I have no problem with a stiff punishment for Blount for his behavior after the game, but it just strikes me as wrong that Hout, the guy who triggered the whole event, running up to Blount after the game, touching him and jawing him, isn’t going to miss even one game.
You want to stop taunting, you punish taunting. Hout should also miss at least a game, and probably two.
(via)
r€nato
It’s always the guy who fights back, not the guy who started it.
Political Pragmatist
Agreed, John, but…
“A talented but troubled running back who was also suspended by the team during spring practice”
He has a history. Don’t you think that might have influenced the decision?
John Cole
It really wasn’t that simple. Blount was completely out of control. had it been just a punch it would have been one thing- I could understand that- amped up, upset about the loss, adrenaline pumping, crowd jeering, and some jackass gets up in your grill, touches you, and starts talking shit as you are walking off the field.
But he totally lost his shit, hit a teammate, went after the fans, and had to be dragged out by coaches and cops. Guy deserves the whole year off.
But the punk who started it deserves some bench time.
John Cole
@Political Pragmatist: I have no problem with Blount’s punishment.
Mean Gene
In Hout’s defense, before the game Blount said that Oregon owed Boise State an “ass-whipping”. No doubt Hout went over to remind Blount of his pre-game statement and received a right cross in reply. That said, I think a one-game or so suspension would be warranted, especially as the NCAA is making a big deal about all this pre- and post-game sportsmanship nonsense.
Tom
Completely agree. They were talking about this guy being a 2nd round pick in the 2010 draft. Now, he’s not being drafted.
If some frat guy punched some guy at a party, nothing probably happens to him. He might get brought in and have to go to court, serve some probation, but the school ain’t doing anything. And certainly it’s not going to affect his lively hood once he leaves school.
This guy very well may have just had his post-collegiate career taken away from him as well as the only decent chance he had at having a very successful career in any field.
He should have missed a game or two — three at the max.
John Cole
@Tom: You are not reading my post right. I have no problem with Blount being out for a year. I have a problem with Hout not being punished at all.
Tom
Ooops. Didn’t read the whole post. Thought you said Blount should only miss a game or two.
I don’t think Blount should miss the season. It was dumb. Yes. He lost control. But it’s ONE incident. You shouldn’t in all intents and purposes take a guy’s career away from him for one incident.
Malron
@John Cole: I imagine its gotta be a lot of fun being a black kid visiting Boise, Idaho.
General Winfield Stuck
When I was a running back in High School, my senior year we played a team called Wurtland, and as the name suggests, these guys were cro-magnon, no talent, but full of piss and vinegar.
Well, one of our guys accidentally broke one of their guys legs during a tackle, and they were out for payback. A few plays later I ran the ball and one of them peeled off my helmet, and the rest piled on flailing away. I was on the bottom of the pile and didn’t get a scratch. Their punches had landed, just on each other. Bloody noses and black eyes, even one guy had a bite mark. Several couldn’t finish the game from self inflicted wounds, and a couple more got ejected.
There’s a life lesson in there somewhere, if nothing else, sometimes it’s best to be on the bottom of a pile.
Tom
@John
Yeah, as you can see I figured that out. And after seeing the kid was suspended this spring as well, the year suspension makes a little more sense. But still, missing the year and ending his career is pretty stiff. I’m guessing the coaches were very down on his attitude and behavior and that played a lot into how stiff the suspension was.
College kids do dumb things and act like complete idiots quite often. But it’s not often that the consequences are this stiff. If this is a case of making an example out of the kid — showing that Oregon is tough on throwing punches — i’d be against it. But if the kid was trouble before this, i can see the year suspension.
And I agree, the other guy should get a game or two.
Keith G
@John Cole: Yeah. As a former football and basketball coach, I have been disheartened by a growiing acceptance of trash talking as part of the game. It is not. I fear the number of coaches willing to make a game changing (or season changing) decision to confront this is growing smaller.
This is one of the reasons I find diminishing joy in being a spectator.
Jim Crozier
Hey John,
I’m a Boise State guy. It’s been reported on the Broncocountry message boards that what Hout said was:
“Hey, now you owe us two ass woopens!”
This is a reference to a comment that Blount made to the press during the offseason that Oregon “owed Boise State an ass whoopen” for us beating them in Oregon last year. He then went out and rushed for negative yardage. To me, punishing Hout would be wrong as he was just returning some trash talking back.
Why should Hout be blamed for Blount having obvious anger management issues? Kind of a blame the victim approach you’re taking in my opinion.
Blount has been suspended previously by Oregon for character issues like missing team meetings and the like. He has a documented history of this sort of thing. YES, Hout should have kept his mouth shut and Boise State fans like us are very disappointed in him, but I wasn’t aware that trash talking was a suspension worthy offense. If so, I think you’d see a LOT of football players getting suspensions.
Hout will be “spending some extra quality time with Coach Peterson” after practices for a couple of weeks. This roughly translates into “he’ll be running stadium stairs until he pukes his guts out”.
Norman Rogers
Four games.
I would have had him sit out four games, and you let his coaches and his university handle it from there.
If his coaches can’t get control of him, you don’t have to worry about suspending him for a year–they will cut him from the team. They will not risk a game on a head case. This is not pro football, where a player has to play or where someone has to eat a multi-million dollar contract, but even at that level, they will get rid of you (yes, you, Mr. Owens).
This was a loss of composure, and college players will be losing their composure all day tomorrow. In all cases, the player needs to learn to ignore taunting, especially if a ref doesn’t see the player doing the taunting. This is like a preseason NFL game I saw a few weeks ago–a player did something that doesn’t count and he celebrated by doing a throat slash. Who still does that? A player that needs to be coached.
This kid got the “death penalty,” so to speak, in Myles Brand’s vaunted “new and improved” and family friendly NCAA. Meanwhile, how many corrupt coaches and cheap-shot inflicting programs will get to play the rest of this year?
jlo
As an Oregon boy I am just barely satisfied that Blount is gone for the season. The punch took a depressing game and made it downright embarrassing. That said, I don’t think that Boise State message boards are where I would look to find out to what extent Hout contributed to the incident. He should sit down for a game or two.
DZ
I love ya, John, but BS. Taunting deserves a 15 yard penalty. Punching a guy is aggravated assault and should cost him 12 months in jail. Please.
Wyrm
I have to agree with Jim here. I think it’s kind of silly to suspend the Boise State player for basic trash talking that happens after EVERY game just because the person he trash talked couldn’t control his emotion.
If he called the Oregon player’s mother a ***** or something, then sure, but basic trashtalk sucks but is not suspension worthy just because there was an incident.
Ambergris
Off-topic: Did you know that Michelle Bachmann and her husband own a mental-health clinic?
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/erica/2009/09/michelle-bachmann-and-her-husb.php?ref=fpd
Josh in Portland
I disagree. Maybe I missed something, but I don’t see what Hout did wrong (from that clip). How the NCAA would enforce a “no taunting” rule?
Jim Crozier
jlo
We have video of how much Haut contributed to the incident. He tapped Blount on the shoulder and then said something to him.
Maybe it was what I posted above, and maybe it wasn’t.
The point is that it really doesn’t matter. Trash talking happens all the time. Suspending Hout just because Blount went completely ape-shit crazy is reacting based on what Blount did, not what Hout did.
If Hout said something/did some trash talking, and Blount DIDN’T turn it into a reenactment of the Artest melee, but instead just walked away, would we be talking about how Hout should be suspended now?
No. Nobody would be talking about this at all. So why does Blount’s level of reaction change that?
John Cole
@Norman Rogers: Why should he be suspended? For running up to him, touching him after the game, and taunting him to his face.
If the NCAA is serious about sportsmanship and stopping taunting, they will punish those who taunt. Hout was taunting. Even you admit that- Blount didn’t just choose to punch some random guy. Get this- he punched the guy WHO RAN UP TO HIM AND TAUNTED HIM AFTER THE GAME.
Crazy, hunh, that cause and effect relationship?
Tim in Wisconsin
Question though: if Blount kept his cool, would you or anyone else think that Hout should have been suspended?
Tim in Wisconsin
Sorry, it seems that everyone else had the exact same thought that I did in the time it took me to write it down. I didn’t mean to be that “me too!” guy.
Norman Rogers
You know, the refs tend to throw that laundry around when someone retaliates. And that’s by design. Taunting is part of the game. Go read some Art Donovan stories–it’s an art and a science to taunt the opposing players and draw penalties that help your team.
You punish taunting with an in-game penalty when someone taunts the opposing player in full view of the ref but only if the player being taunted does not retaliate. If you do it right, you can incite your opponent to retaliate and then gain the advantage on a play–and that can mean the difference between 4th and 17 or 1st and ten fifteen yards closer to the goal line. Cheap shots are for teams that can’t play. Taunting can move the ball in the right direction, but the refs will only give you one or maybe two in a game. Do not expect to go to the well very often.
Football rewards the man who lets the scoreboard do his talking.
NobodySpecial
If the NCAA is serious about sportsmanship and stopping taunting
And if Obama was serious about passing a public option….
And if wishes were horses….
Roger Moore
@Jim Crozier:
I beg to differ. Those are totally different things. Blount’s comment was A) not made face to face, and B) was essentially acknowledging that Boise State had embarrassed them last year. That doesn’t seem like trash talking to me; it’s just providing bulletin board fodder. OTOH, Hout was throwing Blount’s words back in his face in person, which seems very much like trash talking.
John Cole
@Norman Rogers: So why did Hout need to talk to him after the game?
And you are all missing the point. It isn’t me that is having the players shake hands before the game. That is the NCAA. They are the ones who are trying to deal with the sportsmanship issues and taunting. It seems to me that when there is a high-profile case of taunting that leads to Blount’s inexcusable explosion, you would punish the taunter.
And again, I have NO problem with Blount being gone for a year. I just think if they want to seriously deal with what they are trying to do, they punish Hout, too.
Norman Rogers
@John Cole: If the NCAA cared about sportsmanship, Duke and Notre Dame would be playing for the national championship and Florida State, Tennessee, and whoever else wouldn’t even have a program.
It’s a coachable moment, and in amateur athletics, give the coaches the chance to coach and correct. Four games is a lifetime for a college player. Anything he does after that that smacks of thuggery, okay, fine. Give him a year off.
Ed in NJ
To borrow a phrase from Chris Rock=
I know what Blount did was wrong, but I understand… I would have had a hard time not punching Hout just for the crime of dressing up like Loverboy and making that douche face.
Demo Woman
@Tim in Wisconsin: Yup!
It was after the game and he touched the other player in an offensive manner. I agree that Blount should be suspended but if they don’t clean up the act of the taunters it will continue.
Chief
Try thinking about the incident had Blount not lost his head. If Hout had just gone up to him and delivered one sentence of trash talk before his coach pulled him back and chewed him out, you wouldn’t be calling for his suspension (actually, you probably wouldn’t know about it at all). It’s only because Blount acted like a maniac afterward that you’re even thinking about suspending Hout.
Let’s not create a false equivalency here. Players taunt all the time and they aren’t suspended. So the first time a guy gets punched for doing so means he should be punished more harshly than everyone else who does it? No. He deserves some extra laps at the next practice and that’s about it.
eric
Hout should be suspended because it was stupid and if emulated you will have more incidents.
I am civil 44 year old with limited violent tendencies, but I would at least said fuck u back to and that could have led to a melee. Trash talk DURING the game be controled with penalties. 15 yards aftwer the game is over is nonsense. He should have gotten a game. It is not as if boise has that hard a schedule. He slapped the guy and said shit. A recipe for disaster.
robot eating
Hout said something. Blount punched a dude in the face, took a swing at a teammate, tried to get physical with fans and disrespected two schools. Darn right, the punishment is unequal. The infractions were unequal.
DZ
Taunting makes Hout an a**hole. Punching makes Blount a criminal. Why is the difference so hard to understand?
burnspbesq
OT, but sad. Ernie Harwell has inoperable cancer.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4444976
Not going to pontificate about Blount until I sort out my thoughts. I am conflicted about this. Yes, his behavior is inexcusable. But the notion that he destroyed his chances at an NFL career with a moment of madness … that I find troublesome, and there is a strange overtone to it. It’s not entirely racial, and it’s not entirely class, but they are both in the mix.
How is this incident materially different than the incidents involving Michael Phelps, or J.J. Redick, and dope? Or Reggie Love passing out at a party? They were all allowed to get past their highly public moments of adolescent stupidity. Why not Blount? It can’t be solely because Blount did his thing on ESPN in prime time.
Josh in Portland
@Tim in Wisconsin: no
Jim Crozier
Roger,
Even if we accept your interpretation, you’re still scaling the punishment because of what BLOUNT did…not what Hout did. I guarantee you that you could probably find a dozen or so similar examples of Hout’s behavior after a game EVERY WEEK in college football. Most of the time – in fact nearly ALL the time – the player or players being taunted don’t explode like Blount did.
Are you going to punish each and every one with a suspension? If not, then effectively what you’re doing is treating Haut differently because Blount exploded.
Does the level of the taunted player’s reaction determine the appropriate punishment?
General Winfield Stuck
.. Jack Lambert said “they should just put a skirt on the quarterback”
I think the NCAA is a bunch of bed wetters. What’s a little taunt and punch after 4 quarters of big guys trying to knock each other into yesterday. They oughta let the fans in on the fun too, with some mayhem after the game. The times demand it.
John Cole
@DZ: What makes you think, in any way, I am defending Blount?
eric
DZ. The more likely outcome is a team on team scrum. That must be avoided. Talk smack. He should be suspended for touching the guy. Zero tolerance for after the game becuase the prospects are for something far worse.
Mark S.
@Tom:
If he’s good enough to be a 1st or 2nd rounder, someone will take a chance on him (probably Jerry Jones). Michael Vick got his job back, and Lawrence Phillips got about nine strikes before no team would touch him. The NFL doesn’t really give a shit about character, just winning baby.
burnspbesq
I know some Raider fans who will want their team to take this guy. Not in spite of the incident, but because of it.
DZ
@John Cole:
I don’t think you’re defending Blount. I think you are way off base suggesting that Hout should be punished for something that happens every day in high school football and up. You could stand in my face for hours and call me every horrible thing possible, but I would never hit you. Understand? Someone hits me for any reason, I take their house, their children’s college fund and half their wages for life. Several orders of magnituse different.
eric
Mark S. Just back the eff off. They are making vick miss two games!!!!! Two. They are aiming to clean the league up.
U r sadly correct.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Jim Crozier: You think you can find a dozen or so incidents, after the game, of a player running across the field to touch and taunt a member of the opposite team?
You’re on. Post the youtube links on this thread after week 1…
Linkmeister
@Tom: Do you really think the NFL won’t hire this guy? Look what it takes for an NFL player to get thrown out of the game. I can only think of one, and Vick was in jail and has been reinstated. Even in the 1960s, Paul Hornung and Alex Karras only got a year’s suspension for gambling.
There are 467 records in this database of “Arrests/citations involving NFL players, 2000-Present.”
eric
Dead on Mr Polk. I watch a lot of foot ball and can’t ever remember seeing that after the game.
Jim Crozier
James K. Polk:
I wouldn’t be able to do it…for the very reason why Hout shouldn’t be suspended.
Because they are so commonplace that the cameras don’t even take note of them! Nobody even bothers to film this sort of thing happening because it is an accepted/common thing in college football.
Go see any big rivalry game in person that ends up being a hard battled contest. Then watch the two teams afterwards. You’ll see at least a couple of players from each side taunting each other.
Norman Rogers
@Mark S.: Yeah, I think Terrell Owens, Pacman Jones and Donte Stallworth are rolling their eyes at that one.
Chief
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
“You think you can find a dozen or so incidents, after the game, of a player running across the field to touch and taunt a member of the opposite team?”
Watch the tape again. Hout didn’t run across the field — Blount was right next to the Boise State sideline when the game ended.
Also, what’s with this obsession with the fact that Hout “touched” the guy? He tapped Blount on the shoulder to get him to turn around. This is a horrible thing?
Keith G
@burnspbesq:
Not really. Sure, his career arch just got more complcated, but if he turns into a hard working, disciplined athlete, he can still succeed.
The tax paying public, in part, provides a level of subsidy most school athletic programs. Holding idiots highly accountable is not a bad thing.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Jim Crozier:
That’s mighty different than a dozen a week, wouldn’t you say?
eric
Look. If blount throws that punch right after he feels the physical contavt does hout get suspended? You bet he does. Hout’s actions were TOO close to a physical provocation. It is not the trash talk.
Tim in Wisconsin
While we’re debating what punishment Hout should receive, let’s remember something: he got a solid shot to the jaw. I’m no fan of frontier justice, but I wouldn’t doubt that Hout will think twice about taunting from now on.
Chief
@eric:
“Look. If blount throws that punch right after he feels the physical contavt does hout get suspended? You bet he does. Hout’s actions were TOO close to a physical provocation”
What? So if I tap you on the shoulder and you punch me in the face, then I’m getting suspended? There is a lot of crazy in this thread.
James K. Polk, Esq.
The behavior was bad enough for his own coach to shove Hout immediately. That says something too.
NobodySpecial
If Lawrence Phillips can get an NFL tryout, then this guy will get NFL tryouts and probably get drafted if he keeps training.
Granted, he’s lost his first day draft status, but tell me a thousand yard rusher for a major program isn’t something an NFL team will waste a 6th round pick on.
Jim Crozier
James K. Polk:
Don’t nitpick the number. I have no idea how many times, on average, it happens in a week. My point is unchanged. Taunting/trash talking is common in college football, particularly after a hard battled game between a couple of teams that don’t particularly like each other.
Hout’s actions are IN NO WAY unique or even rare. They’re relatively common.
The only reason, REPEAT, the only reason we’re even talking about him being punished is because of BLOUNT’S REACTION. And that makes no sense.
Here’s a political analogy for you.
Remember when Cheney said “Go Fuck Yourself!” to a U.S. Senator? We all rightfully condemned it as a poor display, wholly unworthy of a Vice President. And that was that. We didn’t call for impeachment or a censure or anything else.
Now imagine that same senator had reacted by slugging Cheney in the face and then going apeshit to the extent that police officers had to drag his ass out of the court room.
Would we then be saying, “Well, Cheney provoked him. He should be punished too!”
Somehow I doubt it. Because adults are expected to not respond physically no matter how much we don’t like what somebody has said.
Jim Crozier
Mmmmm!
I just got a warm fuzzy feeling inside merely envisioning a scenario where Cheney gets punched in the face. Maybe that makes me a bad person…but gee that was a nice image for a moment.
DZ
@ Jim Crozier:
Well said.
eric
No. If you run to. A guy and slap at him when there are 100 guys amped on adrenaline and 70 or so are pissed and fans on the field it is a recipe for something bad. Here is the rule. Never ever slap at or make a physicall agressive gesture after the game. There is no way for the officals to stop it. And short of the cops using guns. I have scene this before games and it is ugly. After a game there is no mechanism.
I think hout was within his rights to yell smack. I am not a fan of it but so what.
It is about safety for everyone.
DZ
@jim Crozier:
Amen to 59 as well
General Winfield Stuck
I’ve learned so much from this thread/
stormhit
Boise State proved their bush league status when they showed the replay of the punch, so it’s not shocking they aren’t feeling the need to act.
You Don't Say
ITA, Mr. Cole.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Jim Crozier: Ok, I won’t nitpick the number, but you can’t dismiss the fact that he put his hands, unwelcomely, on another adult male in an aggressive fashion and started yapping.
If Blount had hit him immediately upon being touched, would Hout be partially responsible for starting a fight? I would say yes myself.
Incidentally, I am a Cal Bears fan, so thanks to Boise State for removing a critical piece of a rival team.
GregB
Is the ref going to call the fight between President Obama and the GOP?
He’s been against the ropes for 11 rings getting bloodied all to hell.
His two coaches, Dukakis and Kerry are telling him to save his gunpowder for when he really needs it.
-G
Jim Crozier
Let’s not go overboard on Hout tapping Blount on the shoulder. It isn’t like he grabbed Blount and pulled him around in an angry manner. He tapped the guy on the shoulder to get his attention.
If he had done THAT…then yeah, I would say he would be partially responsible for starting a fight. But a tap on the shoulder and then saying some one liner of trash talk? Nah. Maybe I’m a Boise State homer, but I can’t feel that gives Haut any REAL culpability in Blount freaking out.
I DO however, agree with #64 above. There is NO WAY that replay should have been shown multiple times on the jumbotron. That escalated a bad situation and made it ten times worse.
Re: Cal Bears
I’ll of course be rooting for Oregon the rest of the way to improve BSU’s SOS. God I can’t wait for Obama to get around to fixing the BCS and implementing a playoff. ;)
Chief
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
Go Bears!
I will say that, despite their preseason hype, I’m not surprised the Ducks looked awful in this game. They lost a lot of players on the offensive line and defensive front 7 — judging by how well Boise State pushed them around, they’re in for a long year in the Pac-10.
TuiMel
@Jim Crozier:
IMO, Hout’s biggest sin was he touched Blount. It was stupid and a much more of a provocation than the words you repeat would suggest. If someone touches me while saying something equivalent to trash talking or an insult, that is a bigger problem for me than if they merely have words for me. That does NOT in any way justify Blount’s reaction (and he is paying the price). But, I’m with John Cole on this one. Hout should miss playing time AND run stairs ’til he pukes his guts out. When a player is suspended the message has wider resonance. My impression – perhaps in complete error- is that Hout is getting a wink and wrist slap.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Jim Crozier: Ok, now take the incident, and put it at the end of the game that started out attempting to instill more sportsmanship in college football.
IMO Blount gets what he deserves, maybe even gets off a little easy.
PaulW
While Blount lost his shit and deserves benching, the asshole who taunted him (Hout) should be benched the same amount of games as Blount. It takes TWO to start an argument or fight (well, outside of “Fight Club”), and BOTH ought to be punished. Maybe then we’ll stop seeing bench-clearing brawls ruining our sports.
Chief
@PaulW:
Blount has been suspended for the entire season. You think Hout should be suspended for the entire season as well?
Jim Crozier
TuiMel
James K. Polk
Agree, that the biggest part was Hout touching Blount.
Disagree that it was sufficient to justify a suspension. He tapped the guy on the shoulder pad. No matter what is said after that, to me it isn’t sufficient to warrant a suspension.
You’ll notice that Chris Peterson was immediately starting to pull Hout away. Just because Haut isn’t being suspended, don’t think he isn’t going to be punished.
But this, to me, does not rise to the level of a suspension just because of Blount’s reaction. This sort of thing after a game is just too common to warrant that. A suspension would still, in my mind, be just scaling the punishment upwards because of how Blount reacted, NOT because of what Hout did.
I still can’t get off the point that if Blount had just walked away…NOBODY would be calling for Hout to be suspended. The only reason we’re talking about it at all was Blount’s extreme overreaction. An overreaction from a guy with a history of troubled behavior.
James K Polk, Esq.
In all fairness to Blount, he did say that he owed Boise State an ass-whuppin’.
It just came in a different form than Hout expected.
Jim Crozier
*snickers*
Blount might even qualify for player of the game for Oregon. I think that punch was the only hard, solid hit that Oregon’s players dished out all game long. :-)~~
Creamy Goodness
@Jim Crozier:
This thread has made me hate yer fuckin’ guts.
Jim Crozier
Creamy Goodness
I’m not sure what I said that would provoke that extreme of a reaction…or why I should care.
But just our curiosity…why?
TuiMel
@Jim Crozier:
My viewing of Hout’s action was not that he simply “tapped” Blount. It looked like a slap to me and in my opinion a provocation beyond trash talking. I still think he crossed a line and should sit for his stupidity. But, I’m a Pollyanna football fan who does not like to be tapped or slapped when I’ve had a bad day.
Jim Crozier
@TuiMel:
It’s possible. BUT I think if this thread is any indication, based on the number of people who have disagreed that Hout should be suspended, this wasn’t such a clear-cut travesty of justice that it is blatantly obvious that Hout is indeed getting a slap on the wrist.
There’s a very decent case to be made that no suspension is warranted.
Is there a decent one to be made the other way around? Yes, I think so. And it’s been pretty well enunciated. But Hout NOT being suspended is nowhere close to the worst “non-suspension” that I’ve ever seen.
That dubious honor goes to Reggie Evans and his grabbing and pulling of Chris Kaman’s nutsack a few years back that got a fine…but no suspension.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Agree with everything in this post. Blount was punished appropriately, but the Boise State player deserves some sort of sanction as well.
I’ve noticed that on the many replays of this incident that it is generally being cropped to exclude the fact that Hout not only taunted Blount but bumped him as well. Truly, I hate to bring it up, but the fact that the white guy was a prick, but only the black guy who was also a prick got the massive punishment, has been bugging me all day long.
RareSanity
There is a huge difference between trash talking and what Hout did.
Trash talking takes place before and after plays, when I played linebacker in college, I would yell stuff like, “Don’t run that sh*t to my side…” After I made a tackle, yell something like, “I told you not to run that sh*t over here!”
If I got blocked, I might hear something like, “Shut the f**k up and get off of your back, p*ssy!”
It’s not pretty, but it’s the quintessential “boys will be boys”, AND it is part of the game,. During the game. After the game, me and the same guys from the other team that had been talking trash all game, walk over and shake hands, say “good game”, respect the competition and the fact that the game is now over. Win or lose, same thing every game for four years. When the game ends, the trash talking ends.
Blount is a neanderthal, showed no self control and should have never punched that dude…
However, Hout was being a cowardly punk running up behind the guy, touching him in an aggressive way and poppin’ off at the mouth all the while, expected Blount not to react. Hell, when I saw the clip, I wanted to punch his punk ass, I wouldn’t have…but, he would have deserved it if I did.
Blount should be kicked off the team, post haste. Hout should be suspended for a game for his lack of respect and sportsmanship. No more than a game though, getting knocked out cold on national TV with one punch is embarrassing enough.
Chief
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
“Truly, I hate to bring it up, but the fact that the white guy was a prick, but only the black guy who was also a prick got the massive punishment, has been bugging me all day long.”
Umm . . . do you really not see the difference in their actions? They are not remotely equivalent. I think Hout deserves some kind of punishment, but I am not convinced that a suspension is in order just for a small amount of trash talk and a bump on the shoulder.
Also, Blount had already been suspended from the team in the offseason. He was reinstated before this game, but . . . well, you saw what happened. As far as I know there have been no past disciplinary actions against Hout. So there is more than this one incident factoring in to the relative decisions on punishment for the two players. And even if there weren’t, frankly, Blount’s actions deserve a bigger punishment than Hout’s.
alhutch
I’m a UO fan and there is some backstory that helps illuminate some of the “why” this happened.
Last season, BSU beat the Ducks in Eugene. During that game, two obviously late hits were made by Boise St. defenders, one of which knocked out the starting quarterback with a concussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKQwuLjT09Q
Both hits were rightly called as penalties, but only the second “hitter” was actually ejected from the game. Many on the Oregon side felt the injury of the starting quarterback had much to do with the loss, hence the talk of this being a “payback” game by the media and players involved (as an aside, the two BSU players involved received no punishment).
Blount’s comment was solicited by an SI reporter right after they reviewed video of these hits. He remarked “We owe that team an ass-whuppin’.” Not smart, but not the end of the world.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1158940/4/index.htm
Blount’s reaction to a poor performance by himself and his team was uncalled for. Hout was less than sportsman-like approaching a departing opponent after a game to talk trash (especially given the recent history between the programs), but the punch alone didn’t do Blount in. The subsequent freak out on teammates, coaching staff and security trying to remove him did, and rightly so.
He got suspended for the remainder of his college career (he’s a senior) He gets to keep his scholarship and practice with the scout team to keep in shape, if he chooses to take advantage of it. I hope he gets his head on straight and makes the best of the terrible situation he put himself in.
Kirk Spencer
Gonna agree with John, here. Hout should have received a punishment.
There are a lot of comments to the effect that if Blount hadn’t responded to Hout we wouldn’t have felt that way. I disagree. Oh, I agree it would have stood a good chance of being ignored, but…
I would still say he needed a punishment.
There is allegedly a major push on sportsmanship. That being the case, violations need punished. I don’t care if that’s ‘different from what used to happen in every game’ — That’s what the NCAA is allegedly trying to stop.
Walk it again. If sportsmanship is being pushed to the extent of punishing those who violate it, then everyone who violates it, regardless of what the other person did or did not do, should be punished. That reinforces the message and prevents the game of ‘finding the line’. As of now the message is ‘some trash talk is ok, but swinging is not.’ The next stage is finding out how much trash talk is ok.
Bull.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
“Umm . . . do you really not see the difference in their actions?”
Umm . . . did you really not read my post? I agreed with Blount’s punishment. The point I was making, and I think Mr. Cole was making, is that the other guy was far from blameless. I made the further point that I have seen this incident replayed on TV many times, and most of the time the PROVOCATION has been edited out so that only Blount’s reaction is shown. My hope that these are simply examples of journalistic laziness, which we all know is endemic, rather than any darker motive, but either way it fails to provide the full context for the viewer.
My opinion is in line what many here are saying, that Blount got what he deserved, but Hout deserved a game or two and a tongue-lashing as well.
Chief
I will just disagree that Hout definitely deserved a suspension. Punishment, yes. Suspension, no. I will concede that there is at least a decent argument to suspend him for 1 game, though I don’t agree. Based on other punishments I have seen for similar actions, Hout’s actions alone didn’t warrant a suspension. (And I suspect that many people who are arguing for a suspension here haven’t watched much college football, and thus have little frame of reference for what kind of punishment is deserved.)
Molly M
I’m a Duck fan too and am sorry that LaGarrette couldn’t control his emotions last night (even though Cal fans are glad he’s out for the season). His previous suspension had nothing to do with anger issues, but involved missing voluntary workouts and classes. He has a warm personality and is well liked by his team members.
Our coach is keeping him on scholarship because he believes he needs the structure of school and football. I think the hope is that he will keep in shape and get a chance to be invited to the combines next year. He was a JC transfer who lost his great-aunt (who raised him) a couple weeks ago. He’s not a great student and he just threw away his chance to play at the next level. I hope he takes advantage of the opportunity to turn this negative into a positive.
No excuses, but Boise did show the punch repeatedly on the big screen and by the time LaGarrette had calmed down and was headed to the locker room, the fans were riled up and he was called some pretty ugly names. I wish he had not responded to them, but unfortunately, he did.
Cal fans . . . your game in Eugene just got a little bit easier.
jl
The office sports junkies around here argued over the clip this afternoon. I was surprised how many thought Hout was fine, and deserved no punishment at all.
In my book Hout should sit out a game. Or, has this society become such a collection of brutal minded, smirking, jackass weasels, that the concept of sportsmanship allows anything at all short of physical violence.
The Hout faction said ‘Well, trash talk is part of the game’
Well, yeah, that kind of jackassery has been part of the game for far too long, which is precisely why a program to restore sportsmanship is badly needed.
If Hout gets no punishment, then it appears to me that the people running the program have forgotten what sportsmanship, or even common sense, means. But they have a vague memory that is supposed it was something good nobel (whatever it was), therefore, they have started a program to restore it, or whatever it is, or was, or something or other.
Blount, who I think has a history of ‘issues’ would be thrown out regardless of ‘sportsmanship’. Hout, who I think also has a history of ‘issues’ should be thrown out if sportsmanship means anything.
jl
Wasn’t edit supposed to be back. Well, I guess people can figure out the penultimate paragraph of my comment.
Eric U.
@Tim in Wisconsin: That was an awesome punch. Hout just sank to the ground and probably lost bladder control. Blount shouldn’t have thrown the punch but Hout deserved it. And I do think that since the outcome was so bad for Blount, Hout deserves some real punishment as well. So what if it’s not fair, it’s his fault this whole sorry episode started.
My experience in that part of the world is that racism runs deep. I’m guessing some of that was expressed verbally after the punch.
Molly M
Hout’s punishment will involve hanging out with the coach after practice, according to Coach Peterson.
HyperIon
@eric: And short of the cops using guns….
Wow. I hope we can avoid that.
And I thought hockey fights were off-putting.
Jay B.
I don’t think you’re defending Blount. I think you are way off base suggesting that Hout should be punished for something that happens every day in high school football and up. You could stand in my face for hours and call me every horrible thing possible, but I would never hit you. Understand? Someone hits me for any reason, I take their house, their children’s college fund and half their wages for life. Several orders of magnituse different.
DZ, you are a total fucking prick. Fights happen every day in high school and up. They aren’t smart, but they aren’t the end of the world either. They might even be something you should expect when you decide to further provoke someone you’ve properly humiliated on the field. Hout’s team won and he decided to be a douchebag. Fine. But to think that he was some innocent victim is absurd. Even douchier, of course, is your demand that the Oregon kid go to jail and your tough talk about suing people who would take a swing at you for being a classless douchebag.
Here’s a hint champ, don’t be a douchebag in the first place. Especially if you won. Who the fuck cares what the other guy said in the past? You just won. Act like you’ve been there before. And don’t be surprised if sore winners get punched. But the butch hysterics for jail time and punative litigation is even more of an overreaction than what happened after the game.
jl
Tempers seem to be flaring over this.
I don’t follow college football much, but my understanding is that they are initiating a drive to encourate sportsmanship. Team handshakes with the opposing team, etc etc. All friendly respectful competition.
So, yes, perhaps given the bad behavior that has been tolerated in sports recently, and we are going on standard operating procedure, Hout is just fine. It’s a free country and the programs do not care if their players act life pigs, so if he wants to be an jerk, well that is great for him, and let the trash talk role.
But, if there is a push for sporstmanship, and they have jivey little ceremonies, and Hout gets away with little pushies and trashing after the game, then the sportsmanship program is just a joke.
So, Hout should sit out a game. Having a man to man with his coach over ‘lessons learned’ does not cut it.
Mnemosyne
It’s a little disturbing to see how many people think that poor sportsmanship is so much a part of the game that Hout is an innocent victim for walking up to a member of the losing team after the game and taunting him to his face.
The reason Hout should be punished is not because he did the worst thing ever or he did something unusual. He should be punished because he should be made an example to the other players that the NCAA actually takes poor sportsmanship seriously and will no longer tolerate it. Even a one-game suspension would send the message.
If the NCAA only reacts against the person who was taunted, you’re basically declaring open season because players now know that taunting the other team will result in no penalty to them whatsoever. In fact, they’ll have fans defending them as innocent victims of hotheads who just can’t handle the way the game is played.
No one is saying that Blount didn’t deserve his punishment. We’re saying that if, as they claim, the NCAA is trying to stop taunting, they’ve basically wasted a perfect opportunity to show it’s anything more than lip service.
jl
@Mnemosyne: I think their effort against taunting is lip service, as we have just seen. Blount deserved his punishment, and in fact is lucky he if he isn’t charged with assault.
But if Hout gets away with with no sanction at all, then the NCAA talk about sportsmanship is just empty talk. My cynical self says it is just talk to cover up the fact that taunting and trash talks makes them money. They do not really care whether their players act like jerks or not, as long as they stay just shy of frank criminal violence.
commenter with a bad typo night… looks carefully for typos…. submits!
MattR
As Tim in Wisconsin alluded to earlier, what do you think was initially going through Coach Peterson’s mind as he grabbed Haut after he said whatever it was he said? Do you think that Peterson was thinking that Haut had crossed such a line that he was going to be suspended? Or do you think Peterson was going to give him a dressing down (probably in front of the entire team) and then some sort of post practice punishment to make it clear that Haut’s behavior was not acceptable? Whatever that initial thought was, that should probably be the basis for Haut’s punishment (although perhaps I would forgo making Haut run staris or do extra wind sprints basd on the fact he did get sucker punched in the jaw which should have the same effect in terms of teaching him a lesson).
Or another way to look at it, if Haut had done what he did during the course of the game, what do you think the result would have been? That was probably worthy of a 15 yard penalty though incidents like that go uncalled all the time but I strongly doubt Haut would have been ejected from the game.
The last thing I would ask is for anyone who thinks Haut should be suspended to watch any college football game later today and list all the players who make similar inappropriate contact with the other team after a play has ended. I bet the list will have at least a half dozen players from each team and that’s only the players caught on camera.
MattR
BTW, I think all the other players from both teams should be commended for their reactions. That could very easily have turned very, very ugly had even one other player reacted poorly.
Cassidy
Punish Haut for trash talking? That is such a load of BS. He said something “mean”…oh well, get over it and go home. Do we want to take tackling out of the sport too, just so no one gets hurt? Frikkin’ ridiculous.
DecidedFenceSitter
Question for Cassidy and the rest: So ya’ll disagree with the NCAA’s push for more good sportsmanship in college football?
Yes or no please.
If you do disagree, that’s fine, we have an acceptable basis that’s going to continue to drive the back and forth with no one moving.
If no, we have a logical conundrum. Logically speaking, if we want more good sportsmanship, using a stick model (ala carrot and the stick) we need to punish poor sportsmanship. I think we can all agree that Blout exhibited a large amount of poor sportsmanship. However, the question isn’t about him, it is whether Haut exhibited poor sportsmanship. I say that he did exhibit poor sportsmanship, and thus, as per the NCAA’s stated goals he should be punished.
If you agree with the NCAA’s Sportsmanship Policy, but disagree that Haut’s action was poor sportsmanship, I would like to know why you feel it is so. “Part of the game” is not an acceptable answer, in my opinion, because this is the part of the game that the NCAA policy is attempting to eliminate. Ergo, my deconstruction of the arguments.
Something tells me this comment will get ignored because it is far too rational.
Cassidy
I simply don’t feel that Haut’s actions were poor sportsmanship. Agree to disagree, but every sport involves a good bit of talking smack. Simply being cocky is not a crime. Bad sportsmanship is what Blount did. You lose, you take your lumps, and yes, you suck up a little ridicule because you ran your mouth beforehand. And then you come back and play the game the next weekend.
DecidedFenceSitter
We’ll have to agree to disagree then. I compare it to playing one of my more competitive boardgames (the ones with lots of little fiddly bits and such). Even if someone taunts me before the game, me taunting them after the game is still poor sportsmanship. Even if he deserves it. Especially if an overriding league has said, “THIS YEAR WE WILL BE FOCUSING ON ENCOURAGING GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP.”
Yes it has been part of the game prior to this year; however, the NCAA has a stated goal of removing it.
Cassidy
I’m a WH40K guy myself, but I do differentiate between just being an ass after a game, and throwing some talk back at a loud mouth. If Blount hadn’t been running his mouth before the game, then nothing would’ve been said. If you’re gonna give it, you gotta take it.
PaulW
@Chief:
Chief: “You think Hout should be suspended for the rest of the season?”
Yes.
He is not an innocent in this. Hout went out of his way to taunt an opponent that had just lost a major game. And for what we’re seeing now, he’s getting a slap on the wrist. He’s getting away with it.
I can’t claim it would be an effective deterrent, but if Hout gets booted for the whole season same as his taunting target, I seriously believe it’s gonna make others think twice before taunting opponents again.
dan robinson
This is semi-pro ball where the players don’t get payed.
Who cares?
DZ
@JB:
and fuck you too son. I will express my opinions in such fashion as I choose. If you don’t like it, tough shit.
DZ
@JB:
I retract the fu statement and aplogize for that. It is obviously your mode of expression, but it is not mine. I could have come back at you in other ways.
Chief
@PaulW:
“Chief: “You think Hout should be suspended for the rest of the season?”
Yes.
He is not an innocent in this. Hout went out of his way to taunt an opponent that had just lost a major game. And for what we’re seeing now, he’s getting a slap on the wrist. He’s getting away with it.”
Wow. I have nothing more to say.
Chief
@DecidedFenceSitter:
“If no, we have a logical conundrum. Logically speaking, if we want more good sportsmanship, using a stick model (ala carrot and the stick) we need to punish poor sportsmanship. I think we can all agree that Blout exhibited a large amount of poor sportsmanship. However, the question isn’t about him, it is whether Haut exhibited poor sportsmanship. I say that he did exhibit poor sportsmanship, and thus, as per the NCAA’s stated goals he should be punished.
If you agree with the NCAA’s Sportsmanship Policy, but disagree that Haut’s action was poor sportsmanship, I would like to know why you feel it is so. “Part of the game” is not an acceptable answer, in my opinion, because this is the part of the game that the NCAA policy is attempting to eliminate. Ergo, my deconstruction of the arguments.”
It’s fine if the NCAA wants to push for more sportsmanship, and if they had put it in the rule book before the game that ANY taunting, whatsoever, means an automatic one-game suspension, then I would have no problem with Hout being suspended. However, if they retroactively decide to punish Hout with a suspension, a punishment not delivered for similar actions in the past, just because this time someone happened to lose his s*** over it, then that is NOT fair. They would be effectively punishing Hout more harshly because Blount decided to punch him. Get it?
Kirk Spencer
@Chief:
Ah, but some of us have said he should have had it happen anyway, regardless of Blount’s response.
Yes, I mean if someone is caught on camera taunting an opposing player immediately after the game, they need slapped with a wakeup notice.
I’m basing that on the assumption the NCAA is honest in its intent to restore sportsmanship.
See, I’ve been the boss on a job where the previous bosses let rules slide. It sucks. Not least, it sucks because you have to anally hammer each and every almost-infraction with as close to zero slack as you can. If you don’t – if you let some things slide – then nothing gets fixed. Worse, because you do hammer some things you lose control. You’re perceived as being erratic or having favorites. It’s not ‘enforcing the rules’, it’s ‘making your own little fiefdom’. You get accused of that anyway, but eventually everyone will KNOW where the line is and that it is not to be crossed. Eventually, then, you or your successor can add reasonableness to the mix – a little humanity.
But if you add that humanity up front, you lose.
kuvasz
Funny, but that punch was the hardest hit an Oregon player made all night.
Mnemosyne
It’s true — they would be punishing him because his taunting drew a much greater response than it usually does and gained a national audience. That’s why he should be punished. If he’s not, it sends a message to the players that the only problem with taunting is how the person being taunted reacts. In other words, you’re telling players that they can say anything they want to the opposing team with no punishment whatsoever, and if the person they taunt reacts, that’s who will face punishment, not the guy who started it. It’s setting up the exact opposite of what the NCAA claims to want to do.
That can only lead one to the conclusion that the NCAA doesn’t actually want to encourage good sportsmanship, they just don’t want bad publicity from incidents like this one, which is why the guy who was taunted is the only one being disciplined.
Cassidy
Horseshit. Smack talk happens in all sports. Hell Badminton players probably talk shit to each other. Hout did nothing wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
I’m sure Michael Costin thought the same thing, but he ended up dead anyway. A little trash talk in North Chicago forced the whole game to be canceled.
Why not just issue boxing gloves to every player before the game and let them have at it instead of playing football or baseball? That’s what you want to see anyway, right?
Chief
These arguments make little sense to me, sorry. To my mind, if you set expectations with the rules, you don’t deviate from those rules just because there is a media circus around it. There is no precedent, none, that a player doing what Hout did should be suspended for any length of time. If the NCAA makes up some new punishment retroactively, then it’s not fair to Hout or Boise State and suggests that the rules are always in flux. This isn’t Calvinball.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I have to emphasize that the video above does not show the entire incident. Hout’s provocation is mostly edited out. He didn’t just “trash talk”, he initiated physical contact with Blount as well.
Also note that “Blount starts fight after loss” is entirely open to interpretation. You can just as easily say that Hout started the incident with taunting and a shove.
ESPN is guilty of negligent reporting in this particular case. As they specialize in sports reporting it wouldn’t have been any burden on them to expand the segment by five seconds and show the whole context of the incident, but instead they chose to go for the sexy footage of Blount’s freakout.
Mnemosyne
And that’s why we have fistfights breaking out at high school and college games every week — because there is no punishment for poor sportsmanship like trash talking, and no one does anything until punches are thrown.
If I’m watching a baseball game, I want to watch a baseball game, not an Ultimate Fighting Championship, but as long as no one is willing to force players to lower the temperature by banning trash talk, that’s the direction we’re going to keep going. At this rate, someone is going to propose Rollerball as the next great high school sport for kids.
Chief
Again, if the NCAA rules committee wants to meet and decide tomorrow that all future incidents of post-game taunting will be punished with suspensions, then that’s fine with me. I’m only against punishing Hout retroactively when (1) there are no such rules on the books now and (2) such behavior has never before been met with suspension. Let the players know that they’ll be suspended for taunting before it happens, not after.
grimc
@chief
Plenty of cases where a coach suspended a player for taunting, pre-, during and post-game.
Sure, Blount was wrong for doing what he did. And “Glass Joe” Hout was wrong for starting it.
Chief
No doubt that Hout was wrong for whatever he said. I’m just not convinced that it warrants a suspension.
I can’t speak to any other case where a coach suspended a player for taunting, since I’ve never seen it. If you have examples, feel free to offer them up. I suspect they will be cases where a player did more than thump a guy on the shoulder and utter one sentence of trash talk.
anie
I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I get the impression that the year long suspension was a decision by the Oregon coach and not by the NCAA.
So it is possible that the NCAA did nothing to either player.
Molly M
Before Hout initiated contact with Blount, LaGarrette was interacting with Boise players as most FB players do after a game . . . “good game”, handshakes, fist-jabs, etc. If Hout had not looked for Blount, reminded him of his “ass-whupping” quote, and laid his hand on his shoulder, no one would still be talking about this almost 2 days after Blount went nuts. Blount might have continued to walk off the field knowing that he had the rest of the season ahead of him. NO EXCUSES for what he did from this Duck fan, but he’s not a bad kid. He made a horrible decision and will pay for it the rest of his life. He is about to become a father, comes from an impoverished tough background, and stood to make a little money playing a game he loves. He may still get to do that, but his road to his dream has become a lot harder. He might have survived the punch to Hout and later to his own teammate with multiple game suspensions, but going after the crowd, who were yelling racial slurs and other horrible things at him as he was making his way off the field, sealed his fate. LaGarrette’s previous suspension involved not going to class and attending voluntary workouts. He is a funny, warm, not-too-serious young man who made a HUGE mistake. Hout’s team won the game, but instead of celebrating with his teammates, he chose to seek out Blount and remind him of a comment he made to Sports Illustrated weeks before the game. Blount shouldn’t have reacted the way he did, but Hout didn’t need to needle him either.
Oregon Guy
Um… UO grad and Oregon fan here.
There was a comment on the sports blog EDSBS regarding this to the effect that Hout shoved Blount, said something, and had a very self-satisfied, douchebaggy look on his face for exactly 0.1 seconds when Blount’s right cross connected with his chin and consciousness faded.
So, good.
Frankly, had Blount not freaked out and fought his own teammate Garrett Embry and engaged in assault by offer with the entire city of Boise, he would have served a multi-game suspension and finished the season. Oregon’s response was, in my opinion, the correct one.
Hout DID initiate physical contact – it was more than a “tap,” and frankly, his team had just won two in a row against Oregon. Why he felt the need to go beyond letting the scoreboard do the talking is beyond me. 1st class douchebaggery and I have no problem in many respects with Blount’s punch. Yes, he would have been suspended, but, as Chris Rock once said “but I understand.”
Hout should sit down for a game, otherwise the whole pre-game handshake thing is bullshit.
jl
Sportsmanship is an attitude and a spirit, it cannot be summarized by a set of rules. If the NCAA or an individual program defines sportsmanship by a set of proscriptiverules, then people will game the rules in their pursuit of unsportsmanlike conduct.
The players knew that there is sportsmanship program, and presumably they were told what sportsmanship was. It is time for a little inductive learning.
Perhaps this society has reached the point that this kind of social norm is no longer conceivable to most people, and inconsistent with our extremely and totally individualistic and legalistic rights based social framework. If that is the case, then there can be no sportsmanship in the old sense of the term. There can only be weasels and jackasses gaming empty mechanical rules of behavior that mean nothing in spirit, only in the dead letter.
Since I do not care much about college football (insert pro forma ‘go gritty little Bruins’ here) I do not care much whether college football players are allowed to act like jackasses, as long as they do not commit assault on me or anyone I know.
Nevertheless, Hout engaged in unsportsmanlike conduct. Perhaps his aggressive little pushies move and smack talk would have remained unnoticed had Blount not gone ballistic. But if the concept of sportsmanship means anything, Hout should sit out a game. And anyone engaging in similar behavior from now on should sit out a game, regardless of whether it provokes something spectacular.
Otherwise the NCAA sportsmanship push is just a fraud. Blount’s punishment has nothing to do with the sportsmanship program, since it could be construed as criminal assault and would have been severely punished in some way regardless.
If others here cannot understand that sportsmanship cannot be defined by a set of rules, and consider any regime not based on a set of mechanical rules and an exhaastive enumeration of individual rights to be gamed to one’s own advantage, then we live in different social frameworks, and I doubt any amount of argument will bridge the chasm.
CT
@Oregon Guy:
My thoughts as well. BSU guy was being a douche, and when I saw the punch, my first thought was, Well, that’s a game or two suspension, but probably worth it. The out of control freak out that occurred after that earned him the season long suspension, which I understand, but am bummed out about, because Blount’s a good kid-passionate, but not someone who tries to rub other’s nose in it when they lose.
That said the BSU player doesn’t deserve to miss any game time, IMO. Run some stadium stairs or gassers ’til he pukes and spend the rest of the season getting ribbed by teammates for having a glass jaw, and call it good.