Former NJCAA All-American LeGarrette Blount to become latest EMCC Lion to gain Super Bowl experience

As the New England Patriots prepare to take on the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX Sunday in Glendale, Ariz., East Mississippi Community College will once again be represented in the National Football League's championship contest.  Pats running back LeGarrette Blount will be making his Super Bowl debut as a seven-year NFL veteran and former NJCAA All-American for the EMCC Lions.  

Blount, who led the NJCAA in rushing yards per game as a collegiate freshman for EMCC in 2006 and was a two-time 1,000-yard rusher for the Lions, has become the first player in NFL postseason history with multiple games with at least three rushing touchdowns.   Two weeks ago in New England's 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game, Blount rushed for 148 yards and three scores on 30 carries. 

Prior to Blount's upcoming Super Bowl appearance, EMCC was previously represented in four straight Super Bowls a decade ago.  All total, the former University of Oregon product by way of Perry, Fla., looks to become the sixth former EMCC football standout and/or head football coach to earn the distinction of being a part of the Super Bowl experience. 

Most recently, another acclaimed former EMCC running back and 2014 EMCC Sports Hall of Fame inductee Antowain Smith won two Super Bowl rings as a member of the New England Patriots at the twilight of his nine-year NFL career.  Teaming with quarterback Tom Brady, Smith and the Pats prevailed in Super Bowls XXXVI (in New Orleans, La.) and XXXVIII (in Houston, Texas) over the St. Louis Rams (20-17 in 2002) and the Carolina Panthers (32-29 in 2004), respectively. 

In between Smith's successful Super Bowl stints, former EMCC linebacker Tim Johnson participated in Super Bowl XXXVII as a member of the Oakland Raiders.  While in the midst of his six-year NFL career, Johnson's Raiders fell, 48-21, in San Diego, Calif., in 2003. 

Kicking off that recent four-year stretch of successful East Mississippi Community College football products competing in the NFL's championship game, the late Orlando Bobo was a member of the Baltimore Ravens club that claimed a 34-7 victory over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV played in Tampa, Fla., in 2001.  Bobo, a native of West Point, Miss., played five NFL seasons as an offensive lineman and was posthumously inducted into EMCC's Sports Hall of Fame this past year. 

Having the distinct honor of suiting up for back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1980s, former EMCC wide receiver Virgil Seay was a member of the Washington Redskins' famed "Fun Bunch" that was known for their choreographed touchdown celebrations in the end zone some 30 years ago.  Including NFL Hall of Famer Art Monk, Washington's "Fun Bunch" helped knock off the Miami Dolphins (27-17 in 1983) in Super Bowl XVII played in Pasadena, Calif., before dropping a 38-9 decision to the Los Angeles Raiders the following year in Tampa during Super Bowl XVIII.   

From East Mississippi Community College's distinguished football coaching fraternity, former EMCC head football coach and NFL veteran Tom Goode will forever be remembered for being the snapper on Jim O'Brien's game-winning field goal in the Baltimore Colts' 16-13 triumph over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V played in Miami's Orange Bowl back in 1971.  A West Point native and member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson, Mississippi State University's Sports Hall of Fame and the EMCC Sports Hall of Fame, Goode's illustrious athletic career spanned nearly 50 years and included nine seasons in the NFL (1962-70), 20 years as an assistant football coach at four different Southeastern Conference schools and a 12-year stint (1992-2003) as head football coach and athletic director at EMCC.