Uh, I have no idea what this is, but I found it and I can’t determine if it’s creative, weird or “other”…
“I’ll sweep a floor.”
That was pretty funny.
Category: College Football (Page 182 of 296)
Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline.com is claiming that he’s the only one who didn’t think that USC head coach Pete Carroll was being a jerk at Mark Sanchez’s press conference last week, in which the Trojan quarterback declared himself eligible for the NFL draft.
And then he did it, even after Carroll advised him not to. So Carroll spoke about that at the press conference, and everyone heard one thing. They heard Carroll making an ass of himself.
Me, I heard something else. I heard Carroll being fed up. Carroll knew Sanchez had initially been leaning toward staying. Carroll knew that he then told Sanchez, based on conversations with NFL people — and Carroll knows NFL people; he once was head coach of the Jets and Patriots — that Sanchez’s pro career would be better served with one more year of college. And still Sanchez turned pro early.
So who got to Sanchez? Between the lines of that awkward press conference, that’s the question I heard. I heard Carroll wondering who it was that got to his player. Carroll has seen it before, with scumbags getting close to Reggie Bush and even O.J. Mayo on the basketball side of campus. Carroll knows the scumbags are still out there. So was it a scumbag this time? Or was it a family member? An agent? A girl? It was someone, and Carroll’s mad as hell at that person, as well as being mad as hell at Sanchez for listening.
So Carroll went into the press conference and delivered a message.
Here’s the thing. Carroll is one of the smoothest coaches in college sports. He knows how to act, and he knows what to say. He knows that everything he says and does will be dissected. And still he walked into that press conference, with plenty of time to prepare, and did what he did, and said what he said.
You think that was an accident? You think he lost control? You think his entire performance wasn’t planned?
I think it was intentional. I think it was premeditated. So I didn’t hear Pete Carroll being a shortsighted jerk. I heard Pete Carroll being fed up with the real shortsighted jerk in this scenario. I just wish I knew who that shortsighted jerk is.
Mark Sanchez knows who it is. Maybe someday, if his NFL career isn’t everything it could have been, he’ll get mad at that shortsighted jerk himself. Even if that shortsighted jerk is someone in his own family, maybe even himself.
So according to Doyel, Carroll has a master plan to prove his point and that’s why he was a calculated jerk at Sanchez’s presser? Either way, that still makes Carroll egotistical.
If everyone follows and writes about Carroll’s every more, than word would have spread (quickly, might I add) that he wasn’t in favor of Sanchez leaving early. He still could have done the professional thing and sat by as Sanchez made the biggest announcement of his life. Carroll still could have privately voiced his displeasure with Sanchez’s decision and made his point that way.
It’s nice that Doyel wants to play devil’s advocate in this situation and while he makes strong points, it still doesn’t excuse the way Carroll acted. Again, word would have spread whether or not Carroll was behind the decision or not. He didn’t have to go through all of that at the presser to prove his point.
Related Content:
Pete Carroll slightly peeved about Mark Sanchez’s decision to turn pro
USC quarterback Mark Sanchez has decided to skip his senior season and become eligible for April’s NFL Draft.
Here’s Trojan head coach Pete Carroll’s reaction to Sanchez’s decision:
Trojan beat writer Scott Wolf, for example, described the scene as “pathetic”:
USC coach Pete Carroll was extremely ungracious during the Mark Sanchez press conference. He stormed out of the room and did not even sit at the table before Sanchez addressed the media. Something he never did when Matt Leinart, etc., announced their decisions.
Carroll never sat down at the table but stood with his palms on the table. His anger was clear if you spend time around him.
Not a great moment.
Wolf is not known as “Caesar’s” biggest fan, but Rose agreed that Carroll was “peeved,” and that seems to be the reaction that’s picking up steam. Sanchez is earning his degree this spring (from the Annenberg School of Communication, which ain’t no joke), and he said all the right things today. I don’t know where Sanchez is going to be drafted or what kind of career he’ll have, but it seems an especially inopportune time for his coach to tell to a rapt media audience, essentially, “I expect this kid to fail.” I don’t know what else he could mean by pointing out the “less than 50-50” success rate of first round quarterbacks.
I equate Carroll’s reaction to a father who’s disappointed in one of his son’s big decisions. Carroll wants Sanchez to stay in school, get another year of experience under his belt and then turn him loose on the NFL world.
But like a father voicing his displeasure with his son’s decision in front of his friends and peers, Carroll shouldn’t have done it this way. There’s no doubt deciding to go pro was a hard decision for Sanchez and now that he’s made his decision, this should be a time for celebration. Regardless of how Carroll felt, he should have supported Sanchez, wished him luck and then got the hell out of the way. If he wanted to voice his displeasure, he should have done it behind closed doors, which I’m sure he did anyway.
It wasn’t Petey’s moment – it was Mark’s. Yet because Carroll’s ego got in the way and because he wanted to “state for the record” that he wasn’t happy with Sanchez’s decision, he came off as kind of a jerk in my eyes.
The deadline for underclassmen to decide whether or not to turn pro is today and Ross Tucker of SI.com has advice for all of those players on the fence about whether or not to return to school: go pro and never look back.
Football is a collision sport that takes a toll on one’s body, whether it be in the NFL or in college. Therefore, every player’s time in the game is finite, no matter how genetically gifted they may be. At some point the body is going to break down. When that time comes, each player will have the opportunity to reflect on his career and decide whether or not he maximized his earning potential. Any top prospect who returns to school, especially those who would have been taken in the first two rounds, is playing an entire season for which they could have been getting paid. That list currently includes Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy, USC’s Taylor Mays and a few others projected as first-day picks if they had entered the draft.
The other rebuttal to my premise concerns education. A player who leaves school early likely leaves without his degree. I thought this was a grave tragedy when I was a youngster. Man, was I naïve. To be clear, I am a huge proponent of education. I chose to attend Princeton because I recognized it was a unique learning opportunity. I would recommend that any player find a way to get his degree so he has something to fall back on when his playing days are over. But you can always go back to school. Besides, most of those who stay for their final year of eligibility drop out of school before the second semester, either to prepare for the Combine or individual workouts or both.
Much of the compensation for NFL players, especially those not fortunate enough to be drafted in the first round, is based upon tenure. A player’s league minimum goes up virtually every season. More importantly, the benefits players receive are based entirely upon years of service. Beginning with a player’s fourth season, every year entitles that player to another contribution into his annuity, 401k, severance and pension. Every year makes a significant difference.
I wonder how much of Tucker’s opinions stem from the poor economy. Because you used to hear pundits say, “If you’re good enough, the money will always be there. So stay in school as long as you can and enjoy the ride.” If we weren’t in economic hell right now would he still be instructing young players to, “get it while they can”?
He makes great points in his article. If a player’s stock is high and he grades out well, then they should enter the draft, make millions of dollars and hopefully go on to have a great career. Strike while the iron’s hot. Mark Sanchez (who is still deciding but is leaning towards entering the draft) and Shonn Greene are two prime examples of players in this year’s draft who are leaving while their stock is high.
But one thing Tucker isn’t factoring into the decision, and something that must be hard for a young player, is the experience they get from being in school. They only get so many years of eligibility and then their college career is over – forever. It’s hard to pass on experiences in life, even when millions of dollars are staring you in the face. The bottom line is that it’s a tough decision and you can’t blame a kid for going either way with their decision.
In the Jan. 12 issue of ESPN the Magazine, Peter Keating breaks down a number of different reasons why teams enjoy an advantage at home. The entire article is worth a read (though you’ll have to buy a copy since the article isn’t available online), but the part that jumped out at me was a study that was done on soccer officials back in 2007.
In every major pro sport over the past five years, home teams have benefited from a differential in calls made by the officials. Before you send irate e-mails to David Stern or Roger Goodell about zebras on the take, know this: Researchers say it’s likely that officials are subconsciously channeling fans’ preferences. “Referees get a lot of abuse, and as far as crowds are concerned, the only good decisions they make are those that help the home team,” says Paul Ward, a cognitive psychologist at Florida State. “If you’re looking for a way to deal with the stress of quick decisionmaking, favoring the home team is a way to reduce anxiety”
To test this hypothesis, Ward and his colleagues strapped a group of soccer refs, coaches and players to EKGs and asked them to call videotaped games. Half watched games with crowd noise, the other half without. The results, published in 2007, showed that the participants subjected to crowd noise reported more mental anxiety–and called 21% fewer fouls on the home team.
Bingo! This is why the intensity of crowds generates an advantage for home athletes. More fan frenzy equals more ref anxiety.
It makes sense that if an official is calling a game in front of a packed house of 20,000 screaming fans, that it’s not unlikely that the ref will eventually bend to the fans’ will. They may have every good intention of calling the game right down the line, but it’s human nature to try to reduce your own stress, and the easiest way to do that is to make the people around you happy.
So if you’re ever at a game and wondering if it’s worth the effort to stand up and cheer (or boo your fool head off), now you have your answer.
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