Ryan Mallett Treated High School Football Player He Coached as His 'Son' Before Both of Their Deaths

"They couldn't be without each other," Shaneisha Robinson said of Mallett and her son Ben Redix, who tragically died within a month of one another

An Arkansas mother is reflecting on the relationship between her late son and former NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett, who police say died in an apparent drowning on June 27 at age 35.

Shaneisha Robinson's teenage son Ben Redix, 18, was killed in an accidental shooting on May 18, one night before his graduation from White Hall High School where he was both a track and football star, with Mallet being his head football coach.

“I think he thought Ben was his son,” Robinson told KARK-4 News, the outlet adding that Mallet told them Redix was "like my son basically" in a story done after Redix's death.

But Mallet was more than just that for Redix, his mom explained to the outlet. He was also a neighbor, who would come by to grab the occasional plate of food. And he was a motivator as well.

“Ben didn’t want to go to practice one day, and he said, ‘Mama if coach come, tell him I’m sick.’ Ryan came and knocked on the door and I said he was in his room. So, he went in the room and said, ‘Boy get up and go to practice,' " Shaneisha recalled to KARK-4.

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After Redix's death, Robinson said that the football coach would sometimes "come over here crying or I’d go over there crying." He also called the mother before he left for vacation to Florida.

It was there that Mallett reportedly drowned on a beach. He “was not breathing when pulled out,” according to a statement from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

Related: Tom Brady Mourns Death of Former Teammate Ryan Mallett: 'We Lost a Great Man'

The White Hall School District confirmed the coach's death on Facebook this week, calling him "a beloved coach and educator."

Mallett was drafted out of the University of Arkansas by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft, played for the Baltimore Ravens from 2015 through 2017.

“He said ‘Little Bit, I’m going out of town.’ He said ‘I love you’ and I said I love you too, bring me something back,” Robinson said of her last conversation with her son's coach. “He wanted me to know he was there for me even though he would be out of town."

Robinson — who spoke with Mallett about honoring her late son with a football camp named after him — compared Mallett's death to alcohol being poured on an open wound, but she's confident he and her son are together again.

“I just feel like they couldn’t be without each other,” she told KARK-4.

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