From John Canzano of The Oregonian:
Blount punched Boise State's Byron Hout in the face on the field after the game. Then, Blount put a fist to the helmet of Ducks' teammate Garrett Embry, who was trying to play peacemaker. And what we have here is a low moment that can not be greeted with tolerance. [...]The Ducks running back should be arrested and charged with assault today for slugging Hout, who wasn't even looking. Also, Blount should be served up by first-year head coach Chip Kelly as a reminder of everything the program should never become.
It was cheap. It was embarrassing. It was disgusting.
Seems a tad excessive. Sure, Blount deserves to be suspended for some amount of time. But let's be honest with ourselves here -- Hout kind of had it coming. Which isn't to say he (technically) deserved it, or what Blount did should go unpunished. But in the heat of the moment, when a dude is in your face taunting you -- and putting his hands on you, as Hout did -- moments after you've just lost an enormously important football game ... well, we saw the outcome. Cheap, embarrassing, disgusting? Sure. But hardly shocking.
If this had gone down in a bar between two guys -- one talking trash to the other, who in-turn got punched in the face -- the cops would probably take both to jail for the night. In this case, none of that seems necessary. It's a violent game played at the peak of human emotion. That, combined with the taunts, should be taken into consideration here.