Leonard Fournette produced two 1,000-yard seasons in his first three seasons, but the Jaguars tried to trade him and declined his fifth-year option for a reason or reasons.
On Monday, the running back addressed the idea that he is a pain in the butt.
“I’m not no jerk, but when it comes to football and winning, I’m all in for that,” Fournette said Monday, via NFL Media.
Fournette, who served a team suspension in 2018, made waves this offseason by campaigning for the Jaguars to sign Cam Newton. His call for Newton came despite the Jaguars committing to Gardner Minshew as their quarterback with the trade of Nick Foles.
Fournette since has talked to Minshew and said the comment came with the best of intentions: He wants to win, something the Jaguars have struggled to do much of the past two seasons.
“He understood where I was coming from,” Fournette said of Minshew. “At the end of the day, I want to win, like, who doesn’t want to win? We came from a 2017 season with a team who was 10-6; we had talent all over the board and then for the next couple of years, we went down the drain.
“I just want to address a lot of things, too, especially the media came out and said, whoever said I was an angry guy. I mean, for No. 1, would you be angry if you were losing, week in and week out by 63 points? And that is one of my biggest problems. I do get upset at when we lose and it takes me a while to get over it. I expect, just like anybody else, you put the work in and you want a ‘W’ but sometimes, a lot of times last year, it didn’t go like that. I guess they kind of misconstrued that and thought I was around here just angry, and don’t get me wrong I was upset from the losing we were doing, but that’s just the winner in me. That’s for any guy I feel like who plays this professional level of sports.”
For now, Fournette is at peace. But will it remain that way after the first loss or two?