Brian Grey Blog

The kick-off to the college football season, or should we say the “punch off”, was a dark evening for college sports. As a native Oregonian and Pac-10 apologist, I was saddened by the sucker punch Oregon’s starting running back leveled on a taunting Boise State player in the midst of the post-game handshake.

Clearly the Oregon player snapped, lost it, whatever you want to call it — and maybe that’s indicitive of what Division-I college football can do to a student-athlete after a frustrating loss. Who knows?

But the decision Oregon’s program made with regard to dealing with the player actually made me proud to be a Pac-10 guy. Not only did the school and football program make a tough call in suspending their star player for the rest of the season, they also said he’d stay with the team through the rest of the season and practice with the program.

The last part is key — to me it’s akin to reprimanding your kid, but telling him “you’re still a part of this family and we still want to help you grow up”.

Now I can’t say for sure what Florida or Oklahoma would do if their stars punched an opposing player after a game, but I have a guess it wouldn’t be as extreme as the punishment metered by the Ducks. But going forward, how does any program make any other decision? Oregon’s call in this situation should set a precedent for all similar violence that takes place on a college sports field or court.

What would be real positives coming out of this incident would be not only seeing Blount rebound and become a success in the NFL — and in life — but also seeing the major BCS conferences and the NCAA come out in support of Oregon’s decision and essentially setting the bar for punishment in future incidents like this.

Larry Scott from the Pac-10 has done this, now we just need to hear from the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC and the Big East. Oh, and having the head honchos in Indianapolis and North Bend chime in to the affirmative would be a good thing too.