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. 

While what Blount did to Hout should be punishable by a 3-5 game suspension it shouldn’t have been the entire season.  I feel while though the official suspension says Blount is suspended for the punch, it has a large part to deal with what almost happened in the stands with Blount and the fans.  The almost incident reminded me of what almost happened a few years back when the Gloden State Warriors and Portland Trailblazers of the NBA, had an on court fight between players almost spilled into the stands.  The reason that both incidents happened with the fans was because of fans raining down insult upon insult and jeering the opposing team.  In my opinion all levels of sports from high school up need to mandate and enforce a policy that holds the fans to the same standard of behavior that those they came to watch are held to.  It’s becoming more and more of a problem across many sports and needs to be seriously looked at and rectified.

I feel it’s becoming this way because of all of the media coverage teams and players get and the fans feel closer than ever to the team and players. The media has an uncanny ability to push their own personal agenda and getting some fans to feel or see the game as they do.  Media outlets show and report on things as they see fit based on basically who’s the “in” team or player. This is more than evident in setting aside a group people preseason for postseason awards, not letting it get played out on the field.  There are so many remarkable players around the country that get little consideration in the awards process it’s disgusting.  In this case ESPN’s repeatedly showed the punch thrown and landed but not what preceded it.  With them choosing this approach people continuously see the punch and feel that Blount acted without provocation.  Do they just show a person charging the baseball mound without first showing the pitch that made them do so?  Does ESPN just show the fights in the NHL without prefacing what lead to the fight?  The visual picture they painted with last nights incident just showing the punch and Blount trying to confront the fans that were berating him was of a out of control neanderthal.

All I’m saying if Blount deserves a season long ban then Hout should get at least half that.  If he had just walked by and said nothing or just shook hands then this wouldn’t be a national story.  If Hout would have showed some class in winning then Blount still would be considered a talented running back with a future in the NFL.  If Hout had been a contrite winner then the fans wouldn’t have felt they needed to say anything derogatory to Blount.  If Hout had just been happy with the win and didn’t need to rub it in, then his team wouldn’t have to be answering questions for the foreseeable future about what happened and how do you focus on your upcoming games taking away from their focus. If only... we’ll never know.

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