Barrett Rainey's Second Thoughts

This is another one of those multi-subject columns. So keep reading.

UofO Football: You can bet the farm, come Nov. 7, Univ. Of Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount will be back in uniform and on the playing field. You’ll remember this miscreant for sucker-punching a Boise State University player in September, throwing punches at teammates, then going after fans before cops and staff wrestled him out.

Coach Chip Kelly quickly announced at the time, while Blount’s scholarship would continue and he could play in scrimmages and he could hang out with the team, he would be benched for the season. From the standpoint of real sportsmanship, all of that other stuff should have gone away and he should have been benched. Period.

Now, the allure of post-season playoffs … and the millions of dollars on the table for participating … have proven too much for Coach Kelly and UofO administration. What should have been made a lesson for amateur athletes everywhere is going to be trashed for future income.

Now my football-playing grandson and all the other 15-year-olds in football programs can look at this situation and say to themselves, “So what does it mean when you get benched for the season? That’s not so bad. You still get paid and you’ll be back next month.”

On the third day after his “suspension,” Blount’s parents and lawyers were on the phone to Kelly to try to change his mind. The lawyer calls have kept coming.

Kelly needs to consider one very important fact before this guy puts on the pads. Blount has a lengthy background of repeated emotional and violent behavior problems. They go a lot deeper than football coaches can solve. His history says he needs extended psychiatric help. But kids out there don’t know that. So Kelly will appear to be telling them violence in athletics is acceptable.

That’s wrong.
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International Olympics: The awarding of the 2016 Summer Games to Rio is great. Compared to many of its neighbors, Brazil is an excellent example of democracy and economic development in all of South America. No developing nation has had this honor bestowed in modern Olympic history and it sends a good message.

Pres. Obama had little choice whether to go make the case before the IOC. Heads of state of all competing nations were going. American presidents before him had made the same trip for the same reason. We would have been criticized by other nations if he had not gone.

But the reaction of hate radio and the far right cheering because, in their cheese-filled brains this was a loss for Obama, is maddening and disgraceful. These same cretins who wrap themselves in the flag and call each other “patriot” come off looking like idiots. In fact, when someone starts cheering for the defeat of their own country’s interests and exulting in any failed efforts of its elected leaders, the next word in my mind is “treason.”

Strong word? You bet! Put their words and actions in a competitive wartime setting and it fits. We are a nation of better people than these professional malcontents. Much better.

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