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Pete Carroll could have stayed and helped USC heal

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As we watch Pete Carroll dart in and out of the public eye the last few weeks, promoting his new book, impressions are fortified.

He will always be the little boy with the sprig of hair flying around, eager to get over to the sandlot and toss the ball around. His eyes never stop darting, as if he needs to be certain he won’t miss the next pickup game.

He will always talk fast, a little like somebody who hopes the words go by so quickly that you won’t have time to truly analyze them.

He greets reporters, fans, everybody, with a smile, using it like a curtain that shields things you normally wouldn’t smile about. He is terminally upbeat, impossible to dislike, an ever-moving target.

Reggie Bush? He didn’t know, but he still thinks of him like a son. (He grins.)

His timing of going to the Seattle Seahawks? It was just too good an opportunity. And yes, despite what he told us all those years during his love affair with USC and campus life and college existence, he always knew he’d be back in the pros someday. (He gets an amused twinkle in his eye.)

Those vacated wins, loss of championships, trophies being shipped out of Heritage Hall? They happened. You can’t revise history. (He squirms, grimaces, then smiles.)

The media conclusion is almost always the same, as it was recently on HBO’s “Real Sports.” Reporter Andrea Kremer said they love him in Seattle, that whatever happened at USC matters little in the Pacific Northwest. And she is right, of course. The little-boy charm and the always-upbeat coachspeak have conquered all. Again.

But before we close the chapter on the Pete Carroll era and its asterisks, there is another thought, one that has been lost in all the noise, speculation and anger over Carroll and Bush and the NCAA penalties:

Carroll’s departure represents a huge opportunity lost.

This is what he should have done.

As the NCAA’s announcement hung over USC — an announcement that everybody knew would be a punch to the Trojans’ stomach — Carroll should have gone into Mike Garrett’s office and told his boss he had a plan.

That plan would have been to announce that he had yet another offer from yet another NFL team and that he was not taking it, that he was staying at USC. He could say that he badly wanted to go back to the NFL someday and finish what he started there, and that that day might still come. But that day was not now. Especially, not now.

He could say whatever he wanted to about the upcoming sanctions. He had a suspicion and didn’t act, he didn’t know, he should have known. Whatever was the truth.

He could say he was staying with full knowledge that there were likely to be sanctions and that they could bring some rocky years, but that he had been through the good times and owed the school his services during the bad times. He could talk about keeping his word with the players he recruited, about his integrity and the integrity of the school’s athletic program being more important, at that moment, than a pro job and a bigger paycheck.

He would be saying, in essence, that if USC’s ship was sinking, he was willing to take his last gasp clinging to the wheel.

Had he done that, Garrett might still be there and Pat Haden might still be enjoying his half a dozen Saturday afternoons a year at Notre Dame, rather than the nights and weekends ahead, mopping up at Heritage Hall.

Had Carroll done that, any remaining image of USC as largely a football factory, unfair and incorrect these days, would have disappeared.

Had he done that, sports would have had another teachable moment, another glowing example to point to along the lines of Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga. Had he said that there were things more important than winning and losing and paving the way for pro careers — his and his players’ — the response would have been a standing ovation, literally and figuratively. The loudest would have come from USC’s faculty.

John Wooden always said that people in his position were, first and foremost, teachers. Had Pete Carroll stayed around, faced the music and coached his guts out for a 4-7 record, he would have become one.

Yes, this is naive. It’s too bad that society makes it so.

Our best leaders, in all walks of life, turn obstacles into opportunities. They have vision in the midst of a blinding storm.

Unfortunately, in a world of big-time college sports, where the preaching of education and character-building is mostly a fraud, our leaders all too often turn pro.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

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