By 
One of the many highlights (or you could use the term low-lights) from last season was LeGarrette Blount punching Byron Hout after Boise State defeated Oregon. To this day I am not sure what was said to instigate the knockout punch, but what I do know is that it could cost him a chance to play in the NFL. Blount is a big running back that kind of reminds me a little bit of Steven Jackson although he doesn’t have the breakaway speed. He definitely has NFL talent, but many teams believe that he has a character issue.
As we all know, the NFL is all about its image and bringing along a player with a “baggage” maybe a bit much for a team to gamble on. So Blount has spent the last couple of months working his tail off and trying to rehabilitate his image. It remains to be seen whether he has accomplished that feat, but I guess we will find out next week at the NFL Combine. From this interview, it seems as though he has the right mindset heading into what will be the most important week of his life. Everyone deserves a second chance and I think he deserves it.
LeGarrette Blount joined XX Sports Radio in San Diego to talk about his speed, training for the Combine, overcoming character issues, and how he mentally prepares for the questions NFL teams are going to ask about the incident from last season.
On if he’s confident he has the speed necessary to be successful at the next level:
“I definitely have that kind of speed. My forty time probably doesn’t showcase it because I haven’t been a track guy for so long, but I can definitely get out there and run with some of the fast ones.”
What life is like training for the combine in Arizona:
“You get to workout at like nine in the morning. Get like an hour break at twelve and get right back at it around like one or two. That is basically my day every day of the week, Monday through Friday. Saturday we get a little pool work at about eight in the morning. That is regular everyday. We run in the mornings and we lift in the evenings.”
On whether he ever worries about overworking himself and the training being too much work on his body:
“No I don’t worry about it being too much work at all. I mean you are going to get out of it what you put in and I am definitely putting in a lot and I am hoping to get a lot out of it. I am hoping to get drafted. It doesn’t kill you to work hard for a few months to go for a prize that you have wanted for all of your life.”
On his workout regime:
“We definitely get the sledgehammer and beat up the tire a little bit. We do a lot of core workouts because we use the core a lot when you are running your forty and a lot of the things you are doing at the combine if you have a stronger core then you will probably do well. We don’t do too much killing you running, but we definitely do cardio and endurance and stamina training. Definitely getting us ready for all of the events coming back-to-back-to-back. We do a lot of that around lifting. Power lifting is pretty intense. I mean today is a heavy lifting day… Pull-ups, push-ups and dips. All arms today and then the next day will be all legs and then the next day after that will be a lot of core. Crunches and doing everything to make you be explosive and everything that you are going to be coming into the combine doing.”
On why he stayed in school after his suspension last season when others seem to pack up after something like that:
“Just to stay in school that was going to be a definite for me anyway. Even if he would have kicked me off the team and let me keep my scholarship I was still going to stay in school. I wasn’t going to just going to go and leave school and go back home and just be a bum and a deadbeat out on the streets. I am definitely looking forward to finishing my education. I only have I think one term left and that is not bad at all. So that is going to be a plus for me. I am definitely going to continue to go to school and get as much learning in as possible… My parents, that has always been something that they have preached to me for a long time. I definitely didn’t want to disappoint them at all.”
On how he mentally prepares for the questions NFL teams are going to ask about the incident from last season:
“I will have to keep my composure. I know that I am going to get asked the same question over and over. I cant avoid it. I cant go into an interview saying, I don’t want to talk about Spetember 3rd and they are going to like what? Are you serious? We are interviewing you. You cant tell us what you want us to ask and what you want to tell us. I am always prepared to answer questions over and over again. I don’t let it get to me. I don’t let it get on my nerves. It doesn’t irritate me at all because I know that there is a lot more of those same questions coming into this combine and doing these interviews with these teams. As long as I just keep my composure… I mean it doesn’t bother me at all. As long as I do that then I think I will be fine.”
Comments