I-Right Warbird Right. The rest of the year we never ran the play again.”
Recalling back, Mitchell said the team was always up to something crazy. He remembered when another former teammate, Keith Poole, saw a commercial and would sing the jingle during practice.
Jake was like ‘come on Warbird, don’t tell me you forgot our handshake.' So I was like ‘let's do it again.’ So we go do it again after 10 or 15 years since we last saw each other because of life and everything and that was pretty special.”
“[Keith] was watching some McDonald’s commercial or something and it would go like ‘woke up this morning’ and it was a song,” Mitchell sang. “So at practices, he would scream out ‘woke up this morning’ and the whole team would yell back ‘morning’. It was something stupid that we would do but it was our thing, it would get us into the mood to play.”
The music rehearsals didn’t stop there, Mitchell remembers one musical number that became his iconic song.
“I would sing Tainted Love and [everyone] would clap,” Mitchell laughed. “I’d go, ‘sometimes I feel I’ve got to’ and the whole team, all 60– 70 or however many of us would clap and they would yell ‘get away’, it was so crazy, the little things like that. I still get texts saying my song is on the radio to this day.”
Mitchell said it was this family-like atmosphere that overall led him to attend ASU. On his recruitment trip, he met the now late head coach Bruce Synder at his home for a seasonal Arizona barbecue.
Mitchell said he appreciated how Synder’s staff handled his recruitment process. Going to the coach's house and meeting the team “spoke volumes” about how the team chemistry would develop over the years.
“We’d always meet at coach’s house for a barbecue,” Mitchell said. “It was a family, you really felt that way once you’re there and it was the only school that I visited that made me feel that way.”
And although the No. 2 ranked Sun Devils fell, Mitchell found something special that year and the tradition of barbecuing at coach’s lives on.
“I mean to this day, we still talk,” Mitchell said. “Every year we try to get together for something like spring ball or a golf tournament, something that gets us all together and we’ll end up meeting at an old coach’s house for a barbecue…It’s still the same thing 20 some years later and that’s pretty amazing.”