Trent Richardson Will Not Play for Colts on Sunday in AFC Championship Game

The Indianapolis Colts will be playing the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game this weekend, but they'll be playing without the player who they used their first round pick in 2014 on - running back Trent Richardson.  He did not travel with the team to New England due to personal reasons, meaning that he will not play.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Trent Richardson did not make the trip to New England due to personal reasons. It’s once again the tandem of Herron/Tipton for the <a href="https://twitter.com/Colts">@Colts</a>.</p>&mdash; Kevin Bowen (@KBowenColts) <a href="https://twitter.com/KBowenColts/status/556539676342095872">January 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Richardson was acquired by the Colts for their first round pick in 2014 from the Cleveland Browns during the 2013 season, and it has been a big struggle ever since.  He has rushed for 978 yards and six touchdowns on 320 carries in 32 career games with the Colts (including playoffs), averaging just 3.06 yards per carry.  He played just one snap against the Bengals in the Wild Card round and then was a healthy inactive last week against the Broncos, which is symbolic of something we've been noticing for a while: that the Colts were using Richardson less and less.  He was benched a while ago, so they won't really miss him on Sunday.  He was the third running back anyway behind Boom Herron and Zurlon Tipton, so this just means that Michael Hill will be the third back for the second straight week (though likely only used in a special teams role).

It's easy to make jokes at this point, but I'd hold off until/if we find out what the personal reasons are.  But what we do know is that Trent Richardson will not play in Sunday's AFC Championship game for the Colts.