It seems pretty difficult to portray a guy who threw a sucker punch as the victim. University of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount is clearly not blameless in the fracas that ensued at the end of the Oregon-Boise State game three weeks ago, which opened the college football season on an undoubtedly sour, disconcerting note. Nevertheless, you've got to feel bad for a guy who had his whole season taken away from him for losing his cool for five seconds following a tough defeat.
So, if I want to shift some blame away from Blount, then who's next in line? The first and obvious choice is Boise State defensive end Byron Hout, the recipient of Blount's blow. If you watch the video of the incident, you'll see that Hout, entirely unprovoked, came up from behind Blount, tapped him on the shoulder and hurled a few choice profanities at the Ducks' running back.
Not to completely excuse Blount's reaction, but come on. You taunt a guy after a tough loss and there's a significant chance that he's going to take exception to your behavior and show some animosity in return.
This leads directly into the second target for blame-shifting, the omnipresent evil that is "the media." By portraying Blount's swing as a sucker punch, the media completely condemned him in the eyes of the world. This is pretty far off from the reality of the situation, but once the impression was made, there was just no turning back.
If you were to Google "LeGarrette Blount punch" immediately after the fact, the headline of the first result would have read "LeGarrette Blount Just Sucker Punched His Way Out of College Football." Perception is reality. Blount unfortunately now carries the weight of being That Football Player Who Sucker Punched Himself to His Grave. Ask Kermit Washington how that one feels.
The media is also culpable in a more passive way. Blount chose basically the worst possible moment to throw his punch. It was the first night of the season, just after a game between two top-25 teams that was nationally televised on ESPN. Punching the Pope on Easter wouldn't have gotten him worse publicity.
Let's face it, if this had been a Week Five game televised on Fox Sports West, like the majority of Oregon's games are, there would have been maybe a quarter of the uproar. The local papers would have treated it as a big story, but the general public probably would not have known about it or cared that much.
Instead, ESPN.com, a full week after the punch, published a column by Gene Wojciechowski that referred to the incident as Blount having "used his gloved right fist as a numbing agent for Byron Hout's jaw" and a sign of the continued "punkification" of major college football. Cut the kid some slack. He lost his cool; his swing was symptomatic of nothing more than human emotion. We all get angry sometimes. Most of us just handle it a little bit better.
Worsening Blount's situation was the fact that this was Oregon coach Chip Kelly's first game, and pressure was on him to make a ‘statement,' especially following an ugly loss. So he suspended Blount for the remainder of the season, effectively ending his college career. However, Kelly emphasized that Blount was still a member of the team — he's still listed on the roster on the team's official Web site — and that he would remain on scholarship for the rest of the year.
Kelly seemed to understand what, sadly, few others did. Namely, that Blount is a good kid who made a mistake and was put through the ringer as a result of circumstance. What he did was far from permissible, but a three-to-six-week suspension would have fit the crime much better than ending the guy's collegiate career.
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Ethan Frigon is a junior majoring in economics and International Relations. He can be reached at Ethan.Frigon@tufts.edu.
