The last time “Pissy” Pete Carroll made an appearance, the then-USC head coach was throwing a hissy fit over Mark Sanchez leaving collegiate eligibility on the table and making himself available for the 2009 NFL draft.
Well, that Pete has reared his head again and, well, he’s pissed. Upset over the sanctions levied against his former football program months after he suddenly and unexpectedly found the NFL to be to his liking yet again.
Carroll, the new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks who will feel absolutely zero impact of the historic sanctions levied against his former program while in his current position, lashed out against the NCAA Tuesday for what he felt were heavy-handed and unfair sanctions against the Trojan football program he no longer coaches because he bolted months before the sanctions were handed down.
“There’s nothing there,” Carroll said of the 478-year investigation into Reggie Bush accepting upwards of $300,000 in illegal benefits while the running back was a member of Carroll’s football program.
“Now the word’s out. You can do this. One person can do this, go after a university and a kid. And nothing has to be true. NOTHING has to be true. They just have to make claims, and then the investigations and all that are under way.
“I just hate the thought that that can take place and we can do nothing about it.”
I really hate to quibble with the coach, but “one person” did not “go after... a kid.” It was more than one person that offered benefits “a kid” knew were illegal and “a kid” that more than willingly accepted them, based on the NCAA’s findings. “A kid” was not coerced, strong-armed or made by gunpoint to accept what “a kid” knew were illicit offerings. And could potentially lead to recriminations against a university “a kid” would go to his grave defending.
Good evening! But I digress...
During his diatribe, Carroll went and did the impossible after spewing the above, pegging the “I’m a Complete and Total Tool” meter by proposing a grassroots campaign to eliminate nefarious outsiders from influencing college student-athletes.
“Unfortunately, it’s about awareness,” Carroll said. “This issue in particular is not like any of the other cases that’s come along. It is about one person in a community where a kid came from who decided to take advantage of his potential good fortune. And he found a way in to make that happen -- outside of any of the university issues and setting and all that.
“They didn’t want anyone else to know. And we didn’t know.”
In late March of 2010, USC announced that they were banning athlete agents, marketing agents and financial advisors from attending/wandering the sidelines during Trojan practices/games. That edict came down two months after Carroll decided to leave college football because he suddenly and unexpectedly found the NFL challenge more to his liking, and nine years after Carroll began fostering and encouraging that put-your-muddy-boots-on-our-coffee-table environment.
Bravo for abandoning that burning house, Pete Carroll. Bravo.