LaGarrette Blount at it again (drafted, coaches, draft, game)

[mattyj46]

NASHVILLE -- Tennessee Titans rookie running back LeGarrette Blount lost his helmet, then his head when he punched defensive lineman Eric Bakhtiari in the facemask at the end of a physical, intense practice Wednesday night.

Blount, who was suspended from the Oregon team last season when he punched a Boise State player following a nationally televised ESPN game, took exception to a defender ripping his helmet off as he pinballed off at least six tacklers.

The 6-foot, 247-pound power back went undrafted, likely as a result of teams being wary of the incident. But Blount felt he was justified for his punch this time.

"It's not like they hit me so hard my helmet got knocked off. They kept knocking my helmet off,'' Blount says. "I lowered my shoulder and they reached around the back of my head and pulled my helmet off.

"When somebody loses their helmet, now the play is dead. It's supposed to die.

'"They kept hitting me, hitting me, hitting me with my helmet off. What's the point? Guys get fed up with it. They were doing stuff that didn't need to be done.

"It just reached a peak.''

Blount is running with the third string. Recently-signed former Green Bay Packers and St. Louis Rams running back Sam Gado defended Blount.

"That was just pure determination and toughness. It was because of the nature of the practice, he was not going to go down,'' Gado says.

Said second-year cornerback Jason McCourty: "His helmet popped off, so I don't blame him for throwing a punch.''

All the same, Blount is likely to get a talking to from offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger about keeping his head next time a defender tries to tick him off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1KjH...layer_embedded

[VolDude]

Fights are part of football practices (coaches love them) and that Boise guy probably deserved the knuckle sandwich he was served, but there seems to be a pattern in Blount's behavior. Football scuffles shouldn't come to blows every time. Maybe he is out of control:

Earlier today PORTLAND OREGONIAN columnist John Canzano reported that LeGarrette Blount once accidentally punched former Oregon head football coach Mike Bellotti in the face during a practice scuffle. [CENTER][/CENTER]
Though acknowledging a practice “scuffle” involving Blount, Bellotti today denied that he was struck by Blount during the altercation. Bellotti to ESPN Radio’s Scott Van Pelt (audio):

LeGarrette Blount never hit me, not accidentally nor on purpose …. I do remember where I had to break up a scuffle during practice … LeGarrette was an offensive player and there were a couple defensive players and I stepped between them. … LeGarrette Blount never struck me.

After Bellotti’s denial, I contacted Canzano for a response. Canzano replied with this statement via email:

I stand by the reporting in the column. I now have four sources who were present who tell me the incident went beyond simple pushing and shoving and that Bellotti was accidentally struck in the fray as he stepped in to break it up. The larger, and more important, point of the column related to coaches who were eager to cover for LeGarrette all along. So I guess I’m not totally surprised that Bellotti wants to half-way characterize the incident.

The Oregonian has also publicly stood behind Canzano’s reporting on the subject.
As has my own source on the subject.
I was informed today by a source inside the Oregon football program that after Bellotti was struck by Blount during the Canzano-cited closed practice incident, “he (Bellotti) had a welt on his face and everyone was talking about it afterwards.”
I can’t blame Bellotti for trying to protect Blount in this circumstance, but he certainly seems to be in the minority in his version of what happened during the “scuffle” involving Blount at a closed Oregon football practice two years ago.


SPORTSbyBROOKS » Bellotti Had ‘Welt On His Face’ From Blount Punch

[Acuda]

Clownzano, I mean Canzano is an idiot who looks for stuff that is inaccurate and plain bulls**t. He claims he is a Duck supporter but always goes and tries to stir s**t up. He is a complete tool who claims he has sources in the U of O program, but he doesn't have sh*t. He once claimed that he had sources who told him that Masoli had a blown out a knee. Canzano straight out lies. He got served when Chip Kelly went on his show and called his s**t out and told him, "he must have not been loved as a child"...classic. The Oregonian is a rag of a paper who hires hack colmunists and that needs to go away. It brings absolutely nothing to the state and is losing subscribers left and right.

Shoot, Bellotti has denied it and Fisher doesn't give a fu**in **** about it. Next?