BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The menacing presence that LSU running back Leonard Fournette projects when he topples would-be tacklers is missing as he steps casually into a crowd of reporters.
Relaxed, patient, self-assured and making eye contact, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Fournette offers a friendly smile that seems to say, "Ask me anything."
He'll entertain a variety of topics — football, fatherhood or life in general. He'll list among his primary life goals the ability to pay for his now 8-month-old daughter, Lyric, to one day go to college. He'll mention the responsibility he feels to be a role model for younger cousins, or how he keeps up with an old youth football teammate whose father was gunned down during one of their practices in his native New Orleans years ago.