Bumping it up in case folks missed this last night. GO BRUINS. -N
From ESPN's Ted Miller:
This isn't hostage negotiation. It's football. It's supposed to amuse and entertain you.
And, in the big picture, Neuheisel's pique and subsequent trash-talking at a booster function means nothing. Trojans and Bruins don't need any further motivation to dislike each other.
But I got a couple of notes about Neuheisel "whining," and if we must treat this seriously -- for a maximum of four minutes, please -- let's get things straight.
Neuheisel is 100 percent right.
Carroll is 100 percent wrong.
Instead of "Win Forever" this is "Be petty!"
Neuheisel was trying to create for coaches' kids an exemption to a league rule that prohibited anybody younger than 18 from being on the sidelines during a game. He asked the coaches for a vote at the Pac-10 meetings. They did. His proposal won by a 9-1 margin.
The "Nay" vote was Carroll.
Miller didn't stop there. He also noted the obvious hyopocrisy (in addition to being totally petty) on the part of Pete Carroll:
Carroll voted against Neuheisel's harmless proposal just to tweak Neuheisel. One Pac-10 coach noted to me that, "Pete can be like that."
By the way, this rule is rarely enforced. I've seen plenty of under-18 youngsters on the sidelines. If Neuheisel wants to bring one of his teenage sons onto the field, no one is gong to stop him.
Further, USC, as Bruins Nation noted with its typically entertaining lack of equanimity, isn't exactly known for being a stickler for sideline order.
Neuheisel has been gracious repeatedly giving credit to USC for its success since he was hired last year. Of course, it's hard to say anything else about the nation's premier football program.
But here's a guess that he may be less hail-fellow-well-met going forward.
The U$C* PR machine aided and abetted by the LA Times is working over time right now to find technicalities but all of that spinning will not cover up a simple fact: Carroll was simply being petty and hypocritical jerk in an attempt to tweak Neuheisel. Once again here is Miller appearing on ESPN via phone:
As Ted said in his post later on Neuheisel was right, and Carroll was wrong. Can't get any simpler than that.
GO BRUINS.