Lyles Doesn’t Speak for the Ducks

The prediction from many Duck fans that this Lyles story would disappear soon is unfortunately not the case. It just seems to get worse and worse and has brought with it some major drama for the off-season. After reading a few articles this morning on the subject, I came across an interesting one from the Columbian. The article makes the argument; if Will Lyles is such a scumbag (as he is being called by many Duck fans) then aren’t we “throwing stones in a glass house?” I say absolutely not.

Those are the real questions for Oregon fans. You can denigrate Lyles all you want, but such name-calling fails to address the question of why the Ducks were cavorting with such a person.

From www.columbian.com (share this quote)

I say absolutely not for the same reason Duck fans don’t have a story from Oregon yet. As fans we do not make the decision to hire anyone, we don’t make the decision for what recruiting service to use or who to associate with. Frankly, we don’t know what actually happened. Our job as fans is to support the team. Should the fans just sit quietly while the reputation of our team is being muddied by Will Lyles when we don’t even have the entire story yet? Here’s the deal, in my opinion, Lyles put his story out there and it isn’t pretty, and Duck fans giving their opinion of this guy is a natural reaction that any sports fan would have. Once we get word about what the NCAA and Oregon are hashing out then we can give an opinion on that, but why would we ever just turn against the Ducks based on what one guy is saying? That would not make a very true fan. It would be just like going to court with your brother, hearing the prosecutor’s side of the story, turning to your brother and saying “Sorry, but it looks like it’s all said and done for you! Guilty!” No, you listen to the defense too.

Now, if it comes out that what Lyles says is true and Kelly made those horrible decisions for the program then most of us will have a negative opinion of those decisions and would be supportive of the consequences. It would suck for the program, and the momentum we’ve gained would slow up dramatically but it would be necessary. I will always support the Ducks and I will never push them into the tracks without hearing the defense.