Blount grateful Patriots gave him a chance

PHOENIX - A little more than 2 months ago, LeGarrette Blount left the Pittsburgh Steelers' bench during a game at Tennessee, got dressed and headed for the team bus, apparently upset that he wasn't getting the ball.

Blount's actions on Nov. 17 ultimately affected the playoff fortunes of two AFC contenders. The Steelers, who released the former Oregon star the next day, ended up losing a wild-card round playoff game to the Ravens in no small part because they didn't have a viable backup to injured running back Le'Veon Bell.

The Patriots are playing in Super Bowl XLIX Sunday against the defending champion Seahawks at least partly because they scooped Blount up after he cleared waivers, returning him to an offense in which he'd averaged 5 yards per carry in 2013. Blount ran for 148 underinflated yards on 30 carries, with three touchdowns, in the Pats' 45-7 AFC Championship blowout of the Colts.

Blount said this week that "I knew I could play football, and I knew I could play for somebody's team," after he was cut. "I never thought I was going to be out of a job."

He said the Patriots "welcomed me with open arms," even after some Steelers teammates welcomed his dismissal, including center Maurkice Pouncey, who used the word "cancer."

Blount declined to rehash the Pittsburgh situation. He'd signed there as a free agent last offseason, probably not anticipating Bell's burst into stardom. The Steelers reportedly weren't happy with Blount's influence on Bell, 22, with whom Blount was arrested on a marijuana charge in the preseason.

"I don't think they really needed a running back, but I'm thankful that they gave me a chance to be part of a running back group that is really effective," Blount said of the Pats. "I definitely like the fact that they believe in me as much as they do. The amount of confidence that they show in me, the fact that they let me go out there and do my thing and don't really tell me how to do it or what to do, they just give me the football."

Blount said he did not talk to Chip Kelly about joining the Eagles after the Steelers cut him; Blount played for Kelly at Oregon, where he famously was suspended eight games after punching an opponent in the aftermath of the Ducks' 2009 loss to Boise State in Kelly's debut as a head coach.

"I think it was probably illegal to talk to any other coaches during that [waiver] time," Blount said. Of course, Blount passed through waivers before the Pats picked him up, so he could have talked to Kelly then, but he didn't.

"Chip is a great coach. He looked out for me, he kept in touch with me; he's a really good guy. He's going to be really successful in this league," Blount said. "He's done a lot of things to help me along the way . . . Chip came to the NFL level and did what a lot of college coaches can't do - he came to this level and immediately started winning games."

New England coach Bill Belichick was asked yesterday about bringing Blount back, after what happened in Pittsburgh.

"I don't know anything about Pittsburgh. You'd have to ask Pittsburgh about Pittsburgh," said Belichick, who added that Blount performed well for the Patriots in 2013, and that he and the team thought he'd be back, before the Steelers offered more money.

"When he was available, we were excited to get him back. And when he got here, he was excited to be back," Belichick said. "I think he's been a good addition to our team, very popular guy in the locker room."

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady mentioned yesterday that he doesn't really know his Seattle counterpart, Russell Wilson, but Brady added that they have exchanged emails through a mutual friend.

Given the Super Bowl news conference hurly-burly, the Daily News was unable to ask what we thought was an obvious question: What mutual friend? Some old quarterback-whisperer coach? A player like Brandon Browner, who'd been on both teams?

Turned out, when we finally got a chance to ask Wilson about this, we hadn't adequately adjusted our thinking to pro athlete lifestyles in 2015.

"It's Kenny Dichter," Wilson said, referring to the cofounder and CEO of Wheels Up, a private aviation service. "He's a University of Wisconsin grad who I know really well . . . so that's how I know Tom. We've shared emails back and forth."

Wilson then told a story about emailing Dichter just before the playoffs, telling him, "We're probably going to play Tom Brady in the Super Bowl." He said Brady had emailed Dichter around the same time with the same message, about Wilson.

An NFL source said Eagles receivers coach Bob Bicknell will remain with the team, opting not to pursue a chance to be the 49ers' offensive coordinator . . . Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said that Marshawn Lynch, who spent yesterday's 5 minutes in an interview booth repeating, "You know why I'm here" to every question, is "trying to do the best job he can of being him, and maybe you don't feel that that's what he should do, but that is what's going on" . . . Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman joking (we think) about 37-year-old QB Tom Brady: "It's unbelievable to see. What is he - 40? 42? And he still has a quarterback coach come out and coach him up all the time. He's always working on the fundamentals" . . . Patriots receiver Danny Amendola said his biggest memory of his 2009 training camp stint with the Eagles is that he'd never lived anywhere other than Texas and got his first taste of the Northeast. The Eagles cut Amendola and current Dolphins wideout Brandon Gibson that year to keep reality TV star Hank Baskett, whose football career ended in 2010.

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