Fish And Chipps: Leonard Fournette shouldn’t play another down of college football

Leonard Fournette knows his football history.

He pays homage to the running back legends.

He never takes credit for his personal success and always pays tribute to his teammates, who pave the way for his incredible touchdown runs.

He’s humble and gives back to his community.

He runs so beautifully that he makes football, a sport so violent in nature that it literally destroys the human body, look more like a ballet performance than a gridiron battle.

Fournette is a once-in-a-generation talent, the kind of player they will tell tales about and write books on. The kind of player that makes you frame your gameday ticket and proudly hang it above your nightstand.

“I saw that man before he was the man.”

At 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, the Louisiana State University super sophomore is averaging a ridiculous 8.6 yards per carry and last week tied an FBS record by eclipsing the 1,000-yard rushing mark in just five games — a record he now shares with running back legends like Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders and Ricky Williams.

But the numbers don’t do the Heisman Trophy frontrunner justice. Fournette is simply too good to be defined by a stat. He must be spoken of more poetically, because watching Fournette play football evokes something deeper.

ESPN’s Ivan Maisel perfectly described him.

“Fournette is different the way that Bryce Harper is different,” Maisel wrote, “the way that Jordan Spieth is different, the way that — I’m going to go ahead and make the leap — LeBron is different.”

Fournette is the type of player who, not to be cliché, literally takes your breath away, the way Bo Jackson and Adrian Peterson did in college.

He’s the type of athlete that makes you stop tweeting about him and actually watch him — a rarity in today’s sports landscape.

Fournette is that good, which is why he shouldn’t play another down of college football. He’s too good, and if he really knows his history, he knows he should never play college football again.

Yes, I know this will never happen. The star running back will probably put on another video game-like performance this week that will make you question what is real, but it shouldn’t happen.

The signs are everywhere and Fournette doesn’t have to look far at all to find them.

His conference colleague, University of Georgia sophomore running back Nick Chubb — another “star in the making” type of player — became the latest victim of a brutal knee injury last week that could completely alter the course of his life and destroy his chance of ever reaching the NFL.

And then there’s former University of South Carolina star Marcus Lattimore, who had not one, but two devastating knee injuries that took him from potential first-round draft pick to just another former football player, one of the millions of players whose career was taken by injury.

And let’s not forget Willis McGahee, who almost lost out on his NFL career and millions of dollars after a terrible knee injury in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State University.

Watching Fournette play college football has been a pleasure, but he’s too valuable to be lost. He means too much to be taken down by a system that is unwilling to acknowledge his effort and pay the man for literally putting on an Emmy Award-winning drama every week.

Amid my dissent for the football institutions, I actually agree with the NFL’s three-year policy between high school and the pros, because most football players don’t have the bodies to withstand the grind of the NFL.

But Leonard Fournette isn’t most football players — he’s different. The way LeBron James is different. The way “greatness” is different.

Fournette is more than ready for the NFL, and another down at the college level would only put the fate of his body in harm’s way.

Being a great running back is far different than being a great quarterback. A great quarterback’s resume is his stat sheet and highlight reel. But a great running back’s resume is his body, and more specifically, the bruises and scars that destroy it.

Just ask Earl Campbell, who was so brutally dominant during his days at the University of Texas and throughout his eight-year NFL career that the 60-year-old now struggles to do the most basic everyday activities, like walking.

Just look up Walter Payton, who tragically died of cancer in 1999 and spent most of his post-NFL life struggling with drugs and chronic injuries sustained from a lifetime of crushing hits as an all-time great running back.

Just read about Tony Dorsett, who after an incredible college and NFL career, is one of many former football players now struggling with CTE. Dorsett is just 61.

History repeats itself, and I fear that if Fournette continues to play for free at LSU, he too will suffer the same fate as his predecessors.

I love watching Fournette play football because it’s an experience comparable to those once in a generation talents, but he deserves to be paid like one.

Another carry in an LSU uniform won’t make him tougher, smarter or better. Another carry in an LSU uniform is just another chance for a defender to destroy his body and end his career before it really lifts off.

And if that happens, which it could at any moment, it would be a terrible shame.

You can’t outsmart history. Let’s just hope Fournette fully understands the magnitude of his predicament before he puts on the LSU uniform once more.