Blount: a pressure offense

News that the University of Oregon is reassessing its season-long suspension of LeGarrette Blount — the running back who popped a Boise State player following the Ducks’ opening game — doesn’t bother me.

Even to me, that suspension seemed severe.

But I wish the Oregon brass had come to the decision to reassess without being pressured by Blount’s parents and an attorney.

While Oregon athletic director Mike Bellotti said the call “was a plea by parents for understanding and leniency,” he acknowledged he was aware of the lawyer’s presence on the line, aware enough, in fact, to include a school attorney on the call.

If the school decides ultimately to give Blount a break, I’m sure it will say the (implied) threat of a lawsuit had nothing to do with it.

But that won’t be the truth.

The truth is that bureaucracies respond to pressure, and if you can bring enough to bear — by threatening to cost the bureaucracy either money or bad PR — minds can be changed.