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Did anyone find University of Oregon football player LeGarrette Blount's punch disgraceful? Do you think that his suspension from playing for the rest of the season just or too mild? I was surprised and at the same time, not surprised.
What has happened to the days when sports figures were held to a higher standard of conduct in general as role models? With dog fighting, steriod use and other just bad behavior in professional sports, this college football snafu leaves one to wonder what's left there to admire? Who can be more of a thug?
Probably was about right A rugby player in the UK was recently banned for four months and fined $425,000 for faking an injury so he could be substituted where the rules did not allow substitution except in the case of injury. The coach that orchestrated the deception was banned for four years.
It is the difference between a spontaneous act and a premeditated one.
In aggressive sports like American football and rugby the occasional violent reaction is almost inevitable.
Stuart
6 
IMHO, a little restraint on both sides could have prevented the situation from escalating beyond the typical athlete altercation.
Granted that talking sh!t is part of sports, it is still a no-brainer -- to most people -- that different people handle taunting differently. And right or wrong, doing or saying certain things to certain people at the wrong time isn't always the smartest thing to do.
Fortunately, not much harm was done in this case & hopefully LeGarrette Blount's apology was sincere & he'll use the undoubtedly earned scolding from this on-field situation as a gracious lesson on how to better handle himself both on & off-field in the future ... we all know what happens when this type of uncouth behavior is not checked early enough.
5
I would like to know what the Boise player said that prompted Blount to punch him. I'm not saying that anything justified the punch, but I'm sure a mother or sister directed comment, right after a tough loss, would get me a tad angry also.
Let's look at a few other details related to this incident...
As most of us know, the punch wasn't the end of his tirade. It continued on the sideline and all the way into the tunnel. However, take a close look at the video and watch the "adult" in the white shirt and tie about 3 people deep beyond Blout. I could be wrong, but it seems pretty clear to me that he shouted FU as well as a few other things to Blout.
While this still doesn't relieve the student of any responsibility for his actions, I guarantee nothing happened to the nicely dressed adult who may have help re-instigate the situation.
As far as the punishment, it goes far deeper than just a suspension. One could say it goes millions of times deeper than just a suspension.
Blout is a senior. A star running back senior. A star running back senior who some felt may have been drafted early in the third round next year. Now he's a senior who will not be able to showcase his talents in front of the NFL scouts while all the other senior running backs will. One NFL scout was reported as saying that he has gone from an early third round pick to undraftable.
I don't know what kind of contracts a third round running back gets these days, but I bet it's a bit more than an undraftable senior with no senior year highlight videos and so much baggage he couldn't afford to get on a plane.
This "one year suspension" is absolutely huge considering it ended his college football career.
6
If we are really interested in stopping actions like this then instead of punishing the player punish the school or team. They give up that game and set out the next four for an infraction like this. The entire season for worse. Let them take action against the player and deal with it in house. This will work especially well with major league teams. Won't be long and the recruiting process will alter itself. No longer will we have players that although born and raised here can't speak english or tie their own shoes. Just because they can run or cripple someone that can is the only recruiting we do now. If these institutions that depend on the money brought in by these games have to find players with an ounce of common sence life may change. After all they brought this jerk in offered anything just for him to play and at this point don't care if he is capable of contributing to society when he leaves school. This sad sack is being handed and education that would cost most hundreds of thousands and he has no self control. Just think if he doesn't get to the pros chances are he will be educating our kids.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
5
But he's sorry...
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/col...
Right! Sorry the photogs were there.
Skip
1
If I went around punching everyone who taunted me or told me to fvck off, I would have been in jail a LONG time ago...lol
I don't understand why they are "making" him participate in practices & team meetings if he's been suspended for the entire season? Keep him away from the team, he's poison. Just make sure he attends every single one of his classes & maintains at least a 2.5 GPA, after all, isn't that what college is for - education? And if he can't handle the academics, throw his azz out!
On a side note, I never understood why fighting is tolerated in hockey. Admittedly I'm not a hockey fan, but if it's not tolerated in other sports, why is it OK in hockey? Why can't they (the players) be like normal people - just hold it in til you get home, then take it out of the wife & kids?
3
Yeah Derby, his career is over. It should be too.
Likely,
I agree; the school should be fined and/or eliminated from one or more conference games.jam,
Me too, jail or the hospital lol. And you're right, that kid is poison to the players around him and the athletic program at Oregon.Does anyone here think Blount was sorry enough to look up the phone numbers at Boise State so he could make his apologies?
Bet y'all a beer that Blount (Oregon) wrangles a transfer to another school and picks up where he left off.
Skip
3
>>>"Bet y'all a beer that Blount (Oregon) wrangles a transfer to another school and picks up where he left off."<<<
Maybe, but not likely a Division-1 school. College football isn't as much like the NFL (where scofflaws can maneuver from team to team without much retribution). Any school that picks him has to take his baggage with him, and something as well-broadcast as his incident is pretty hefty...
3
Bet y'all a beer that Blount (Oregon) wrangles a transfer to another school and picks up where he left off.
Probably not at any school under the auspices of the NCAA.
This is from a very good article found at:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behinddu...
"Theoretically, Blount could get a sixth year of eligibility and play elsewhere next season or even this season for a Division II school, but each route would require an unlikely waiver from the NCAA. "It may be insurmountable," said Bill Clever, Oregon's executive assistant athletic director for compliance."The best case is that he stays with the team, continues to practice so he's stays in football shape and some teams are interested enough to let him try out as a walk-on.
The real question is: Does he have the discipline to follow this through knowing he won't see any game time this season and that his NFL future is seriously in question.
Do you want to go over or under for October 1 as the day he quits practice?
5
Jam,
Go to a Hockey game. I hate hockey but there is nothing funnier than two grown large men trying to fight on ice skates. I imagine break dancing would look the same on ice. I have always assumed it was allowed because the rest of the game is so dull. Smear the queer with sticks.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
1
I honestly don't know Derby; my gut feeling is that this kid doesn't have what it takes to stick with it.
Skip
1
Go to a Hockey game
Isn't interesting that in hockey, fights are expected among the players and fans alike, yet in college football a sucker punch is a huge scandal?
1
I don't see a scandal. I see either a wasted scholorship or a school that doesn't care as much about education as it does putting butts in the seats to watch a game. I am willing to bet they get money from the goverment as well. More waste.
HEY!!! I have a new idea for cutting the deficit!!!!
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
3
Just saw it on youtube: It's pretty bad but I don't think it warrants a full year suspension. As DerbyDad says, it looks like it will massively curtail this guy's career/earning potential.
From the UK perspective, people throwing punches in Rugby is pretty common and it certainly wouldn't lead to such a long ban.
4
people throwing punches in Rugby is pretty common
That's gotta hurt given no protective gear!
0
I, too, think the season-long suspension is somewhat excessive. Granted he was suspended not long ago, I don't think that infraction should have had a decisive influence on the punishment for his arguably reprehensible behavior, considering that this wasn't actually premeditated & it in fact involved a Boise State player Byron Hout, who wasn't a completely innocent victim as he's being portrayed in the clocking incident.
I have a feeling the school had already lost confidence in him prior to this incident & they weren't going to waste a golden opportunity to fix that situation for good. The fact that it was a highly beneficial move financially for the school doesn't mean the punishment was just ... Oh well, if the NFL doesn't workout for him, I guess there's the CFL or UFL & if all those opportunities fall through, he can always try his hands on boxing :-)
4
Should Byron Hout, who supposedly incited Blount with a tap on the shoulder pad and perhaps some trash-talking words, be punished as well? Or is getting clocked on national TV humiliation enough?
0
The latest I heard is that Boise State is handling this as an "internal matter".
Some sportscasters equate this as similar to how a "missed practice" or "sleeping at a meeting" would be handled. Their thoughts were that this is already too public to be handled internally, but I think that if Boise can keep it out of the media for the time being, they will get away with it.
As far as Hout is concerned, I wonder what would have happened if the incident would have ended with the punch and Blount had not gone berserk on the sidelines. The taunting by Hout was completely lost in the aftermath of the total incident.
I wonder what would have happened if it was as simple as "Why did you punch him?" "Look and the video - he hit me first and called my mother a whore. What would you have done?" (I made the mother part up). I think Blount's punishment would have been less severe and Hout would have been disciplined also.
Of course, this scenario is played out in football, hockey and many other sports - indeed, in life! - on an almost daily basis: It's rarely the instigator that gets punished, it usually the retaliator. The refs, the parents, the cops don't see (or hear) what or who started the incident, they only see the thrown punch, the thrown toy or the results of the shots fired in retaliation.
3
Here's something that angered me yesterday...
A sportscaster was talking to a college football analyst about the incident and asked him:
"We all know that Blount is black and Hout is white. Are you hearing any rumblings about the punishment being so severe because of that? Is anyone saying that if a white player had punched a black player he would not have been suspended for a year?"
The analyst was "nice" and simply said "No, I'm not hearing any of that” and managed to change the subject.
I wish he had had the b*lls to say "The only one I'm hearing it from is you and I think it's totally uncalled for. This was not a racial incident, the punishment was not racially motivated and the fact that you even mentioned it makes me think you are a racist.”
4
NFL players kill people and get to play again.
Until that a*hole winds up in prison he'll make money playing football.
Oh, and he WILL wind up in prison sooner or later.
We were the unwilling, led by the unqualified, to do the unnecessary, for the ungrateful.
VietNam War Poster
2
It's rarely the instigator that gets punished, it usually the retaliator. The refs, the parents, the cops don't see (or hear) what or who started the incident, they only see the thrown punch, the thrown toy or the results of the shots fired in retaliation.
So true! Betcha he wouldn't have done it if he had not been provoked. Doesn't justify it, just provides some backdrop.
0
"The latest I heard is that Boise State is handling this as an "internal matter.""
Why does it have to be an internal matter?
How innocuous could Hout's words have been that we have to wait for a book deal to find out what was said before the clocking? It's going to be disappointing to find out later that this whole ordeal was over the words 'b!tch & scoreboard.'
3
"...we have to wait for a book deal to find out what was said before the clocking..."
What would be the title of the two-word masterpiece?
Where the Wild Things Are, the Sequel
How to Ruin your Life in 60 Seconds - A Guidebook
For Whom the Punch Tolls
A Tale of Two Teams
1
The Punch Heard Round The World
Punch & Judy Go To College <-- That's for OtH!
One Punch Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Treasure Punch-landWe could go on all day!
3
One punch for sister Sara
Little Punch on the Prarie
Punch Drunk Heaven
"Knockout" The untold story
Law and order Criminal Intent oh wait that ones taken.Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
3
"One Punch Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
Nice!
"We could go on all day!"
Please do, puns welcome on this thread!
0
How to break noses and influence friends.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
5
And if the two-word novel became a movie...
- Ben-Hurt
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Numb Skull
- Star Wars: Episode V - The Running Back Strikes Back
- The Karate College Kid
- An Officer And A Gentleman...Not
2
It may become a sitcom "Punchy Brewster"
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
2
To punch or not to punch, that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to throw
The fist of outrageous stupidity,
Or to take slugs against my teammates,
And by hurting them, end my career? To punch: to lose.
2
I'm not familiar with NFL.
But I watched the youtube clip and that bloke was a victim of Blount force trauma.
So now there's been a mutiny on the Blounty?
2
"...mutiny on the Blounty?"
Aye matey...thar he blows! Arrrrh!
FYI. What's a pirate's favorite fast food? Answer: Arrrrby's.
0
Oh my!!! Me thinks we may have held on to this one too long.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
1
"...Me thinks we may have held on to this one too long."
But wait...please don't tell me that the magic is over...it can't be over just yet...I'm hoping to see a Haiku or song lyric adaptations from the brilliant minds of the loungers like you...Raise the bar!
0
Lmao I was reffering to
"FYI. What's a pirate's favorite fast food? Answer: Arrrrby's."
But no the magic isn't gone. Here is your song title.
Punch Punch Baby by Vanilla Punch
LikelyPractice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
3
Highest praise for the Haiku! As for the Vanilla Punch, that actually sounds downright tasty, like a rootbeer float.
1
*With my head in my hands.* Oh no. *Shaking head*
Likley
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
0
Hey all, a weekend of college football and it was uneventful.
Or was it? And the top nominees are...
'Big Yawn' category:
Ohio State 38, Toledo 0 (yawn)
Oklahoma 45, Tulsa 0 (yawn)'Surprise! ...Not!' category
Michigan 45, Eastern Michigan 17 (Surprise! ...not)
Penn State 31, Temple 6
LSU 31, Louisiana-Lafayette 3'Hey, really? Too bad I didn't watch?' category
Washington 16, USC 13
Virginia Tech 15, Nebraska 15
0
I watched a pee wee game last week. These kids were like 8 or 9. I enjoyed that more than I ever have any college or pro game. The final was 6-0.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
0
re: The final was 6-0
You mean they actually kept score?
What are they trying to do - destroy the confidence of the "losers"?
How dare they declare that one group of 8 year olds is better than another! That's unheard of in this day and age.
Everyone should get a blue participation ribbon and have to listen to some adult who never played a sport in their life declare that "You are all winners today and your life’s are better for experiencing the camaraderie of this game."
0
@DerbyDad
That's a nice message.
Any little league coaches out there who have spread a similar message as DerbyDad suggested or is the score kept carefully like in the big leagues?
0
Radix-64:
I guess the sarcasm didn't come through.
I thought the "listen to some adult who never played a sport in their life" would have made the sarcasm obvious.
1
LMAO @ the short bus rider. Actually down here in da souf we don't coddle our chilen they ways theys does up norths. Both teams did go for pizza after though. Down here we also look for any excuse to drink so ofcourse all the fathers had beer while the kids were eating. I miss playin football as a kid can't stand to watch it on t.v. though, makes me sick. I was a couple years ahead of Emmit Smith when he played here. The day I saw the sign " Wiil Play for $4million" I turned it off and will not watch again.
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
1
@SkipCox
Thanks for the update.
"...It's not a football decision, it's a human being decision. It's about that individual," Kelly said Friday..."
What a magnanimous sentiment by coach Kelly. Has the coach also suggested to Byron Hout that he should offer up his other cheek to Blount to be socked as well, in keeping with this theme of forgiveness and redemption?
1
I've noticed many cities around the country are crying about loosing teachers due to budget cuts. I am curious. How many of them cut their high shool sports programs before sending the teachers packing?
Likely
Practice makes perfect but only if you practice perfectly!
1
Well Derby...
Soccer on Meth?
Ref provided by Hells Angels MC?
A Roller Derby coach?Regardless, all she has to do is follow the example of a lame apology, take a short rest, and then back to business.
Skip
1
Gotta keep the money flowing to those colleges otherwise they may raise their tuitions. Oh wait they did!
Likely
I want to go like my grandfather did. Peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming at the top of my lungs like the passengers in his car.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")
1
@DerbyDad03
That ladies video was shocking. I might start watching ladies soccer--makes the guys football punch a bit like playing patty-cake. On second thought, I *still* can't watch soccer--way too low scoring. You can watch for hours with a zero to zero score. On the opposite end of the spectrum, basketball is too high-scoring a game. Football scores...just right.
0
re: Roller Derby coach?
Ah...the memories of growing up in NYC and spending Saturday mornings at Madison Square Garden watching Roller Derby.
Now that's a blast from the past!
I'll bet that many of today's WWE wrestling moves have their origins in Roller Derby.
2
Men's, Women's, High School, College and semi-pro.
In any group of people, whether it be a school, a workplace, a sports team, whatever, you're going to find the full gamut of personalities.
More often than not, it's going to be the negative side that makes the news - and the forums. The player from the losing team who tossed an ice pack to the winning team when they ran out isn't going to get his story told.
1
When I was like 5 or 6 in San Jose we had a neighbor that my mother baby sat for. The little girls, 4, mother was a roller derby queen. She'd come to pick up her daughter after a match, game, derby whatever ya call 'em, she would look like someone had mugged and beaten her badly. I always thought her boyfriend was beating her, but, momma said "no it was her job.". We moved to South Carolina, dad was navy, a couple years later we heard she was killed leaving the arena by a drunken fan.
Likely
I want to go like my grandfather did. Peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming at the top of my lungs like the passengers in his car.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")
2
"...According to Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, Blount "paid a significant and appropriate price for the mistakes he made on the field..."
Really? And what was that price that he paid? I really doubt he felt any true remorse for what he did.
And what's the important lesson to kids? That you can be an uncivilized beast if you play for a football team that needs you in order to make a run for the Rose Bowl?
Seems like there's definitely a separate system of 'what's right' when it comes to celebrities and athletes...Need I bring up OJ to reinforce that point?
1
re: Seems like there's definitely a separate system of 'what's right' when it comes to celebrities and athletes...Need I bring up OJ to reinforce that point?
But we'd be talking 2 different points if you brought up OJ.
One could argue that Blout was reinstated by a group of people that something to gain: a run for the Rose Bowl.
No such situation was in place when OJ was acquitted.
OJ was acquitted by a bunch of star-struck jurors who had nothing to gain by letting him go free.
IMO There is no system that ties the two scenarios together.
(Don't bring up the "gain" of the A-team...they didn't acquit him, the jury did.)
Besides, the glove didn't fit so he couldn't have done it. ;-)
1
Hey my hat's off to O.J.. The entire world knows he was guilty but the L.A. P.D. screwed that entire case up. At times it appeared they went above and beyond to mess things up intentionally. I was more upset about what's his names father. This man so grief stricken over his sons death was in way to much of a hurry to profit from it for my taste. Yeah Simpson should have fried for what he did but Goldman was no better.
On a side note I think my mother has every minute of the case on vhs if anyone's interested.
LikelyI want to go like my grandfather did. Peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming at the top of my lungs like the passengers in his car.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")
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