Team VP Rips 'Selfish, Disrespectful' NFL Star, Voids Guaranteed Money
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the most dysfunctional bunch of any NFL team south of Pittsburgh.
After making it all the way to the AFC title game last year, the team returned in 2018 with its eyes set on some Super Bowl rings. That unbridled optimism was not unreasonable considering that the Jaguars were bringing back virtually all of their dynamic and fierce defense and added talented offensive lineman Andrew Norwell, and running back Leonard Fournette had just wrapped up a rookie season brimming with potential.
Things obviously didn’t go as planned as the team limped to a 5-11 record and a dead last finish in the AFC South this season.
Some of it was explicable.
Blake Bortles entered the season as Jacksonville’s starting quarterback before being benched for the unheralded Cody Kessler. Only Blake Bortles could get benched for a quarterback who’s worse than Blake Bortles.
One of the biggest variances in all of football from year to year is the ability to force turnovers. Jacksonville’s defense finished 2017 with 33 takeaways and a turnover differential of plus-10. In 2018, the defense could muster only 17 takeaways and finished with a putrid minus-12 in turnover differential. Only the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers finished with a worse differential.
Norwell promptly ended up on injured reserve with an injured ankle. A five-year, $66 million contract could not get off to a worse start.
What’s not nearly as explicable is the curious case of Leonard Fournette. The 23-year-old former LSU standout was the fourth overall pick of the 2017 NFL draft. Fournette finished his rookie campaign with 1,040 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, easing the pain from the fact that the Jaguars took Fournette ahead of future star quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.
But the wheels, figuratively and literally, came off in 2018. Fournette missed eight games in 2018 due to injuries (a much-discussed concern coming out of college) and disciplinary reasons. That being said, injuries and suspensions happen.
It’s Fournette’s oafish and indifferent attitude in the team’s Week 17 finale against the Houston Texans that drew the ire of Jacksonville executive vice president Tom Coughlin. As ESPN reports, Coughlin eviscerated Fournette, who did not play in Week 17 due to injury, and backup running T.J. Yeldon, a healthy scratch.
TJ Yeldon and Leonard Fournette behavior on sidelines questioned all game. Tom Coughlin issued a statement about it. #Jaguars. pic.twitter.com/HIlOc0Dtzf
— Brent Martineau (@BrentASJax) December 30, 2018
“I am disappointed in the behavior today from T.J. Yeldon and Leonard Fournette,” Coughlin said in a statement. “They were disrespectful, selfish and their behavior was unbecoming that of a professional football player.”
That is as scathing of an indictment that has been levied at a top-five NFL draft pick in recent memory. An image circulating online shows Fournette and Yeldon sitting on the bench together, arms crossed and seeming to have nary a care in the world.
Statement from: Tom Coughlin:
“I am disappointed in the behavior today from T.J. Yeldon and Leonard Fournette. They were disrespectful, selfish and their behavior was unbecoming that of a professional football player.” #Jaguars pic.twitter.com/WmcwQKt2Ek
— Phillip Heilman (@phillip_heilman) December 30, 2018
Their indifference in what their team was doing clearly rubbed Coughlin the wrong way.
Yeldon will be a free agent, so the ire of Coughlin really won’t have much impact on him going forward. Fournette, on the other hand — not only did his team’s VP rip him, but the Jaguars have taken away his guaranteed money, according to another ESPN report.
In a Week 12 against the Buffalo Bills, Fournette got into a sideline fight with a Bills player. That led him to get suspended for a Week 13 tilt against the Indianapolis Colts. Ironically, Jacksonville lost the game against Buffalo in which Fournette played and won the game against Indianapolis that Fournette missed.
That suspension triggered a clause that voided the rest of the money left on his contract. Fournette has two years left on a four-year rookie deal.
Without guaranteed money on his deal, the Jaguars can cut or trade Fournette with virtually no penalty to their cap space. As ESPN notes, if the Jaguars were to cut Fournette, the running back would lose $7.1 million.
To call this a fall from grace for Fournette would be an understatement. Even the notorious draft bust JaMarcus Russell didn’t have his guaranteed money taken away while he was still in the league.
Maybe next time, Fournette should show he cares about what his team is doing on the field, whether he’s playing or not. It could literally save him millions.
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