Will Jalen Mills get an Eagles tattoo to match the green hair? | Marcus Hayes

Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills just keeps achieving. Haunted by a 2014 arrest for battery of a woman (dropped after a pretrial diversion program), a leg injury in his senior season in college, and a slow 40-yard dash time at the NFL combine, Mills fell to the seventh round in the 2016 draft. However, he not only made the Eagles but played in all 16 games, with two starts.

The Eagles bolstered their defensive backfield in the offseason, which might have marginalized Mills, but he won a starting job and has played well, including an interception Thursday night at Carolina that helped seal an upset win and take the Eagles to 5-1. He's an adrenaline junkie who believes in guardian angels, and he's extremely expressive: A tapestry of tattoos covers his torso. He keeps his hair dyed green, and he'll talk your ear off as Marcus Hayes learned this week.

You've told this story before, but again: Why did you dye your hair as a rookie last year?
I made the decision because, coming out in the draft, I was told I could be a late first-rounder or a second-rounder. I dropped to the seventh round. The Eagles picked me. As soon as I got on the phone with [general manager Howie Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie], I told them, "You changed my life forever. You're going to get a guy who's dedicated and committed to the team."

You hear everybody in Philadelphia bleeds green. I wanted to show my respect to them and to the city of Philadelphia, so I dyed my hair green.

It took off when I dyed it. Guys started calling me the Green Goblin. It hit the fan a little bit. It was all over Twitter, all over my Instagram. I figured if the fans love it and my teammates don't mind it, I'll just change my handle to @greengoblin.

Did you see that 2002 version of "Spider-Man?"

I am very familiar with the movie. It's an instant classic. The Green Goblin was a guy who was kind of confused at first, and then he kind of found his personality, found out who he was. Once he accepted that he was a bad guy, he knew what he was going to do and just stayed that way.

You guys just beat the Cardinals. I see you have a Tyrann Mathieu collectible there. He went to LSU, too, [but was dismissed because of failed drug tests soon after Mills arrived]. He became the Honey Badger there. Are you a fan?

I got his jersey after the game. He signed it for me. My freshman year was his junior year, and I was planning on playing with him. But, yeah, he wound up getting kicked off.

A guy like Tyrann Mathieu and a guy like [Cardinals teammate] Patrick Peterson … I don't look up to too many guys, but I definitely look up to those two guys. Tyrann, me being from Texas and going to a Louisiana school, he was a Louisiana guy who accepted me, accepted my game, accepted me as a person. That goes a long way.

You are fully tatted at 23. Can such a young man have lived so much already? Will you get an Eagles tattoo?

All of them have a special meaning. My first tattoo was my great-grandmother's name, Maudester. She died.

Then, my mom, Kisa LaShawn.

I have a lot of angels on me, too. A lot of religious things on me. I had a hard past as a kid. Me getting all these angels on me, they kind of protect me.

I'm not sure about getting an eagle. I don't know. That's a hard one. Depends on how this career goes.

You played soccer in high school, but you seem to love the NBA. If you could play another sport, what would it be, and who would you emulate?

Oh, I'd be a soccer player. No doubt. And I love Ronaldo [Cristiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid star]. Every time he gets on the field, in crunch time, his team is always trying to get him the ball. Game in and game out, he has game-winning goals. For him to have that clutch factor, for him to always pull through, that's very big to me.

Who's better looking, you or Ronaldo?

I'm better looking. Of course.