JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Selfish. Not committed. Questionable work ethic and drive.
Gets angry when things don’t go his way on the field. Doesn’t take football seriously.
Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette has been described these ways at one point or another over the past three years. It’s obviously not the kind of reputation anyone — not just a football player entering a contract year — wants.
Fournette says the reputation is undeserved and completely wrong.
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He reinforces that by relaying what he said newly signed running back Chris Thompson told him when they first met earlier this spring: “He said, ‘You ain’t nothing like people say you are,’” Fournette said. “[Thompson thought] I was always upset about things. Most of you guys know I’m always joking and playing; that’s just me. I think it kind of got out of hand, so I just wanted to get that out there.”
Fournette admits that his attitude after some games hasn’t been the best — especially after losses, mainly because there have been a lot of them. There were a combined 21 in 2018 and 2019, which piled up just after the Jaguars came within 10 minutes of making the Super Bowl in Fournette’s rookie season.
His postgame answers were short and blunt. It was easy to see that he either believed he wasn’t given the ball enough, the offense didn’t stick with the run game long enough or he wasn’t happy with a playcall.
“At the end of the day, I want to win,” Fournette said. “Who doesn’t want to win? I came from a 2017 season with a team who was 10-6, we had [a good] talent level and then the next couple of years went down the drain. So I just want to address a lot of things, too, especially since the media came out and said I was an angry guy. No. 1, would you be angry if you’re losing week in and week out? That is one of my biggest problems; I do get upset when we lose and it takes me a while to get over it. I expect, just like anybody else, if you put the work in, you want the W, but a lot of times last year it didn’t go like that.
“I guess they kind of misinterpreted that, and don’t get me wrong, I was upset from the losing, but that’s just the winner in me. That’s any guy who plays this professional level of sports.”
