LeGarrette Blount was an integral part of the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl championship in 2017, but the running back could have easily been playing on the other side of the field that day for the Patriots.
The year prior, Blount had led the league with a career-high 18 rushing touchdowns while playing for New England and had no intention of leaving when he became a free agent at the end of the year. So, it caught Blount by surprise when Bill Belichick told him the team was no longer interested.
“I called Bill up and said, ‘I want to be here. I know y’all want me to be here,’” Blount, who announced his retirement on Saturday, said on the Fantasy Football Today podcast. “I’m like ‘Let’s figure this out.’ He calls me back, says, ‘You played well for us…we love you, we appreciate you, but you averaged the lowest yards per carry in your career. You averaged 3.9 a carry.’
“I said, ‘Bill, you gave me the ball 300 times. How am I supposed to average 4.5 yards per carry on 300 carries? Bro, I’m going to have to average a 20 or 30-yard run every day to keep that average up.’ There were games where he was giving me 20 carries and I’m having 70 yards. That’s just the way the game goes.”
Blount, who was 30 at the time, instead signed with the Eagles that offseason and had a reduced role in the offense, in which he only had 176 carries for 766 yards and two touchdowns, but averaged 4.4 yards per carry.
The running back was especially dangerous in the postseason, though, where he finished with 29 carries for 130 yards and three touchdowns – which included a 14 carry, 90-yard and a touchdown performance against the Patriots in the Super Bowl against the Patriots.
“After we figured out the deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, that whole season that chip was on my shoulder,” Blount said. “Once I saw it – I know how it goes over there – once I saw it started getting close to December and getting close to the playoffs, I’m looking at how they playing, I’m like, ‘Yeah, we probably gonna end up seeing them.”
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