TAMPA, Fla. -- One day after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Week 14 win over the Minnesota Vikings last season -- before there was “Playoff Lenny,” “Lombardi Lenny” and even “White House Lenny” -- running back Leonard Fournette found himself sitting in coach Bruce Arians’ office with an ultimatum: Buy in or be cut.
The No. 4 pick of the 2017 draft had been waived by the Jacksonville Jaguars just days before the start of the 2020 season and had signed with the Buccaneers on a one-year deal to play alongside Tom Brady. But he had been relegated to an understudy role for the first time in his career, was a healthy scratch the previous day and was visibly upset about it.
“When you're the lead dog your whole life and all of a sudden you're not the lead dog, it takes time to adjust to that,” said Arians, who already had a starter in Ronald Jones II.
“I’ve always been the guy my whole life,” said Fournette, now 26. “I just had to get a better understanding of what was going on. … Just knowing what was at risk…”
What was at risk? His career. His dream. All the things he had worked for growing up in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans.
“I already had a bad reputation, I guess, coming from Jacksonville,” Fournette said. “That was the biggest thing -- just trying to prove everyone wrong, that I wasn’t the guy that they said I was. That was the biggest thing -- my character.”
Who was Fournette in Jacksonville?
That’s largely dependent on whom you ask.
Former Jaguars executive vice president of football operations, Tom Coughlin, infamously ripped him and T.J. Yeldon after a loss to the Houston Texans in December 2018 for appearing uninterested on the sideline when Fournette was inactive with a foot/ankle injury.
"They were disrespectful, selfish and their behavior was unbecoming that of a professional football player," Coughlin said.
Fournette was caught on camera that year yelling at a fan in the stands that he was going to “beat your ass,” during a loss to the Tennessee Titans earlier that month. He was also suspended without pay for one game for leaving the bench to fight Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Shaq Lawson after he saw Lawson shove teammate Carlos Hyde. The Jaguars then told Fournette that they were voiding the guaranteed money in his contract.
Then in April 2019, Fournette was arrested at a car wash for driving with a suspended license, speeding and improper window tint on the side and rearview mirrors. The license was suspended due to failure to pay a speeding ticket in November.
He spent less than 30 minutes at the Duval County Jail, but it left a lasting impression on Fournette, who had to excuse himself from the Bucs’ NFC championship locker room celebration last season because he became emotional thinking about that day.
“I was crying for like 30 minutes -- I was on the phone with my mom and my dad just [talking] about my journey,” Fournette said. “First, in Jacksonville, from me going to jail, from me getting cut -- I think it’s a wonderful story how it’s playing out.”
It wasn’t a consensus decision to cut Fournette from Jacksonville. Some who were in Jacksonville at the time working under then-general manager Dave Caldwell and former head coach Doug Marrone wanted Fournette to stay. One source in the building who spoke under the condition of anonymity also said that the Jaguars “could have done a better job” helping Fournette and other younger players assimilate into the league.
“He had an image problem,” former Jaguars RB coach Terry Robiskie said. “But he had an image problem that I think he created. He kinda walked around like, ‘I’m the man.’ And he did things that 'the man' shouldn’t be doing. ... I think he had to clean that image up.”
Fournette acknowledged that he needed to grow up but feels he was largely misunderstood.
“I just felt like I wanted to be a winner, wanted to win games. It just wasn’t happening at the time in Jacksonville,” said Fournette.
“He felt like he cared more than everybody else ... so he’s gonna carry this team -- ‘I’m gonna do this by myself,’” Robiskie said. “When he put that pressure on himself and he was gonna do it by himself, and when it didn’t work that way, he got mad at a lot of people and a lot of people got mad at him.”
Fournette also suspects that he was blackballed, that the Jaguars didn’t want to see him latch on with another team.
“I don’t know. What you think?” Fournette said. “I mean, you see me every day now. Do you all think it was true? I mean, you all have been around me almost a year now. Who knows, man. … I don’t know. But that’s the word that Jacksonville had put out on me, so, who knows?”
Robiskie thinks there’s truth to that.
“I would say, yes, without a question, the Jaguars were trying to blackball him,” Robiskie said. “It certainly wasn’t the president or the head coach or the GM, but I do know, coming out of that building, some people had said something to other teams that wasn’t true about Leonard at all."
What types of things were being said?
“That he’s late, he’s late for team bus, he’s late coming to meetings, he sleeps in the meetings, or he’s been arrested all these times, he’s right on the verge of getting kicked out of the league, that they’ve got so much stuff on him, that he’s a bad, bad guy, he’s bad in the locker room, he doesn’t work in practice – I can say that’s about as far-fetched of statements that you’ll ever hear."
But why blackball such a high-profile player who could essentially be traded and net compensation in the form of another player, a draft pick or draft picks?
“They weren’t trying to trade him,” Robiskie said. “They were trying to cut him. .. Because to trade him and to have someone say, ‘We’ll give you a fifth-round pick,’ or ‘We’ll give you a sixth-round pick,’ that means he’s got value. But to cut him is degrading, especially to cut a No. 1 draft choice from three years ago, who just the year before had 1,800 yards of total offense, who pretty much just led your team in receptions. … That is the true epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
After Fournette was released, Marrone said the Jaguars had tried to trade Fournette but couldn't find any takers.
"My question was, can we get any value? And we couldn't get any," Marrone said. "So, fifth[-rounder], sixth[-rounder] -- we couldn't get anything."
If there was any blackballing, Arians didn’t hear it, and it wasn’t enough to make him or Bucs GM Jason Licht, who is a longtime friend of Caldwell's, steer clear.
"I got nothing but really good reviews,” Arians said. “I knew some of the coaches I've worked with extremely well, and Leonard got great reviews and has been a model citizen since he's been here."
Fournette has found a sense of belonging in Tampa
He celebrates his teammates’ big moments. He has developed bonds with Jones, Ke’Shawn Vaughn and Giovani Bernard. He’s OK splitting carries, as it gave him juice in the postseason and he was the healthiest he’d ever been to end the season and it got him a Super Bowl ring. And because that’s the tone long-established players such as Mike Evans and Chris Godwin set in the wide receivers room.
It was Fournette who led the Bucs with 448 yards from scrimmage in four postseason games. It was Fournette’s gashing 27-yard run off guard Ali Marpet in the third quarter that became one of the lasting images of Super Bowl LV.
“That’s a running back’s dream -- to be untouched,” said Fournette, who has unquestionably become one of Brady’s favorites. The two met when Fournette signed with Under Armour in 2017, and a friendship began to blossom before Brady even called him to recruit him to Tampa.
“Our relationship just grew and grew, and since he wanted me here, it went farther,” Fournette said. “Just having him back there every day, understanding what he wants out of us – you can’t find a better guy to have as your quarterback, and even a better person to be around each and every day.”
Assistant head coach/run game coordinator Harold Goodwin has seen a change in Fournette for the better.
“Ever since he had that little spell last year, when him and BA had that conversation, he’s been a different person,” Goodwin said. “He’s been focused every day. He doesn’t necessarily feel like he has to be the guy, but I’m sure he always thinks that way.
"I like the way he’s grown up. Because at the end of the day, we’ve got so many good players on this team at any position, so you’ve just gotta fit in where you can get in and he’s done that.”
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