The world has seen University of Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount punch Boise State’s Byron Hout way too many times.  I will be the first to say that Blount went to a state of insanity afterward trying to go into the crowd to fight, which skews my opinion, but it seems a bit crazy to end this kid’s career over a horrible indiscretion that was brought on directly from baiting from Hout.

If you have been living under a rock for the last week, I posted the video below.  Blount was a 2nd team pre-season All American running back, playing the first game of his senior season , on national television as the kickoff game of the college football season.  His team gets beat, he has a horrible game, eight rushes for minus five yards.  I would have to imagine it wasn’t the start he or Oregon was looking for.  Also, football is much different than baseball or basketball.  You are awarded for your unbridled aggressiveness and physicality.  It is a game of controlled rage, so emotions are many times off the charts.

Fast forward to the end of the game, Blount is walking to the Oregon sideline and Hout runs at him, slaps him on the shoulder pad and yells something at him, with a big smirk on his face.  Blount responds by taking a swing at him within a second of hearing what Hout had to say.  It is hard for me to believe that it could be considered a ’sucker punch’.  A sucker punch is when you sneak up on someone and they have no idea what is coming.  I don’t condone what Blount did, but I have a strong feeling that the whole story has not come to light for some reason.

People from Oregon have stated that either Hout asked Blount how one of his dead relatives are doing (who passed away the week prior), or used a racial slur.  If this is indeed the case, it still might not warrant an immediate punch in the face, but suspension for the rest of the season, and probably ending any shot at a professional career, that seems far too harsh.

If Byron Hout was a real man, he would stand up and disclose exactly what was said to Blount.  In the end, it all could have been avoided by Hout celebrating the victory with his teammates instead of making a point to go after someone on the opposing team.  The media loves to vilify people, which they have done endlessly with Blount, but Hout stepping forward, and everyone knowing the whole story could cast a much different light on this unfortunate situation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.