Deadwrong

Normally, I respect Deadspin's approach to the sports news of the day, week, whatever. But not today. Not this reckless and ignorant post from Dashiell Bennett, a guy who I don't know personally but also normally respect. But Dash is as wrong as can be here and I surely hope he's not doing it just to be a contrarian. Because that would be stupid.

The title is "Byron Hout Got What He Deserved."

Really? He deserved to get punched in the jaw while he wasn't looking by a thug who talked smack all week long apparently? A thug who then ran away like a little girl. A thug who punched him with his HELMET ON?

I've read a lot about this today, as I'm sure many of you have as well. And the consensus seems to be that Blount was talking during the week about how they owed Boise St. an ass-whipping because Boise beat them last year. And, from what's being cobbled together, it appears that Hout may have gone by and rapped him on the shoulder pad and said, "Nice ass-whipping."

Should Hout have done that? Of course not. Nobody's denying that. He should probably be disciplined, in fact, for inciting this melee. However, he does not "deserve" to be punched in the jaw like that.

What if Blount had broken Hout's jaw? Would he deserve that, too? What an asinine and obnoxious thing to say. God forbid Hout and the Broncos appear "smug" after beating the thug-filled, trash-talking-but-never-have-won-anything Ducks for the second straight year!

Bennett/Deadspin also classified Hout's actions as an "equally egregious display of poor sportsmanship." No, sir. Just... no.

He also says this about the fans at -- remember -- a Boise State home game: "[The] fans should probably have kept their mouths shut too. Blount would have ripped them in half if they didn't have security to protect them."

Wait, so now fans can't yell and scream at a thug who just committed assault on their field? Okay, gotcha. Let me make sure I write down all these rules. Clown.

Oh, and let me ask this... was it also Byron Hout's fault when Blount went after and jacked HIS OWN TEAMMATE in the head?

The Whole EA Thing

I feel oddly compelled to comment on the current Erin Andrews debacle. If you haven't heard, she was videotaped through a hotel peephole, walking around her room, wearing nothing but her cell phone earbud (I like to think she was doing a radio appearance in the buff).

Well, a blonde was, anyway. And it was kind of grainy. So the best course of action, I would have thought, would be to simply deny it, laugh it off, etc. And then put tape over all future hotel peepholes. However, ESPN (and maybe EA herself) felt differently, and confirmed it was everyone's favorite sideline reporter in the altogether. The only reason I see for confirming this is because they want to go after not only the videographer but the hotel as well. Which they should, because I'm fairly certain peepholes aren't supposed to work that way.

What's more interesting to me is how multiple leading sports sites have been muzzled and, it appears, scared. Perhaps for the first time, I might add. I know AJ Daulerio at Deadspin has crossed lines before and it's always served to underscore how cutting edge Deadspin was, and how they were beholden to nobody. However, now AJ has been compelled (either with legal threats or his own conscience) to put up the most humble, serious, tail-between-the-legs post I've ever seen on Deadspin. And all he did was follow the story for us, as Deadspin is expected to do. What were sports blogs supposed to do when news broke that there was a potential video of EA naked? Pretend it hadn't happened? Of course it's an invasion of privacy. But unless you took the video, you're simply saying "Hey, look at this!" Sure, sure, that's wrong, too, because it further violates privacy, but we're getting a little further down the line of who's really doing anything wrong. Either we are all ready to be a part of this new media world where everyone Twitters and videos go viral immediately, or we're not ready and we need to go back to everything being edited and proofed and re-read and vetted, etc., over and over.

I think it's kind of sickening that someone would stand outside EA's hotel room and video her in the buff. However, many sports blogs/sites out there have commented on EA's hotness and she's virtually admitted in interviews that if she gets more access thanks to her looks, so be it. And we all loved her for that. And yet now we're all expected to get all moral and, as AJ at Deadspin does, say "please don't get out of control in the comments." If he's really going to curttail coverage and commentary of something like this, then what's left of Deadspin?

And what the hell did ESPN threaten him with, anyway?