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In the world we all want to live in, the Adrian Peterson visit was just a quid-pro-quo, we’ll-do-you-a-solid for AP’s agent and the Patriots always meant to re-sign last season’s NFL rushing touchdown leader LeGarrette Blount, right? Right. Good. Good talk.
Apparently, the interest in a return between LG and the Patriots is mutual, so like Jack Sparrow put it once, “Ah, so we’ve established the idea is sound in principle, now we’re just haggling over price.”
Blount, being the Celtics and Isaiah Thomas superfan that he is, was at Wednesday night’s Celtics-Cavaliers showdown-turned-barbecue, along with running back Dion Lewis, new recruit Stephon Gilmore, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Clearly, Kraft still loves LG almost as much as Bill Belichick does:
Dion Lewis, LeGarrette Blount, Stephon Gilmore, & Robert Kraft are at the @Celtics game tonight.
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) April 6, 2017
Kraft went over & hugged Blount.
☘ pic.twitter.com/tVT9O5IXp5
And then after the game, despite the Garden feeling like a JV-vs-Varsity scrimmage for most (actually, all) of the game, Blount had a little fun with the press:
LeGarrette Blount, at C's-Cavs, weaves through a group of reporters, turns and says, "See, tell them I still got it. Give me some money."
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixYS) April 6, 2017
As our fearless leader Rich Hill and venerable wordsmith Oliver Thomas have noted already this week, Blount has been playing for New England for the past 3.5 seasons for about $3.64 million, which, for a rushing touchdown leader and new franchise record-holder, or, really, any running back not on a mid-round rookie deal that doesn’t suck, is relative peanuts. On the other hand, as the two gentlemen above have both already noticed, it’s a pretty fair assumption that New England figured someone else would be crossing the T’s and dotting the lowercase j’s on a contract for Blount by now, not unlike what happened with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2014.
So now we play the waiting game, but it’s pretty clear where Blount wants to play next season. Whether the Patriots offer him a deal he’ll be down for is another story.
(And for those of you that still have nightmares about his strip-fumble in the Super Bowl, relax. Aside from that, he fumbled twice all season in 2016 and led the NFL in rushing touchdowns. It’s going to be fine.)