Blount

Blunt acted like a spoiled brat out of control democrat at a health care rally. Personally, I am surprised Blunt didn't bite the guys finger off.

Has he been charged with Battery yet?

This should not be 'just a school matter'.

He should face legal consequences.

It's not just Blount losing control over Hout's taunting, it's his assaulting fans as well. I'm happy with this decision. Blount will never don Oregon uniform again, but he gets to finish his education, if he chooses. I also agree that Hout should suffer some penalty. Mostly I view this as a result of the unpunished unsportsmanlike and injurious conduct that BSU's #21 perpetrated last year.

He one punched a giant douche bag who deserved it Was it right? No, and he should get a game for it, two max. But it's time for guys to be held accountable for running their mouths. Maybe it's the hockey in me.

It would be interesting to know what Hout actualy said. If he called him a F@#@@'n N@#@#ger, I'd say Hout had it coming. Aside from that, maybe the Ducks can generate more than 152 yards total offense without Blount.

Five-minute major penalty for fighting carried forward to the next meeting between the teams.

Blount could have a UFC career ahead of him if he worked at it.

Blount is never going into the NFL. The University of Oregon is an educational institution without the balls to dispense real justice and rid themselves of this 2Pac, thug life wannabe muther effer. Only cowards back pedal after throwing the first punch.

Anyways, why are we talking about yesterday's trash? It has been disposed of and we should continue on with real news other than some back and forth regarding the soon to be Oregon version of Maurice Clarett.

No " N " word was used. Hout said "Nice ass kicking", something Blout promised was coming.

It would be interesting to know what Hout actually said. If he called him a F@#@@'n N@#@#ger, I'd say Hout had it coming.

Doesn’t matter if Hout said “F-ing Nigger” or “Nice ass-kicking”, no verbal taunt warrants an assault. Short of a genuine physical threat to Blount, which in this case there wasn’t, he should have turned and walked away.

That’s what a man would have done.

Thugs ourselves?! Don't make me laugh.

Blount like every other athlete with the potential to make it big has been cradled by the system ever since he showed his potential on the field.

If anything, the people to blame are his handlers (ie coaches and other close family) for not spotting and helping him with his inability to handle getting his proverbial ass handed to him with a prick up it.

We all fail in life. The measure of a man is not how he behaves in good time, but how he behaves in the rough times.

Last night, Blount was measured and he failed to differentiate himself from lowlifes like Maurice Clarett.

ESPN's NFL draft guru Todd McShay has Blount #53 overall and #2 at RB. Talk about a multi-million dollar screw up.

Yeah, there is really no excuse. Even if the N word was used, Blount should have just walked away.

Now that we are talking college football, I looked up Boise State University's remaining schedule. (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/teams/bbe/schedule)

A bunch of nobody's whom will be lucky to win half their games if that. I hear that San Jose State is real scary. Likewise, Bowling Green, Miami (OH), and Nevada are real contenders. Laughing my effing azz off!

I hear from all these Idaho folks that Boise State and the WAC had been robbed since 2005. Well, look at the craptastic schedule you guys make year after year to get that perfect record and then ask yourself if you are worthy of a title or Rose Bowl when you only play one team in the top 25 during a whole season?

Boise State, do you want respect? Then schedule USC, Alabama, Louisiana Tech, Texas, and Arkansas into yours just like every other title contender does.

Otherwise, the rest of your schedule is equivalent to Ohio State University playing a different Kent State every other week.

A weak schedule does not command a bowl game. You get what your schedule deserves.

Now that we are talking college football, I looked up Boise State University's remaining schedule. (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/teams/bbe/schedule)

A bunch of nobody's whom will be lucky to win half their games if that. I hear that San Jose State is real scary. Likewise, Bowling Green, Miami (OH), and Nevada are real contenders. Laughing my effing azz off!

I hear from all these Idaho folks that Boise State and the WAC had been robbed since 2005. Well, look at the craptastic schedule you guys make year after year to get that perfect record and then ask yourself if you are worthy of a title or Rose Bowl when you only play one team in the top 25 during a whole season?

Boise State, do you want respect? Then schedule USC, Alabama, Louisiana Tech, Texas, and Arkansas into yours just like every other title contender does.

Otherwise, the rest of your schedule is equivalent to Ohio State University playing a different Kent State every other week.

A weak schedule does not command a bowl game. You get what your schedule deserves.

Blount shouldn't have any problem playing in the NFL where moral standards are apparently a bit different than they are in college football. After all, they hired Michael Vick didn't they? Blount's rules of "debate" might also be better understood in the NFL.

So many comments on this board and elsewhere are a disturbing reminder of the damage done to our society by modern, politically correct, almost Orwellian "groupthink." I'm referring specifically to the predicable knee-jerk response of so many people who automatically assume that the Boise State player simply MUST have called Blount the so-called "N" word. As always, whenever a black man freaks out and creates a savage spectacle of a completely uncivilized nature, there are those among us whose worldview requires that they insist that "it's not his fault. It MUST have been racism!!"

To think otherwise, after all, would force us all to question the entire welfare state and manner in which it has created a social and financial incentive for large groups of irresponsible mothers to raise what are essentially fatherless, "feral" children. Raised like cats--feed em, send em to school for free breakfast and lunch, job done!

I am certain (because I am an adult) that the BS player did not use the dreaded "n" word during the incident in question, but I am equally certain that a large part of America was thinking it...

I'm shocked, shocked to find that fighting is going on here! (With apologies to Captain Renault).

Jebus, what do you expect from a violence soaked culture? Boats mentions the UFC up thread. Exactly! We want to see blood and gore. Its like the old joke, "I went to fight and a hockey game broke out".

Meanwhile we dismiss the continued death and destruction being carried out in our name all over the world because the Pentagon learn from Vietnam not to let the American people see the brutality of war.

Blount's crime in this case stems from his choice of crossing the line from socially approved violence during the game to socially disapproved violence after time ran out.

I used to enjoy watching football but the violent, bone-smashing, ligament tearing, head injury inflicting core nature of the sport has severely dampened my enthusiasm.

It's all kind of a cruel joke anyway. If he had his helmet on and time was still remaining, venting his anger and aggression on the field would be praised by his coach, the fans and the broadcasters. As it is he's now just a national pariah because he broke the rules.

I don't in any way condone what he did but I blame the coach, his staff, the fans and football in general for praising and nurturing the more violent aspects of this young mans personality.

Why is blueoregon spending time and space on this??? The big mouths at BSU athletics are priming the pump so to speak. Maybe they will continue their behavior as the season progresses. I wonder if the Oregon coach talked to his players about baiting and being baited in a game such as this one. It reminded me of the situation our legislators had to face last month with town hall meetings, and makes me wonder what is really the mood of our country... I hope that someone in the atheletic dept. @ UO will provide guidance (and some sort of in team encouragement like a job of some kind) for him to make the best of a bad situation. I doubt it, they will probably write him out of the program entirely which will not improve the image of the sports program at UO at all. Mr. Blount should really concentrate on education now. since his potential for a professional career is considerably downgraded.

The kid is a student-athlete , and kids make mistakes. I made my share as a college student. They were right to keep him in the 'family' , but should have suspended him some games , and let him earn his way back. He just threw punches at some obnoxious jerks , many of us , with emotions high would do the same. I say the Guvs of OR/ID have a beer summit.

Tim Young,

By "real justice," I mean expelling him from the educational institution. That would entail kicking him off the team and revoking his athletic scholarship.

This was Blount's second chance. He was already suspended indefinitely in February for "failure to fulfill team obligations." (http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2009-09-04/oregon-rb-legarrette-blount-suspended-for-season).

We often forget that when someone puts on a uniform whether it be John Casey's mechanic overalls, a U.S. military uniform, or a University of Oregon ducks football jersey, then your actions are no longer in a vacuum where the repercussions are only felt by you. Your actions are representative of every Oregonian. Displaying that behavior in an Oregon uniform where little kids may look up to you as a role model is inexcusable and unconscionable.

Blount embarrassed every Oregonian and for that, he should be sent back home.

Funny how you Blueoregon types only get interested in sports after a real social and political train wreck like this. It is a very NIMBY point of view you cultivate here. There are some videos shot by fans of the incident that are less widely circulated here in the favorites section: www.youtube.com/luddite333

The U of O and it Athletic department did th right thing. Kicking the player out of school would have been a mistake. Having him practice and attend school while having to watch from the sidelines will be much better education IMO.

I do believe the Boise State coach failed to do as good a job when he didn't at least suspend his player for running his mouth after the game.

heard at end of game Hout mentioned "hey (expletive beginning with N" hows your auntie doing??" referring to Blounts recently deceased aunt whom he was extremely close to. does this make it ok??? No.

but what the BSU player did was not ok either and Blount and him should both be punished no more than 3 games. Hout initiated contact, blount was being responsible and walkin off field peacefully when Hout came over with his cocky swagger and started the fight.

With Blount's blunder now the focus of conjecture, presumptions and sneaking suspicions in more than 3000 web articles and countless sports discussion boards over the past three days, what more can possibly be said? LeGarrette has been called everything from a coward to "another Mike Tyson."

There are more important topics: Knowing what he does from past mistakes, could John Kitzhaber have come up with a better game plan for the Ducks to beat BSU?

Will Peter DeFazio switch to the Republican Party in order to get Jack Roberts' vote for governor?

What's with Google's mysterious new doodle on its search page this weekend -- which shows a flying saucer sucking up an "O" in a trackor beam and links to "unexplained phenomenon?"

Space aliens are in California this weekend to pick up Michael Jackson's body and return it to his home planet. But is that all they have in mind? I hear they plan to abduct Oregon and take us with them -- they'll ditch Republicans, who get motion sickness at the thought of movement toward health-care reform, let alone space travel.

Google's cryptic on twitter translates to: "All your O are belong to us."

Obviously, few people in this forum have ever played a down of football. I have. Coaches will tell you: "dancing is a contact sport...football is a hitting sport." They will say, "a good loser is just another loser." They will say, "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." They will say, "we will hit and we will hit and we will hit and we'll have JV players around to wipe up the blood." It's hard, and brutal...and asking people to make nice after the game is idiocy.

LeGarrette Blount had been hitting and being hit all day. His team had just stunk up the joint. He was embarrassed and knew they could have, should have, done better...and the frustration was huge. Then some piece of crap grabbed him. The jerk could have just hit the pub to celebrate a great victory. Be he didn't. He grabbed a proud man's shoulder pads and started trash talking in his face. The jerks coach knew it was wrong. His coach ran to pull him away, knowing where where his jerk behavior might lead. Before he could get there Blount blew.

LeGarrette should be suspended...maybe for the season, at least for awhile. So should the offending Bronco.

But, if you expect these men to keep the rage that is kindled in them bottled up in the face of that kind of disrespect you don't understand the game. Maybe football, as barbaric as it is, has no place in modern society. I played the game, and I know you might have a point. But what Blount did was a reaction...and one that any football player can understand. NO, I am not condoning it. YES, he should be punished.

Still, before you go off all holy about how this kind of behavior is assault worthy of arrest and jailing; before you claim it's a hideous offense to all that is just in the world. Before you do that...play a down yourself.

You'll learn something.

When I was worried about Blount getting off easy, I thought it would be a 1 or 2 game suspension, maybe a loss of starting position for the first half of the season.

I thought a 5 game suspension, academic probation, public apology, and loss of starting position (i.e. Blount doesn't play in the 1st quarter for the rest of the regular season), would be due punishment.

It probably would have been if this was a black guy hitting another black guy. White guy hitting black guy? Let's not go there. Black guy hitting white guy? In Boise? For Oregon? Well, your whole career is over now. You'll probably never turn pro. Probably never have that athletic career that helps level the income distribution between black and white.

This is Rudy Tomjanovich and Kermit Washington, NBA 1977. White guy runs over and gets in black guy's face. Black guy loses cool and punches him. Kermit broke Rudy's jaw. Hout will only wake up with a slight bruise on his jaw. Hout will be a conversation piece for NCAA football all year, helping him get the attention of NFL scouts. Blount just lost millions of dollars and a rare shot among African Americans to make it big and give his kids everything he hasn't had himself. This isn't a Mike Tyson thing, it's a Kermit Washington thing.

Seeing as how this is his senior year, his NFL prospects are basically over.

He can do the whole Canadian Football thing for a good living, but he will not be living the professional lifestyle.

For those who say, most of us have never played a down? That is an incredibly inane line of argument.

Since I have not stolen, raped or murdered, does that not give me the right to sit on a jury and decide whether someone gets jail time?

Since I am not involved in policy-making, does that not give me the right to come onto a blog and speak about public policy?

A right is a right, a wrong is a wrong, and you do not need to be an expert much less a beginner to call it how you see it.

As far as violence after a play, MMA and Boxing are much more violent, but do you see them hitting each other after the match is over? No, thus in even more violent sports than football, there is an agreed upon level of behavior. Blount overstepped the expected level of behavior in football by cheap shotting and back-pedaling like the little coward he is.

His college career is over, his likelihood of playing in the NFL is nil, and he is damn lucky to still be in school with no criminal charges levied at him right now.

So many indictments against college sports and especially football violence, but...

There are men no older than Blount in Iran & Afganistan as we speak. What are they told? "Play hard, have fun and be a good sport?"

There were dozens of Duck players Thursday who DID walk off the field (a little sheepishly) with a handshake and "good game."

No punches after the bell in boxing? Really? Nobody breaks the rules? You've obviously never been in the ring. No bench clearing brawls in baseball? College baseball? Really? You've never been on the diamond. I noticed nobody even mentioned the fistfights in hockey. Smart.

And do NOT offer the argument that the violence in this case came "after the game was over." After how many boxing matches have you seen one competitor grab another and bitch in his face? Never you say? Me neither. But that's what Houck did. Houck extended the game...and it's consequences, and he personalized it, when he ran after Blount, personally, grabbed him, personally, and got in his face, personally. When he did what no other player on that field did, he put the game into unofficial overtime. His coach realized that HOUCK initiated unacceptable behavior that might, almost certainly would, escalate. He ran after Houck, desperately trying to pull the idiot away. It does not matter that the coach showed himself to be lame, later, with his final punishment of a "stern talking to."

To Ryan: No, my argument is not "incredibly inane" and your argument that it is "inane" is incredibly arrogant. Yes, we are allowed, even required, to make judgments in a great many matters. And we are required to punish people who commit acts that we ourselves will not. That is not in dispute.

But, self-righteousness and sanctimony have reared their ugly heads in the matter of LeGarrette Blount. Most often, that kind of sanctimony comes from ignorance. So, I asked that we do the thing that Democrats frequently ask of our opponents. I asked that we put ourselves in the other guys place. I asked that we "walk a mile in his cleats." We ask it often. We ask it of the well off when considering poverty. We ask it of the well in considering illness. We ask it of the educated in considering ignorance. We ask it of one race when contemplating the difficulties faced by another. Walk a mile in his shoes. Yes, soberly contemplate Blount's act; but, before you go all self-righteous, at least talk to a few guys who've been there.

Ryan, that you cannot do that is just sad.

Another thing Ryan,

Blount plays a violent game. Pain and injury are commonplace. Calling him a "little coward" most likely reveals more about you than him.

He was chased. Hands were laid on him. He was provoked. He over-reacted. His "backpedalling" was not fleeing the confrontation, as you sanctimoniously, and ignorantly, suggest. He was surrounded by blue jerseys, and put himself in a better position to defend himself.

Coward? That's pretty easy to say when facing a computer screen.

its proposterous that blount was punished this extremely. regardless of your view on the whole situation, who initiated, yada yada yada. blount doesnt deserve this

Challenge to my manhood? Hmmmm. It's a thought I don't want to dismiss out of hand, because, in a sense, I guess I do take it personally. But, not, I think, as a challenge to my "manhood." I am reasonably comfortable with my manhood.

What I am uncomfortable with is what I sense to be a lack of perspective from many, certainly not all, of those who comment on the act in question. There have been those who said Blount should be dismissed from the school. There are those who say he should be in jail. There are some who have called him a "little coward." I object to all of that. I have some understanding of the circumstances and the emotions that led to the act. And I will always react to a lack of perspective that leads to an injustice.

Since few others see fit to defend him. I will.

I am not arguing his action was acceptable; or that it shouldn't be punished. But, I suggest that we take it for the misdemeanor it was; not as the most heinous crime committed in the history of sport.

I agree with you: that nothing Hout (see, I can correct when I am mistaken) did justified the punch...AND that nothing Blount did prior to the confrontation justified Hout's contact and lack of sportsmanship.

And I agree with bradek that Blount's punishment, though predictable, was too severe.

Roger,

I am self-righteous and sanctimonious. I agree with that evaluation of my past comments. Furthermore, I will do you the pleasure of letting yours and mine stand.

As for this whole "empathize" with the perpetrator, I will vehemently disagree just as much as I disagree with those people who sit on juries and forget that there is a victim in a crime whether it be rape, homicide or simple assault and battery.

I am sorry, but Blount is not the victim in this matter. Hout may have taunted him, but that did not deserve a cheap shot. Also, lets not forget that Blount would have been in the stands punching Boise State fans ala Ron Artest if there was not security there to stop him from doing so.

As I see it, Blount's reaction to the taunting made him the perpetrator and the only thing that he is a victim of is his own actions.

I am not a ducks fan. As an Oregonian I watched with horror as blount melted down on national TV after an incrediably poor showing for him personally and for the ducks. He was provoked and Hout deserves more than a mere talking to.

Provocation aside, Blount crossed many lines. The ultimate being hauled out of the stadium by multiple uniformed officers and an Oregon Assistant Coach.

Kelly earned the respect of many when he tempered justice with humanity. He has allowed the now former player to remain in school and given him the opportunity to practice with the team. He will not play, but has the options of continuing an education and working out his demons. He could still clean up his act in the next 10 months in time to be considered by NFL teams.

Now it is clearly up to Mr. Blount.

<h2>You have got to be kidding. I will NEVER watch U of O football again. Coach, what a weenie you are to give in. You are a disgrace to what is right and wrong.</h2>