Manhood 101
The college football season kicked off last Thursday, but the biggest story wasn’t the game action, it was the extracurricular activity between Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount and Boise State’s Byron Hout. In case you missed it, here’s a video; Blount is number 9 in the white, Hout is 94 in the blue:
So, the initial reaction is that it’s just stupid; you don’t hit somebody on a sports field. Blount has been suspended for the rest of the season for throwing that punch, and probably justafiably so. Apparently, he’s something of a trouble maker, having been suspended before for equally stupid reason. To make things a little more interesting, he also spent the week before the game “talking smack” about how Orgeon was going to beat Boise State, then gave a pathetic performance, 18 rushes for negative 5 yards (that’s right, negative 5), en route to a Oregon loss.
What I’m getting at is that I in no way support LeGarrette Blount. He sounds like a thug and an idiot and frankly college football is probably better off without him for the rest of the season. And, judging by his performance in the game, Orgegon might be as well. But, I do feel that he was completely justified in hitting Hout. In fact, Hout needed to be punched by somebody.
If you watch the whole thing, Hout goes out of his way to find Blount. He initiates physical contact, hitting him roughly on the shoulder, before saying something in his ear. We can only guess what Hout said, but judging by the self-righteous smile on his face afterward, he must have been proud of it. All of this is why I say Hout got what he had coming to him, because he didn’t act like a man.
Oregon and Boise State played a game head-to-head and Boise State won. They played better, scored more points, and at the end, they were victorious. Oregon’s Blount had been a punk all week, talking when he didn’t need to, and generally making an ass of himself. But, he was beaten on the field, rendered completely ineffective. A man would recognize that in the arena of competition, Blount, and his team, was completely defeated, and nothing else needed to be added to that defeat.
When you beat someone fairly, that’s enough. But, Boise State’s Bryon Hout didn’t understand this basic rule of manhood. He went out of his way to find Blount at the end of the game and unnecessarily say something in a foolish attempt to pile on to the defeat. Real men don’t do this. Stop that video 34 seconds in and tell me that you can look at that stupid smile on Hout’s face. You can’t tell me that he didn’t deserve to get punched. He went out of his way to not act like a man, and he got what he deserved.
I’ve heard a few people say it wasn’t fair that Blount sucker punched Hout, but that goes back to the whole being a man thing. If Hout was going to go out of his way to say something and act in an unmanly way, it was part of his responsibility not to turn away immediately afterwards. In what world does he think you can just say something inflamatory and walk away without any consequence? No, it’s not cool to sucker punch somebody, but he put himself in that situation. When you go out of your way to say something dumb, you have to expect to get hit, so you can’t turn away.
I haven’t been punched in 8 years, but that last time I got punched because I went out of my way to say something dumb. I said it, I figured he’d punch me, he did, and that was it. I deserved it, and so did Hout. I feel a bit bad for Blount that he’ll miss the rest of the season for his fully justified punch, but hey, like Hout found out, we have to deal with the consequences of our actions. That’s manhood.
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