Not surprisingly, the USC football program has been forced to publicly address a situation involving its head coach.
Overnight, reports surfaced that, during a school-sponsored donor event Saturday, an apparently inebriated Steve Sarkisian made several inappropriate comments in front of those in attendance, which included the donors, USC players, staff, coaches, their families and friends. It got to the point where athletic director Pat Haden was forced to pull his coach off the stage to prevent a further embarrassing situation.
Sunday afternoon, both Sarkisian and Haden released statements addressing the incident.
“I sincerely apologize to my players and staff and to our fans for my behavior and my inappropriate language at our kickoff event Saturday night,” the coach said. “I have a responsibility to all of them and I let them down. Pat Haden talked to me after the event about my actions and I assured him this will not happen again.”
In his statement, Haden made it appear that he had a very stern, possibly one-sided talk with Sarkisian -- and that the coach apparently took the message to heart.
“I met with Coach Sarkisian and I expressed my disappointment in the way he represented himself and the University at our Salute To Troy event. While the details of our conversation will remain between us, I am confident he heard my message loud and clear.”
The Trojans went 9-4 in the first season under Sarkisian. The team will head into the season ranked eighth in the country.