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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…
Today Oregon announced it was going to probably rescind its season-long suspension of right-cross-impaired LeGarrette Blount.
Based on Blount’s questionable behavior before the Boise State game ever occurred, I didn’t have a problem with Ducks Coach Chip Kelly ’suspending’ Blount for the season. I also think it’s reasonable to rescind the suspension if Blount has shown he can get his act together. (As soon as we found out Tony Dungy was involved, it was a safe bet dude would soon be back in Oregon’s regrettable gear.)
One thing I haven’t seen talked about much, which was mentioned today by Steve Hartman on Fox Sports Radio, was that if Blount’s punch hadn’t landed squarely or the camera hadn’t been so perfectly trained on the jaw-drop moment, Blount most likely wouldn’t have gotten the harsh punishment he received. Of course, that doesn’t excuse what Blount did to Byron Hout, or his outrageous reaction to crowd taunts.
Another interesting observation on Blount’s situation came from respected OREGONIAN columnist John Canzano. Canzano claimed on ESPN-TV earlier today that perhaps Kelly was bringing Blount back because the Ducks had resurrected their season. And that the coach might’ve yielded to pressure from Oregon boosters.
Problem with that though is Oregon has played its best football without Blount, and it’s likely that even if he returns to the team, he probably won’t be the Ducks’ top running back anymore. LaMichael James is averaging six yards per carry since Blount was blown out by his outburst, and he’s likely to continue getting the bulk of the carries,
While there’s been an orgy of media coverage about Blount’s possible return, another sports figure who also got trucked in a colossal case of bad public judgement quietly slipped back into his highest profile gig this week. 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.
Some Web sites offer you “insider” information on which teams to put money on during the week’s big football games. But only Sports by Brooks has the ultimate insider: Jesus Christ. That’s right, each week Our Lord and Savior will descend from Heaven to offer His insight into the week’s top games. And with over 60 percent of all college and NFL players attributing their success to Him, no one is more qualified to pick winners.
I know a lot of people wrote into me (bigbettinjc@godmail.com) to give me grief for going 2-3 last weekend. To the people who doubt my wisdom, I can just say that this is a journey and not a short trip. Or as Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” So instead of asking how your picks did, we’ll just use our knowledge gleaned from last week’s games to make better picks.
• 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.
Earlier this week, Pete Carroll raise a few eyebrows when he more or less said that Washington’s Jake Locker was a better QB than Terrelle Pryor. After all, Carroll’s Trojans just beat Terrelle’s Buckeyes, and #3 USC was expected to humiliate the Huskies up in Seattle today. I mean, come on - Washington was winless last year and needed to beat lowly Idaho last week to end a 15-game losing streak.
Turns out Pete was right all along - and we’re sure he wishes he wasn’t.
