JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Leonard Fournette likes it hot. He'll take a steamy summer day on the Louisiana bayou over any other kind of weather.
Especially what he's going to see on Sunday in Cleveland.
The Jacksonville Jaguars rookie running back wants no part of the conditions The Weather Channel is forecasting for FirstEngergy Stadium: temperatures in the 30s, 25-35 mph winds, 90 percent chance of snow.
"I hate the cold, period," Fournette said. "I sleep in the heat. That's just how I grew up."
Fournette grew up in New Orleans and played at LSU so his cold-weather football experience is limited to just one game: The Tigers' 17-0 loss at Arkansas on Nov. 15, 2014 in Fournette's freshman season. It was 33 degrees at kickoff and Fournette finished with 9 yards on five carries.
He will have a significantly higher workload on Sunday against the Browns (0-9). Fournette is coming off the worst game of his brief career (33 yards on 17 carries) and tweaked his right ankle in the fourth quarter of last Sunday's 20-17 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Chargers.
It's the same ankle he injured against the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 15 and Fournette said he's going to have to manage it the rest of the season. It won't keep him from playing, he said.
"It's something I'll deal with," Fournette said. "Like I said, it doesn't bother me.
"It's time [the best thing for it to heal] and being [in the middle of the season] I don't have a lot of time, so just playing with it, that's all."
Fournette, who dropped one spot to seventh in the NFL in rushing (629 yards), is much more concerned about the weather than his ankle, though. He's the opposite of teammate A.J. Bouye, who said Wednesday that he's excited about playing in the cold.
"The little things [are what bother him the most]," Fournette said. "You take a little hit and it hurts. You're falling ... I wouldn't mind if it wasn't cold. I have to get ready, that's all."
