[Quack Attack]

Source: Kelly could reinstate Blount


By Joe Schad
ESPN


Oregon coach Chip Kelly will address LeGarrette Blount's status on Friday morning, the school said Thursday.

The suspended running back will have an opportunity to be reinstated to the program later this season, provided he continues to follow a plan set in place after the first game, a source told ESPN on Thursday.
Blount has been suspended since he punched Boise State defensive end Byron Hout after Oregon's season-opening loss to the Broncos. On Thursday, the Oregon campus newspaper published a letter of apology from Blount.

Blount has been participating in Oregon practice as a member of the scout team and has been attending classes.

Kelly had previously said reinstatement was not an option. But Blount has impressed many people he's spoken with as part of the plan. Among those people are Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, Kermit Washington and noted sociologist and scholar Harry Edwards, a professor emeritus at Cal-Berkley.
Blount has recently become a father. A person familiar with Kelly's plan said the resinstatement would not come immediately and likely not before Oregon's bye week on Oct. 17.

It is also believed that Oregon athletic director Mike Bellotti and school president Richard Lariviere are on board with the possibility for reinstatement, though its not known to what extent the Pac-10 has been involved.

[Quack Attack]

Would college fans be against this? If so, why? I have always felt all along that a year long suspension was way too severe. Many others felt it was adequate? Personally, this guy has missed 3 games already and only felt he should have been suspended about this long. Hey, he didn't kill anybody, the guy who provoked him never got punished whatsoever and what was his crime exactly? He threw a punch at a player? We have never seen this in college football? I have seen it many times without a year suspension!

Will be interesting to see how this new story plays out but believe Chip Kelly will stand by his decision and will look like a fool if he now changes his decision from everybody. Anybody else have any thoughts? Should he be able to come back this year? Personally, I thought his suspension was way excessive all along. This is just me. What are your thoughts?

[Tuck4Bama]

The initial suspension was right on. I say this because of the attempt to fight with fans.

I think that his return would be acceptable as long as he has done everything he has been instructed to do. Many players have done much worse with little or no disciplinary action. Blount's problem was being out of control on TV with the incident replayed on every sports cast for week or more.

[Quality88]

Reports are that he has a past history, that being said if that's true, then I agree with the suspension. It's not acceptable to punch an opponent even if your taunted, and it's not acceptable to go after the fans.

On the same token the player that taunted him should have been benched for a game or three, but he wasn't, and to use that as a reason for trying to knock a punishment down a peg or two is not right.

[Quack Attack]

It appears in latest article I read that he actually will serve at least a 9 game suspension with his earliest possible return would be November 7, 2009 against Stanford. He will miss the USC game the week before. This means the most games he could play this year would be 4 games counting a bowl game if Ducks qualify. This is also only if he follows all rules and regulations from coach Kelly.