When LaGarrette Blount punched Byron Hout after the Oregon and Boise State game, my initial reaction was wow he’s going to get suspended a couple games.  After today’s decision by The University of Oregon to suspend him the rest of the regular and post season was very excessive.  I’m not in anyway condoning what took place but the blame for the totality of what happened should be spread around.  Hout was the antagonist in the situation.  In the video clips it’s very clear he skipped by Blount smacking his pads and saying something while Blount was walking with his head down, that obviously Blount took personally.  Only those two know what was actually said, but anyone with any sense at all knows it was something disparaging about how Oregon fared in the game. What Hout said that started the whole fracas is seeming to be pushed aside and a great deal of the blame placed on Hout’s plate.  If you haven’t been an athlete competing in a hostile environment or a big game you can’t begin to understand the energy and emotions that run through all players before, during and after the game.  In a game that meant so much to both teams, this energy and emotion had been building up since the schedules for both teams came out.  So after putting so much preparation, effort and anticipating a great game for months to simply turn it off once the game was done is something that is done differently by each individual player.  Which leads me back to Hout had he said and done nothing, then instead of talking about what happened after the game, we’d be talking about what happened during the game.  Including how good Boise State’s defense looked, and their chances of going undefeated this season, after dispatching their toughest opponent on paper for the season.  Yet here we are. 

This week Ricky Rubio, who was the top draft choice this year for the Minnesota Timberwolves decided to stay in his native Spain at least for two more years and play, he made new general manager David Kahn look very foolish for wasting the pick on him.  David Kahn the rookie general manager has put his reputation and possibly his job on the line by not putting people around an emerging dominant post player in Al Jefferson.  Anyone else reminded of the previous gm Kevin McHale and how he did the same to one Kevin Garnett?  McHale had numerous chances to surround Garnett with players that could compliment his perennial all-star power forward.  If Kahn isn’t very careful he will doom his current burgeoning star to the same fate as Garnett.

Yesterday soon after Brett Farve ended his brief retirement and signed with the Minnesota Vikings, all the talk was has Favre stained or tarnished his legacy by coming back yet again.  I will say the Vikings mishandled the situation with all the mixed signals and on again off again deadlines while awaiting a decision from Favre.  While the whole process was tedious and reported on almost daily to the point of driving many following or reporting on it crazy.  How has what transpired detract from Favre's legacy?  Did he somehow lose a big game or throw another interception while trying to be the gunslinger people have exalted him for being?  No, he went to a division rival of the former team he will forever be linked with carrying for 17 years and rejuvenating the team and city in the process.  Legacy in terms of a player in sports are things a player is remembered for by fans and media and how they are celebrated and remembered.  Yet somehow something that really doesn't belong to anyone but athletes, in this case Favre is being  negatively talked and bantered about. It's as if everyone but him has a say in how, who and when he should play or not play for.  Pundits wondered what it will do to legacy he established with the team that he is a symbol, but  didn't want him starting anymore.  This is completely the circumstances of today's NFL.  No one let alone an iconic figure in the NFL should be judged or told they shouldn't play for a certain team or within a certain division, because it's somehow wrong.  If that's the case with that logic no one who had an established career could play anywhere else but where they established themselves. That's utter lunacy.

Mike Vike just recently signed a two year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.  Yes, the same person guilty and convicted of heinous crimes against animals.  Vick's name is very well known in almost all homes nationwide as a supremely talented Pro Bowl quarterback turned unmerciful dog fighter and killer.  The latter offense is which he is seemingly most remembered for.