In Defense Of The Mostly Indefensible

That is the video of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount punch Boise State defensive lineman Byron Hout after Oregon lost the game last night and Blount ended up with negative yardage. I will admit I didn't see it happen live and for most of the day I had to rely on a shorter clip. And the shorter clip actually would have made me feel a lot better about what I am about to say but with the extended clip there is no doubt that Blount was totally out of control. The guy not only punched Hout but also one of his own teammates who was trying to restrain him after the altercation. He then went on to try to pull an Artest and try to run up in the stands to fight the Boise State fans and he had to be restrained by Oregon Football staff and the police. Clearly Blount has major anger management issues and Oregon's head coach, Chip Kelly, will have to deal with him appropriately and get him a lot of help.

Having said all of that, I still have to keep it real, Byron Hout instigated the incident. That is not to say he deserved to get stole on, but it is to say that had he not come up talking shit and patting on Blount's shoulder pads its highly likely that nothing would have happened to him. If you look at the video its clear that after Hout ran up on Blount and before Blount punched him, one of Boise State's coaches was already about to reprimand Hout. The coach can be seen pushing Hout and grabbing him about to jack him up right before Blount drops him with a punch and even after Hout goes down the Coach seems to still be admonishing him.

Had Blount only thrown that one punch and then calmed down and walked away I would almost be willing to bet that he wouldn't have faced that great a discipline just because Hout started it. But being that he lost his mind and was still flipping out well after the incident he almost guaranteed that he gets hit with a multi game suspension.

Now one final note, ex Notre Dame coach Bob Davie was commentating the game and he pissed me off in what he said about the incident directly after it happened. If you go to the 2:18 mark of the video you hear Davie excusing Hout's taunting because Blount had said things to the media prior to the game about how he was going to perform against the Boise State defense. That is not something an adult in general or a coach in particular should be saying on national Tee Vee. You should win like a champion and lose like a champion and acting an ass after a game because an opposing player acted an ass before the game is not what champions do. I really think he should issue an apology for saying something so stupid.