St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley weighed in on one of the hot-button topics of this college football season ... should Leonard Fournette sit out his junior season so as to avoid a devastating injury that could hurt his potential NFL draft status?
This is important because Gurley suffered a torn ACL while playing for Georgia last November. Despite that injury, speculation over his health and questions about his potential availability during the 2015 NFL season, Gurley was a first-round (No. 10 overall) selection in the 2015 NFL Draft. After missing the first two games of the season, Gurley has emerged as one of the NFL's most potent backfield forces. Things turned out alright for him.
In an interview Saturday on 99.9 The Fan's Big GameDay, Gurley said that Fournette should "come back and play" for his junior season (the earliest NFL draft that Fournette -- who is a sophomore -- would be eligible for is the 2017 draft).
"Come back and play, man," Gurley told 99.9 The Fan, according to CBSSports.com. "We don't care about all that, just waiting to go play for the NFL. We're football players. We've been playing this game for our whole life for free or with money. We don't care about that. We play for the love of the game."
Gurley's line of logic seems to align with that of Fournette, who scuffed at the suggestion that he would skip out of his junior season in fear of a possible injury. Fournette even went to Twitter to respond to that idea.
Shortly thereafter, Fournette's coach, Les Miles, echoed the running back's sentiments.
"I can't imagine that Leonard would be sitting anywhere inactive for a fall. I just can't possibly imagine it," Miles said.
So, everybody agrees.
It is refreshing to hear Gurley's take on his passion for the game, and it certainly seems that Fournette shares that enthusiasm.
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