Lead By Example

I am ashamed of the coaches of both USC, and UCLA, and they should be ashamed of themselves.  To recap;  USC was leading the game, 21 - 7 with :56 left in the game.  USC had just taken over on downs.  The USC QB takes a knee, you'd expect one more, and the game is over, no hurt feelings.  

Not quite the way it went down.

No, coach Neuheisel of UCLA opted to call his timeouts.  Now, coach Carroll could be the bigger man, and just take his three knees, punt if necessary.

Oh, no.

Since Rick was going to call timeouts, Pete had his QB throw a meaningless touchdown.

Now, to my way of thinking, this could have been a teaching moment.  And I am reasonably sure that coaches are supposed to teach, particularly sportsmanship, in addition to winning football games.  Coach Carroll could have just taken another knee, whereupon coach Neuheisel should have realized it was better to let the game end.  Of course, Coach Neuheisel could have not called the first timeout to begin with.

So, two grown men, who are being paid millions to stay cool in the heat of the moment, got carried away, and turned what could have been a lesson in sportsmanship into a manhood measuring contest.

They both came up short.