In case you hadn’t heard, Reggie Bush returned his Heisman Trophy he was awarded a couple years back following a great season at USC.  He did so because of student athlete conduct violations, and to save the Heisman committee to ask for the trophy back.

[picappgallerysingle id=”9773176″]

Kudos to him, it was a classy move.  The way that Vince Young, the runner-up for the Heisman the year Bush won it, also acted with class when he gave a statement about Reggie Bush giving back the trophy.  I’m not going to quote Vince Young’s Twitter account on this issue, because this article isn’t slamming him or Reggie Bush.

Pete Carroll, step on up.

[picappgallerysingle id=”9779273″]

Carroll was the head coach at USC while Reggie Bush was there, which in my opinion makes him one of the most responsible guys for keeping things like Reggie Bush’s situation from happening.  Whether he should’ve personally taken it upon himself to make sure none of his student athletes were violating conduct rules or whether he should’ve assigned someone to it, it’s ultimately Carroll who is responsible for making sure that his team doesn’t do something that makes them ineligible to take the field on gameday.

Reggie Bush was a huge part of the reason why Pete Carroll was successful at USC, and I refuse to accept the fact that Carroll had no idea what Reggie Bush was involved with.  Does he get sanctioned for these rule infractions?  Nope, he’s already moved on to the NFL, getting a job with the Seattle Seahawks after proving to be such a great coach with all those winning seasons down at USC… winning seasons which were built with at least one player who wasn’t following student athlete conduct codes.

What was Pete Carroll’s response?  He took the “Holier Than Thou” approach:

It is my hope that this situation serves as a teachable moment to all involved, especially for the young athletes and university and high school administrators of tomorrow.

Is that so, Pete?  Do you consider yourself when you say “all involved”?  You darn well should, because you’re just as much to blame over this as a lot of the people at USC who are feeling the fallout from it.  How about taking some of the blame and say that you should’ve done a better job at making sure that didn’t happen?  How about apologizing to Reggie Bush for not stepping in and putting an end to the situation?  Do you have a heart?  Reggie Bush ran his ass off to help get you that National Championship, and now that his trophy is now back in the hands of the committee who gave it to him, you’re basically chastising him?

Shame on you, Pete Carroll.

Related Posts