LeGarrette Blount Suspended For 2015 NFL Season Opener

The NFL has suspended New England Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount for the 2015 season opener. 

According to a statement from the NFL on the Patriots’ official website, Blount violated the league’s substance abuse policy:

“LeGarrette Blount of the New England Patriots has been suspended without pay for the first game of the 2015 regular season for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. Blount is eligible to participate in all offseason and preseason practices and games.

Blount will be docked $48,685 in base pay and a $6,250 per-game roster bonus as part of the suspension, per ESPN New England Patriots reporter Mike Reiss. All in all, he will lose $54,935. 

USA Today’s Tom Pelissero reported on Tuesday the suspension is apparently linked to Blount and his former Pittsburgh teammate LeVeon Bell’s arrest for marijuana possession on Aug. 20, 2014. Authorities confiscated roughly three-fourths of an ounce of marijuana in Bell’s vehicle during a traffic stop. 

NFL suspends LeGarrette Blount for 1st game of regular season for violation of league’s substance abuse policy. pic.twitter.com/vwzp6loRkQ— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 7, 2015

When Blount completed 50 hours of community service on Feb. 4, the charge against him was eventually dropped, per Reiss.

However, ESPN NFL Insider John Clayton’s sources (via Reisss) say Bell is expected to be suspended for the first two games of the 2015 NFL season. In addition, Bell “will spend 15 months on probation in a first-offender’s program and will have his driver’s license suspended for 60 days,” says Reiss.

Blount is projected to be the Patriots’ No. 1 running back with second-year pro Jonas Gray as his backup, per ESPN. 

NFL.com’s Marc Sessler says Gray, Brandon Bolden and James Develin are expected to contribute in Blount’s absence for New England’s season opener on Sept. 10. 

In another team development, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski appeared on ESPN’s “NFL Live” on April 7 and discussed how his offseason has gone so far. 

Gronkowski told ESPN’s Trey Wingo (via Patriots.com lifestyle editor Briana Palma) even though he’s traveled around the country, danced on national television and visited Los Angeles Angels Spring Training, nothing surpassed the excitement of being in the Patriots’ championship parade:

“I’m just having a blast, traveling around the country, visiting all my friends, visiting my family and doing new things. 

“I went to that parade with no exceptions. I never had a parade before, and I’m telling you, the parade was the best experience I’ve ever had. Going through the city of Boston with that many fans, it was just an unbelievable experience. The best two hours of the offseason so far was that parade.”

‘It’s Good to be the Gronk’: Gronkowski’s book to be published by Derek Jeter – http://t.co/H3NTndkLO5 pic.twitter.com/mnc4yA4wY2— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) April 7, 2015

He also admitted to Wingo (via Patriots.com) he wished he was his teammate and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady when he went cliff diving in Costa Rica recently:

“I want to see him out there doing all that crazy stuff. It’s cool seeing him do that. The cliff jumping was pretty wild. I personally haven’t cliff jumped in a while and I was like,’Damn, that’s a good idea.’ I kind of wish I was with him when he was cliff jumping.

“Maybe I’ll do some cliff jumping like Tom. Maybe I’ll go up a couple more feet than Tom.”

A March 28 Boston.com update reveals Brady jumped approximately 50 feet from a cliff to a river below “at the second waterfall in Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.” He previously made a shorter cliff jump on a differrent waterfall in the same location three years ago.  

A video of Brady’s jump can be viewed on his official Facebook page. 

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