Fifteen Years Later, The Punch LeGarrette Blount Landed in Boise Still Rings a Bell

It was an ugly moment in an ugly loss, but it still lives in meme and memory. Fifteen years ago, 2009 in Boise, Idaho, players were walking off the field after a stunning 19-8 victory by the Broncos over the #16 Oregon Ducks.

During the week, running back LeGarrette Blount had told Sports Illustrated, "We owe them an ass-whupping," The year before, Boise had won in Oregon after knocking out quarterback Jeremiah Masoli with a late hit, a play that would be whistled as targeting today.

The rematch was Chip Kelly's first game as head coach, taking over from Mike Bellotti. That night before a national TV audience on ESPN, the opening game of the college football season, the Ducks were disorganized and a little tight, Chris Petersen's BSU team disciplined and fired-up, holding the Ducks without a first down in the first half.

Boise dominated, outgaining the Webfoots 361-152.  Oregon managed just 6 first downs. Kellen Moore and the Broncos offense controlled the clock and connected on some big plays. Blount carried the ball 8 times for -5 yards, easily the worst performance of his Oregon career.

He's walking off the field dejected when reserve Boise State defensive end Byron Hout claps him on the shoulder and says something.

The next day, John Canzano of the Oregonian wrote:

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.

Certainly the immediate aftermath of the incident was shocking and dangerous. Assistant coach Scott Frost muscles Blount toward the locker room as beered-up fans are pointing and screaming slurs. Blount is furious, barely restrained. At midfield before the punch, even Oregon players are seen shoving and bickering with each other.

A mythology has grown about what was said, about who said what to who, and how Blount might have been provoked.

In a 2022 interview with LaVar Arrington, the former Penn State, Washington and New York Giants linebacker, host of Up On Game Presents: Conversations With A Legend, Blount gave his account of the incident:

"The year before we played them (Boise State), they came to Oregon and they beat us. They hit my quarterback late and knocked him out. They hit my tight end late and knocked him out. So it's personal now. Sports Illustrated covered the game the next year because we were going to play them the first game of the next season. And Sports Illustrated came and talked to us and they were like, 'What about last year's game? They hit your quarterback, knocked him out, and they didn't get a flag for it.' I'm like, 'Sh** we owe them an ass-whoopin'. So that's what we plan on going out there and doing. Sports Illustrated came out with the article and all we see is 'We gon whoop they ass' everywhere. We see it all over our locker and everything!

"It's game time, we're ballin' and fast forward and we lost. And at the end of the game, my head is down and I'm walking off the field. And I'm like 'Damn, they beat our ass. I ain't do sh**.' I'm kind of tight. I hear this guy talking to me saying, 'Hey? How bout that ass-whoopin'? You said you were gonna beat our ass.' I'm hearing him now and I can't say nothin'. I gotta take that. I just keep on walking. He gets closer and closer to me and slaps my shoulder pad saying, 'How bout that ass-whoopin?' and then the N-word. This ain't about football no more. Officially you done made it about something else...So I turned around and I punched him."

Petersen has said he didn't hear the initial exchange between the players, but it's noteworthy that immediately following the punch, he goes to restrain his own player and admonishes him to back off.

Hout, who moved to linebacker the following season and became a two-time all-conference player, denies ever using the N-word. His version is that he said, "How about that ass-whupping?"

This is Hout in a 2010 pool interview after practice the following season:

In a 2017 interview with Bo Wulf of The Athleti c, Hout elaborated on his experience, then and now. He told Wulf:

“People are going to say what they want to say and believe what they want to believe,” he says. “I know the truth and I’m going to live my life in truth always. People can speculate, and all I can do is hope that the people who know me know that there’s no way I could possibly have said a racial slur there.”

“It’s a great example of what not to do and how not to be a good sport, for both of us,” Hout says. “But I don’t think it was a defining moment. If you look at where we both are now and the successes each of us has had since then, I don’t think you can attribute it to that moment at all.”

After the plane ride home and a review of what happened, Kelly hit Blount with an indefinite suspension that wound up lasting until the rivalry game with Oregon State. It cost him his senior year, and the stain of that two-minute video clip cost him a shot at the NFL Draft, After rushing for 1002 yards and 17 touchdowns as a junior, he was limited to three games and 82 yards in a senior year marred by The Punch, various clashes and a spring suspension for a violation of team rules. NFL scouts ferret that stuff out, even things from junior high. Blount went undrafted.

He persevered, though, crafting a nine-year NFL career that saw him win three Super Bowl rings and rush for 6,306 yards and 56 touchdowns, a power back who played at 6-0, 247 pounds and ran a 4.56 40.

Now 37, Blount grew up in Perry, Florida. In his interview with Arrington he explained a bit about his background.

"I seen my brother go to jail for dealing drugs. I seen my god brother get killed. I didn't physically see it but I've been a part of stuff like that and that's just what comes with being in that area."

"I did not want to be a part of that. I was offered to join whatever and deal whatever and I didn't want that for my life. We lived in the projects. I wanted to get up out of there."

"It's crazy to say this but every single guy that I grew up with, that I was really, really, really tight with, either locked up, killed, or not doing anything with their life."

"The older you get the more you understand there are consequences to every decision that you make."

"If I tell my story they're gonna make it seem like I'm making an excuse, right, justify my actions."

"So you between a rock and a hard place. It's lose-lose for us."

Charged up after a big win in which he had little role, Hout couldn't have known about Blount's world view or experience. He certainly didn't know how foolish he was to taunt him after a devastating loss.

He found out quickly. He picked the wrong guy to come up behind, slap on the shoulder and throw out insults, particularly if what he said included a racial slur.

Since then, Hout graduated from BSU with a degree in communications in 2012, then a master's degree in early and special education in 2014.

He started a career in coaching, first as a GA with the Broncos, then Washington State, then a paid position as defensive line coach at Montana State. He's currently the defensive flex coach at Idaho State University.

He told Wulf, “We were both young kids. He’s not a bad guy. I don’t hold grudges against anybody.”

“It’s a great example of what not to do and how not to be a good sport, for both of us. But I don’t think it was a defining moment. If you look at where we both are now and the successes each of us has had since then, I don’t think you can attribute it to that moment at all.”

Over his 9 years in the NFL Blount earned nearly ten million dollars in salary, able to buy houses for his mother and father. He channeled his anger into an exceptionally successful career. Which doesn't mean he didn't have a reason to be angry in the first place.