LeGarrette Blount credits Bill Belichick's honesty for Patriots' success
Michael David Smith, ProFootballTalk:
Among NFL fans outside New England, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has a reputation as a duplicitous schemer. But one Patriots player says Belichick is the most honest coach he’s played for.
Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount said on NFL Network that the reason he and his teammates succeed under Belichick is that Belichick is always completely forthright with them.
It stands to reason that Patriots' RB LeGarrette Blount was not talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin when speaking about the most honest coach he has played for. Blount and Tomlin had a falling out during the 2014 season. LeGarrette was waived by the Steelers following the November 17 Tennessee Titans-Pittsburgh Steelers contest. Blount left the field before the game had ended.
Three days after his ouster in Pittsburgh, LeGarrette Blount returns to the Patriots. Mike Maske, Washington Post:
It’s like everybody that comes here. What you did on a previous team, that doesn’t matter. It’s all about who you are on the Patriots. I think that’s why you see guys be successful. The past doesn’t matter.”
The problems were not those created by the coaches. They all belonged to LeGarrette Blount. It wasn't Jeff Fisher's fault in Tennessee, Raheem Morris or Greg Schiano in Tampa. It surely wasn't Chip Kelly of the University of Oregon.
In LeGarrette Blount's senior season at the University of Oregon in the season opener against Boise State, an onfield incident placed his future NFL career in doubt. Jeffri Chadiha,ESPN:
Blount was walking off the field when former Boise State defensive end Byron Hout walked up to him and asked, "How's that for an ass-whoopin'?" A split-second later, Blount threw a straight right hand that knocked Hout down and turned Blount into the most notorious college player in the nation.
Oregon head coach Chip Kelly ultimately suspended Blount for the bulk of that year, allowing him to play in only the Ducks' final four games (after Blount apologized to Hout, Boise State, his Ducks teammates and the entire University of Oregon). No NFL team thought Blount was worth taking a chance on in the 2010 draft. He made Tennessee's 53-man roster as an undrafted rookie but was later waived.
Blount's reputation was so bad that his father, Gary, said, "They made my son out to be some kind of beast."
The son has become a man at age 28, and he can continue to thank his head coach Bill Belichick for the "100%" honesty.
Paul Murphy is a freelance writer from New Hampshire.
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