Hey, Trojan Fans, He’s Ready for Your Apology

I’d imagine Trojan fans have something they’d like to say to me today now that Carson Palmer’s Heisman arm rules L.A., and USC has slipped past UCLA.

Believe me, I know when it’s time to give someone his due, stop the bashing and, if necessary, offer an apology.

I’ve been around long enough, though, to know Trojan fans will never say they’re sorry or cease the bashing.

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THERE IS no question Trojan fans owe me an apology today.

At a time when they were just abusing then-coach Paul Hackett, I chose to remain positive, writing nothing but nice things about Palmer in this very newspaper -- going back three miserable seasons to Aug. 16, 2000, and scribbling: “I’m just going to proceed as if Carson Palmer is my son, hoping he warms to the idea by the time he leaves USC and signs his mega-million-dollar contract to play in the NFL.”

It’s generally accepted, of course, that I am smarter than most Trojan fans -- just read their e-mail -- but I don’t make a point of lording it over the dummies or even mentioning it. This is just what I do, spotting football talent long before those not so well versed in the finer details of the game, you know, like most Trojan fans.

So while I was embracing Palmer three years ago as one of my very own kids, most fair-weather folks who dress in cardinal and gold and stay home unless USC is playing Notre Dame or UCLA were getting upset with him because he was throwing the ball to the other team with regularity.

Some Trojan yahoos were even wondering out loud at times why Matt Leinart and Matt Cassel weren’t being given some snaps.

Before this season began, I sat with the great coach, Pete Carroll, at Pac-10 media day, and he made the point of saying he didn’t want Carson, my son, feeling as if he had to carry the Trojans, with the implication he didn’t have the game to pull that off.

“If we’re a balanced, good team,” Carroll said at the time, “Carson will be just fine.”

Now, of course, he’s trying to sell Carson to the Heisman voters, as not only the best player on the Trojan roster, but in the whole country.

“He’s playing as the best player in the country would play,” Carroll said. “He should win the Heisman if we finish out next week the way we should.”

Well, I’ve come close to saying that for three years, and if USC had initiated a Heisman campaign when the season began, most of the Heisman voters might have voted in his favor because most of the Heisman voters never really get to see most of the guys they’re voting for on a regular basis, which means they probably would have missed the losses to Kansas State and Washington State.

If you recall correctly, I avoided drawing national attention to the fact Carson, my son, lost both of the games in which the Trojans had him throw the ball the most this season. Imagine how it might have looked if I had added up the totals and made a note of the fact that his arm came up short at the time they needed it the most, completing 18 of 46 passes against Kansas State and 32 of 50 against Washington State while taking a sack and failing to find the end zone in overtime.

I had the kid pegged to be selected as the No. 1 player in the NFL draft, and that was before I realized it was going to take him five years to get out of school and mature into the young man who threw four touchdown passes against the Bruins. I’m betting if there’s a way he can come back next year, he’ll throw five or six touchdown passes against the Bruins.

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I FOUND myself talking about the Heisman race on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” last week, and will probably do so again this week, and while I’d pick the running back from Miami, the quarterback from Miami or the running back from Penn State before my own son, everyone in my family knows what a big teaser I can be.

I do not sense the same level of understanding from Trojan fans, however; but then the good news is that no one watches the TV show, which really leaves it in the hands of my own son, who will be appearing in East Coast prime time next Saturday against Notre Dame.

And if UCLA Coach Bob Toledo is right for the first time this year: “I’m sure [USC] will beat Notre Dame,” then the kid should be the one taking the Heisman bow.

And like any father, I’ll probably be moved to tears.

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THE CITY of Pasadena distributed a two-page press release claiming that after more than 650,000 uses in the men’s public restrooms, new urinals saved more than one million gallons of water. And you thought Toledo had a tough job; how would you like to be the guy counting the uses in the men’s restrooms?

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THE ROSE Bowl handicap parking lot was the first filled, and while it didn’t appear everyone was handicapped, former Bruin players had to park somewhere.

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As predicted here earlier, now USC has to cheer for UCLA to beat Washington State in order to go to the Rose Bowl or beyond. They might want to lend the Bruins Palmer.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from S. Williamson:

“You should see the smile on my face watching the Trojans crush the Bruins, and that’s because I went to USC, where we don’t have a coach wildly swinging a towel over his head trying to motivate the fans or wake up the team; don’t have alumni cheerleader yelling at inappropriate times; and don’t have our own sportswriter spewing jealous comments.”

Who knew it was so easy to put a smile on the face of a Trojan fan?

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.