Blount's life change still in progress.

Byline: George Schroeder The Register-Guard

He was halfway through the wind sprint when a teammate called out:

"Yeah, you better get them lungs back!"

LeGarrette Blount looked up, smiled - "Got to!" - then turned and ran back to the other sideline.

Blount wore a cardinal-colored jersey on Monday morning, and there was nothing new to report. Just like the last few weeks, he practiced with the scout-team offense; this week, wearing No. 7, he's mimicking Stanford's Toby Gerhart.

But change is coming. There was no mistaking the reason for the extra running after practice.

"He wants to make sure he's in condition if the opportunity arises," running backs coach Gary Campbell says.

It's not if, but when. And also: What now?

Never mind what anyone thought of the initial penalty for The Punch - suspension, with no chance for reinstatement - or of Chip Kelly's subsequent reversal.

It doesn't matter if you believe the coach was right then and wrong now. Or wrong, then right. Or somehow, as Kelly would have it, two rights, never wrong.

The question isn't whether Blount deserves a second chance. It's what he'll do with it.

We're not talking about tough yards or touchdowns, the stuff NFL scouts want to see. The topic isn't how Blount's return might help the Ducks' push for the Rose Bowl.

Kelly keeps saying it's not about football, and I believe him. If it had been, Blount would have been back in uniform long ago.

But let's hope it's not about football for Blount, either.

"What we're trying to do here is make a life change," Campbell says. "I think he's coming to grips with that now."

The Punch isn't going away. It will always be with Blount, a part of any biographical sketch. But what's the next paragraph? And the next? And the next?

That was the message sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards had for Blount when they met in mid-September.

"You can become a better athlete, you can become a better person," the renowned sociologist told him. "Not just despite the incident at Boise State, but because of it."

Edwards says Blount gets it, that he's "not a bad guy," but someone "who needed direction." And although Blount has remained mostly incognito these last two months, we've seen evidence indicating Edwards might be correct.

Just moments after the punch, Blount apologized. The contrast between the calm, collected guy standing outside the locker room and the angry young man we'd seen a little earlier was startling. Blount probably didn't understand the ramifications of his actions, but he seemed sincere in his regret.

A few weeks ago, Blount spoke to a group of at-risk kids at the John Serbu Youth Campus, the juvenile detention center just across the street from Autzen Stadium.

"I won't let (the punch) define who I am as a person," he told them.

Much more important than the words, Blount has been quietly climbing those educational and behavioral ladders Kelly set up. We've seen him practicing on the scout team. We know he's been meeting regularly with Kelly, and undergoing anger-management counseling, and going to class.

"He's really sincere about all his efforts to make amends," Campbell says. "He's anxious to get himself back in the mix and start playing football again."

That's the first step. And it's not insignificant. When you first learned Kelly had suspended Blount for the season, but would allow him to remain with the team, did you think Blount would hang around?

So Blount has already defied expectations, cleared some significant hurdles and fulfilled some important obligations. But his journey is only beginning.

"It's a work-in-progress," Kelly says. "It's about the final results, way down the road. That's the key: if he keeps doing the right things."

We're a forgiving culture. Sometimes, too much so. All we require is a sincere apology - admission of wrongdoing, and genuine remorse - and we're willing to embrace, and give a second chance.

Blount's about to experience both. But it's just the start.

"This is not a one-day-after-reinstatement issue," Edwards says. "We're talking about, hopefully, him changing tracks and understanding actions have consequences. This is not just his football. It crosses over into his life.

"He has to be exemplary in terms of those dimensions: football and life."

Edwards, who lives in the Bay Area, hasn't spoken with Blount since spending the day with him in September.

He says he didn't want to intrude on the structure Kelly had set up.

But the sociologist might drive over to Stanford this weekend.

If Blount makes the trip with the team, Edwards says he'd like to shake his hand, look him in the eye, and give him this challenge:

"Young brother, at some point everyone has to man up. This is your time."

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