Instant Analysis - The Punch
The LeGarrette Blount Meltdown
By Pete
Fiutak
Everyone is going to have the exact same reaction to the extremely well-connected punch thrown by Oregon RB LeGarrette Blount to the jaw of Boise State sophomore defensive end Byron Hout following the end of the Broncos' 19-8 win over the Ducks.
Everyone is going to instantly demand that Blount be kicked off the team, he’ll be made out to be the embodiment of everything that might be wrong with college football, and there will be many who'll ask for a heavier punishment. Some might wonder aloud about possible assault charges, and some might say that wearing the horrific-looking Oregon uniform was punishment enough. There will be various degrees of knee-jerk analysis following the ugly punctuation to the start of the 2009 season, but it'll all follow the exact same form.
And with good reason.
There is no excuse for physical violence as a reaction to anything said. Never. Yeah, anyone who has ever competed at something and has had their heart ripped out in a loss knows exactly how raw nerves are in the immediate aftermath, and everyone has had some moment in their lives when they’d like to revert to the most primal of instincts and inflict bodily harm on some jerkweed who verbally pushes the right buttons or extends a finger after getting honked at for talking on a cell phone while going 45 in the left lane. But we don’t, for the most part, and we can’t.
Every fan gets it, to a point, and fully understands that ten minutes after their team loses in the bottom of the ninth on a home run, or gets beaten on a last-second prayer from half court, or sees the championship dream die in a blink of an eye, that there is something of an irrational, emotional aspect to sports that’s part of the reason why winning is so special and losing hurts so much. And to be fair, Hout appeared to be taunting Blount and was looking to rub it in to the point where Boise State head coach, Chris Petersen, had to take his player by the shoulder pads and yelled at him. And then came the punch.
Had Blount missed, this would’ve been seen as an ugly incident that deserved a suspension of at least a few games. But Blount connected in a dream shot that buckled Hout’s knees and appeared to knock him out for a few seconds. Whatever happens to Blount, he might be busted as much for being accurate as he will be for throwing the punch in the first place, and that’s an important distinction. Had he missed, he could’ve argued that he got caught up in the heat of the moment and at the last possible nano-second chose to sail his shot wide. But there’s no mistaking the punch and its connection, and there’s no sugar coating what needs to happen next.
Blount’s career as an Oregon football player needs to be over. If football programs are the ultimate public relations tool for a university, which they unfortunately are, then there can’t be any incidents like this of such a high profile nature. All week, talk radio shows across the country and all columnists with a voice won’t be talking about the Oregon business school or its philosophy department. They’ll be talking about how Blount was able to be on the team in the first place after a tumultuous offseason with a suspension and a death in the family, but every program has players who have off-the-field problems of some sort.
Had Blount punched a guy in a bar, this would’ve been side item news, he would’ve been suspended for a “violation of team rules,” and then he would be back for the USC game. But Blount can’t escape this, and now, because the images are so vivid, he’ll be thrown in the same bus as Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, and other sports figures who are seen as lawless thugs and will end up feeling the outrage of a bored sports nation that’s desperate to jump all over the villain of the moment. That Blount went ballistic, after being taunted by a fan in the stands, and had to be restrained by assistant coach Scott Frost, who made the best tackle any Oregon Duck had come up with all night, only adds gas to the fire. In college football, in this case, it’s one strike and you’re out, and no one knows this better than Oregon, who famously has been all about image thanks to super-booster and Nike chairman, Phil Knight.
Of course, if this was the NFL, even in Roger Goodell’s iron-fisted world, it would be different argument. Albert Haynesworth’s stomping of Andre Gurode was far more vicious and far more dangerous than Blount’s punch, and now the Washington Redskin has a $100 million dollar contract. It could be argued that Brett Favre’s chickenspit crackback block on Eugene Wilson of the Houston Texans was far worse than Blount’s action, but that was in the middle of a play (although it was totally inexcusable and Favre should be suspended for it). But for all its hypocrisy and all its issues, college football players have to be held to a higher standard because they’re the representatives of something more than a multi-billion dollar corporation. For Blount, this is what he’ll always be known for no matter what he does with the rest of his life, and this is what’s going to define the Oregon season that’s not more than a half a day old.
Oregon fans, don’t try to make excuses just because he’s a superstar player and your season might go in the tank without him. Do your university proud and demand that you don’t want him representing you or your school on the football field.
Activists, don’t make this a black-and-white issue (unless it comes out that Hout said anything racially motivated, in which case there’s a whole other story to deal with). At the moment, this is simply one player talking smack to another, and getting bopped for it, at a time when emotions were high.
And let’s not make this a world-against-LeGarrette Blount issue. It wasn’t a sucker punch, and wrong as it might have been, he was provoked. He’s only 22-years-old, and while he obviously has anger management issues, it’s not fair to let one very public incident that’ll be replayed a bazillion times on YouTube over the next few months ruin his life.
Blount shouldn’t be allowed to play football at Oregon anymore. And for his sins, hopefully, others will learn from the price he’ll no doubt end up paying.