Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette reportedly showed up to training camp weighing in at around 260 pounds — well over his playing weight from this past season.
The NFL world took this news and ran with it, relentlessly making fun of Fournette for his offseason weight gain. But according to Fournette’s trainer Jordan Bush, this whole situation has been “blown out of proportion.”
“Honestly, he did return to us a little bit bigger than we wanted,” Bush said, per Bucs insider Greg Auman. “He was also in the sauna every day, getting extra cardio every single day. We called it ‘fat camp,’ just to mess around with him, but he was doing that type of stuff every single day. We could see the weight coming off.”
The NFL world took to Twitter to react to these comments.
“’A little bigger than we wanted’ is a great fat guy description. Using that going forward,” one fan wrote.
“He looked blown out of proportion in some of those pics,” another said.
Bush says Fournette has the ability to quickly gain and lose weight .
“The thing about Lenny, he gains weight fast,” Bush added. “He’s a big human in general. Leonard has a big frame. He’s not a small guy by any means. His legs are huge, not in a bad way. Learning his body and how he works, we understand what it takes, if he needed to lose five pounds, what he needs to do. It’s triple-digit [temperatures] every day out here.”
All that really matters is Fournette’s ability produce when Week 1 arrives in September.