Heroes & Villains

Before the Oregon-Boise State college football game on Sept. 3, very few people knew about LeGarrette Blount. One day and one infamous punch later, LeGarrette Blount was the most popular name on all the Internet searches.

In an otherwise ho-hum, error-filled game that saw Boise State defeat Oregon, 19-8, before a national television audience, the best on-field action took place just moments after the game when Blount threw a right cross to the face of Boise State's Byron Hout that dropped the Bronco linebacker to the ground.

An ESPN TV replay showed Hout appeared to be taunting Blount as the teams converged onto the field. As Blount backpedaled away from the brewing melee, he took another swing at another player - this time it was his own teammate.

Blount had to be restrained by a member of Oregon's coaching staff and was escorted off the field. On the way to the tunnel, Blount got into it with several Boise State fans and nearly pulled a Ron Artest. Blount momentarily broke free from his security entourage and headed towards the stands, much like Artest did back in November of 2004 when he rushed up the stands of The Palace of Auburn Hills during a Pacers-Pistons regular-season game and engaged in an all-out throwdown with Piston fans after someone threw a water cup at him.



Fortunately for Blount, the Oregon staff member was able to grab him from behind, along with two other security personnel and two Ducks teammates, and prevented the 6-foot-2, 240-pound senior running back from recreating Artest's dubious display of poor anger management.

Once he cooled down, a regretful Blount was apologetic for the whole incident.

"I should have handled that situation a lot better than I did," Blount told reporters. "I apologize. We will never have a game like this again. The game, as it went on, just got more frustrating and more frustrating for me in general. I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have done anything."

In the NBA, any time a player throws a punch at another player results in an automatic one-game suspension. In Artest's case, Commissioner David Stern had to be more strict and, given Artest's history of unruly behavior, slapped him with an unprecedented 73-game suspension.

There's no question Blount should be punished for his unsportsmanlike conduct and Oregon's decision to suspend him for the rest of the season was justified, agreeing with a lot of the Internet polls suggesting that Blount should be kicked off the team immediately. There is no place for this type of behavior in college athletics, and Blount should have shown better restraint.

And it wasn't the first time Blount has ignored rules. According to reports, he was suspended from the team in February for "failure to fulfill team obligations." He reportedly missed team meetings. He was reinstated before spring practice.

Hout shouldn't come out of this unscathed either. He ignited the whole incident by slapping Blount on the pads and appeared to have mouthed off something to him. Hout got an earful from Boise State coach Chris Petersen after the game.

Whatever the outcome may be, the bottom line is Blount needs to check his emotions and keep his fists to himself regardless of any "smack talk" thrown his way. If he was really upset by what was happening during the game, he should have done a little better than the minus 5 yards he tallied on eight carries.

Part of learning how to win is learning how to accept defeat. You can learn a lot about a player on how he responds to adversity.