Ducks fly together.
It’s the motto that helped Gordon Bombay’s little league hockey team win the district championship in the film Mighty Ducks. Apparently that motto never made it to Eugene, Oregon.
Chip Kelly’s football “Ducks” look more like a scattered cluster than a flock. Plagued by off-field issues since being trampled by underdog Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, the Oregon football Ducks are getting their wings clipped.
More like severed, actually.
All this coming when it seemed Oregon would put a stranglehold on a conference dominated for years by USC. The Ducks are being picked as a preseason top five team in nearly every “way too early” poll you look at. But the unraveling just won’t stop.
It started On Jan. 24, just three weeks after the Rose Bowl embarrassment. Police charged sophomore kicker Rob Beard with assault when he entered a 20-person fight to help former kicker Mike Bowlin. Beard was knocked unconscious, had to spend two days in intensive care, and had facial surgery. Bowlin left the team after the brawl.
That same weekend, starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and wide receiver Garrett Embry were accused of stealing computers, a guitar and a projector from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, supposedly because members of the house kicked Embry out earlier at a party. Police have not made any arrests yet.
Six days later, policed charged defensive end Matt Simms for misdemeanor assault after Simms attacked a person he thought was involved in the Jan. 24 brawl with Beard. Kelly dismissed Simms from the team.
Last Wednesday, police arrested star running back LaMichael James after a fight with his girlfriend and charged him with strangulation, assault and physical harassment.
On Saturday, policed arrested and charged linebacker Kristian Kiko Alonso for driving under the influence of alcohol. In response to a rumor that Kelly decided to dismiss Alonso from the team, wide receiver Jamere Holland posted several derogatory and expletive comments on his Facebook page, blasting the coach, the program and students who didn’t support him. He has since deleted those posts, but it was too late. Kelly kicked Holland off the team.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, Kelly got into a verbal argument during a radio interview with Portland Oregonian John Canzano.
So what does all of this mean? Well, it means at least three players won’t be showing up to spring practice. It could be more if Kelly decides to take action against Masoli or James. It could cost them a Pac 10 title. It could have no effect.
But it has put a black eye on the program.
And it’s on Kelly to get the Ducks flying together again.
