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Joe Schad of ESPN Tweeted today that Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount has been reinstated to the Ducks’ active roster.
Blount was eligible to come back last Saturday at Stanford, but as we told you last Friday, Ducks Coach Chip Kelly preferred to bring Blount back at the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium in Eugene, not on the road. Read more…
Tweet this afternoon from PORTLAND OREGONIAN columnist and sports radio host John Canzano:
Blount is eligible to return Saturday as the Ducks play at Stanford, but it doesn’t appear, at least from Canzano’s Tweet, that he’ll make the trip. Read more…
As if Jim Harbaugh didn’t have enough to prepare for on Saturday, now there’s rumbling that this may be the week LeGarrette Blount rejoins the Ducks. Of course Stanford’s head coach shouldn’t fret too much; anyone who’s been following college football at all (what do you mean you haven’t?) knows that Oregon is doing passably well without him.
We knew that coach Chip Kelly was contemplating bringing Blount back at some point. The bigger question is, why? Is it wise to roll a grenade into the middle of a seven-game winning streak? Some say it’s for money, others that Kelly wants a hole card as the Ducks move closer to the really important games. Or, could he really just have the kid’s best interests at heart? Only Chip knows for sure, and he’s playing this one cagey.
Got to thinking today about the Univ. of Oregon playing the Tony Dungy card in its case for the reinstatement of LeGarrette Blount’s playing career. (Along with the other prominent figures cited by UO Coach Chip Kelly as party to Blount’s image overhaul: Dr. Harry Edwards, Kermit Washington and Jon Gruden.)
Considering that virtually every media account of Blount’s future reinstatement included a mention of Dungy visiting with the player, I set out today to find out just how much time Dungy has spent with Blount.
After an extensive online search resulted in virtually no details, I contacted prominent OREGONIAN columnist John Canzano and Univ. of Oregon Executive Assistant Athletic Director of Media Services (SID) David Williford to find out what they knew.
Williford emailed this response about the Dungy-Blount exchange: “I don’t have info regarding Blount’s contact with Coach Dungy, other than I know it was by phone. I don’t know how many times or how long.”
Canzano’s responds after the jump. Read more…
Say, remember how LeGarrette Blount crapped the bed harder than you’d ever seen anyone in college football ever crap a bed in your life? In the span of one game on awful blue turf (and one very eventful postgame), Blount went from a strong contender for first-team all-Pac-10, high draft choice and darkhorse Heisman candidate to a man whose season would end with 6 more suspensions than rushing yards - and he only got suspended once. Shortly thereafter, Chip Kelly announced that Blount’s suspension was to last the season, and that was that on the senior’s collegiate career.
(”Welcome to Paintown. Allow me to introduce you to Mayor McHellfist.”)
But that wasn’t, in fact, that. It never is, really. Despite being a suspended senior with no ostensible hope of playing another meaningful down for Oregon, Blount was never kicked off the team. He began the apology parade shortly thereafter, and even met with the original face-wrecker of sports, Kermit Washington. And lo and behold, just as we mused this afternoon in light of his published apology to the OREGON DAILY EMERALD, Kelly’s about to take the next step toward bringing Blount back in a few weeks. You could just knock us over with a feather, really.
• The new Cowboys Stadium opens with a couple of embarrassing picks, courtesy of Tony Romo & Jerry Jones.
• Well, at least the fans had fun inside the new digs in Dallas - unless you had a “party pass” but weren’t allowed in.
• An angry Oregon fan wants his travel expenses back after watching the Ducks get plucked in Boise. So UO coach Chip Kelly sends him a check.
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. delivers a verbal beatdown to Max Kellerman during Floyd’s post-fight interview.
• This week’s sports Twitter craziness comes courtesy Redskins LB Robert Henson, Larry Fitzgerald’s younger brother Marcus, and Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema.
• The Dallas Cowboys’ brand-new billion-dollar stadium was christened with a plethora of picks, courtesy of Tony Romo & Jerry Jones.
• Seems that the only thing that could possibly slow down the Florida Gators is the dreaded swine flu.
• Sadly, four Gator fans were killed in a small plane crash after returning from Saturday’s game in Gainesville.
• And now some fun video of a Bayou Bengals fan bombed out of his mind.
• An Arkansas high school football coach gets a kick out of never having his team punt.
It’s perfectly natural for a football fan to be pissed off after their team loses a game. People say things, throw things, and drink things they don’t really mean to - it’s part of being a college football fan. When your team does so in embarrassing and epic fashion, as the Oregon Ducks did in their highly-anticipated Thursday night season opener against Boise State, the emotions run even higher. High enough, even, for one Oregon graduate to engage in that most formal of protests: the strongly-worded letter.
(Billable hours.)
Long favored by the elderly and the mentally ill to express their displeasure at…well, everything, the strongly-worded letter is a uniquely personal way to lodge a complaint against a person, a company, or, in this case, the Oregon Ducks’ pitiful performace several weeks ago in Boise. Usually, the letter in question is passed around and laughed at by its recipients (I worked in customer service for years, trust me on this). Occasionally, the sender might even get a form letter response. Oregon fan Tony Seminary received something slightly different - a personal check from Ducks coach Chip Kelly.
LeGarrette Blount has spent plenty of time on the phone lately — what else does he have to do? — getting advice on what his next step should be. (Not contacted so far: Tom Cable, Buddy Ryan). His most recent call was from Kermit Washington, whom you may recall was involved in a rather noteworthy punching incident of his own.
During a fight between the Lakers and the Rockets in 1977, Washington punched Houston’s Rudy Tomjanovich in the face, breaking his jaw and leaving him unconscious. It was probably the most infamous punch outside of a boxing ring until, perhaps, Blount’s blow to the noggin of Boise State’s Byron Hout on Thursday. And according to Washington, it pretty much ruined his life. Read more…
Last night’s season-opening college football doubleheader on ESPN was a nightmare for fans everywhere. It started off with South Carolina’s dreadful 7-3 win over N.C. State, and wrapped up with a much-hyped matchup between Boise State and Oregon that quickly turned into a one-sided snoozefest. Things couldn’t have been more embarrassing for the Ducks, who didn’t even manage to get a first down until the 7:07 mark of the third quarter. Oh, wait, I guess it could get worse:
Yup, that’s Oregon running back/loose cannon LeGarrette Blount, saving the evening, entertainment-wise, by lighting up Boise State’s Byron Hout with a right cross as the teams left the field after Boise State’s 19-8 win that wasn’t really anywhere near that close. Blount, you see, had promised to give the Broncos an “ass whuppin’” in the weeks leading up to the game, and since he didn’t really deliver that while the clock was running (he had 8 carries for -5 yards) I guess he figured he might as well get a shot in afterward.
There have been some stunning falls from grace over the years, but 18 hours ago I was hearing HEISMAN PUNDIT touting Blount as a darkhorse Heisman candidate on the Dan Patrick Show. Even Boise’s paper was talking him up. Now, not only did Blount obliterate any of that talk with his game performance last night, but it appears as if he may have completely ruined his college career by losing his mind afterward. And, if you think the punch was bad, things got even uglier a few moments later. Video after the jump.
