Fascinating story about Pete Carroll giving back to some of LA's most dangerous neighborhoods

[Goo Punch 4275]

Really surprised that I had never heard of this until now:

https://www.lamag.com/longform/23-reasons-why-a-profile-of-pete-carroll-does/

theres much more in the link, this is a small portion of the piece.

 Pete Carroll Does Not Appear in This Space

By

 J.R. Moehringer

 -

December 1, 2007

1. Accepting His Loan of a Shirt Might Have Been an Ethical Violation (Especially Since I Kept the Shirt as a Souvenir) 

Pete Carroll, head coach of the football team at the University of Southern California, turns to me one night around 8 p.m. and says he’s got something to do, somewhere he needs to be. We’re standing outside his office at Heritage Hall, the redbrick headquarters of USC’s athletic program, the trophy-filled heart of Troy.

I ask Carroll where he’s going, what he’s doing. He doesn’t answer. I ask if I can come along. No, he says, absolutely not. I ask again. Sorry, he says. I stare imploringly. OK, he says, looking me up and down—but you’d better change. He rummages through a small wardrobe in the corner of his office and finds a white polo, which he flips to me like a screen pass.

Put this on.

How come?

Your shirt, it’s blue—you might get shot.

Where the hell are we going?

He walks quickly out of the office.

2. He Often Wouldn’t Let Me Take Notes, So Some Quotations Are Approximations from Memory

While wriggling into Carroll’s shirt, I hurry to keep pace. It’s not easy. Carroll’s normal gait is what others might call a wind sprint. Down some stairs, around a practice field, through a parking lot, we zoom across campus. He tells me to stow my notebook. It might make the people we’re meeting uncomfortable.

Who are we meeting?

Look for a blue van, Carroll says.

A blue van?

There, he says. Sure enough, a blue van is double-parked at the corner, and beside it stands our driver and escort for the night, a deep-chested, gentle-voiced man named Bo Taylor. I climb into the backseat. Carroll rides shotgun.

Along the way Taylor tells me that he and Carroll do this often. They make late-night journeys through the dicey precincts of Los Angeles. Alone, unarmed, they cruise the desolate, impoverished, crime-ridden streets, meeting as many people (mostly young men) as possible. The mission: Let them know that someone busy, someone famous, someone well known for winning, is thinking about them, rooting for them. The young men have hard stories, grim stories, about their everyday lives, and at the very least Carroll’s visit gives them a different story to tell tomorrow. Carroll says: “Somebody they would never think would come to them and care about them and worry about them—did. I think it gives them hope.”

Few fans of USC, Carroll concedes, know that he spends his nights this way. He’s not sure he wants them to know. He’s not sure he wants anyone to know. I ask what his wife of 31 years, Glena, thinks of these excursions. He doesn’t answer. (Days later Glena tells me with a laugh that she doesn’t worry about Carroll driving around L.A., but she drew the line when he mentioned visiting Baghdad.)

We start in east South-Central, a block without streetlights, without stores. Broken glass in the gutters. Fog and gloom in the air. We hop out and approach a group of young men bunched on the sidewalk. Glassy-eyed, they’re either drunk, stoned, or else just dangerously bored. They recognize Carroll right away. Several look around for news trucks and politicians, and they can’t hide their shock when they realize that Carroll is here, relatively speaking, alone.

Carroll shakes hands, asks how everyone’s doing. He marches up and down the sidewalk, the same way he marches up and down a sideline—exhorting, pumping his fist. At first the young men are nervous, starstruck, shy. Gradually they relax. They talk about football, of course, but also about the police, about how difficult it is to find a job. They talk about their lives, and their heads snap back when Carroll listens.

A car pulls up. Someone’s mother, back from the store. She freezes when she sees who’s outside her house. Carroll waves, then helps her with the groceries. He makes several trips, multiple bags in each hand, and the woman yelps with laughter. No, this can’t be. This is too much. Pete Carroll? Coach of the roughest, toughest, slickest college football team in the nation, schlepping eggs and soda from her car to her kitchen?

Next we drive to the Jordan Downs housing projects, one of the most dangerous places in L.A. We find a craps game raging between the main buildings. Forty young men huddle in the dark, a different sort of huddle from the ones Carroll typically supervises. They are smoking, cursing, shoving, intent on the game, but most fall silent and come to attention as they realize who’s behind them. Pete Carroll, someone whispers. Pete Carroll? The most famous sports figure in the city, excluding Kobe Bryant? (Maybe including Bryant.) Pete Carroll, mentor to Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White—here? A sweet-faced teen named Jerome steps away from the game. He stares at Carroll, shakes his head as if to clear it. He says the same thing over and over. Pete Carroll in the ghetto. Man, this is crazy. Pete Carroll—in the ghetto! Crazy.

Some time after midnight Carroll and Taylor head for the van. Time to get back to Heritage Hall, where Carroll will catch a few hours of sleep on his office floor before his assistant coaches start showing up. A young man stops Carroll, takes the coach aside and becomes emotional while explaining how much this visit has meant to him. He gives Carroll a bracelet, something he made, a symbol of brotherhood and solidarity. Carroll accepts the bracelet as if it were a Rolex. He’ll wear it for days, often pushing back his sleeve to admire and play with it. He gives several young men his cell phone number—something he’s never offered me—and tells them to call if they ever need to talk. One, an ex-con, will call early the next morning and confide in Carroll about his struggles feeding his family. Carroll will vow to help find him a job. (So far, Taylor says, Carroll has found part-time jobs for 40 young men.)

Driving back to campus, Taylor is bleary-eyed, I’m half asleep, and Carroll looks as if he could go for a brisk 5K run, then start a big home improvement project. I ask Taylor if people on the streets ever seem suspicious of Carroll. Do they ever think he’s grandstanding or recruiting—or crazy? Taylor says he’s heard almost no cynicism, though he admits that he was doubtful at first. “Pete was like, ‘I want to go through the community with you,’ ” Taylor says. Sure, Taylor told Carroll, assuming it was just talk. Then, late one night, Taylor’s phone rang.

Hey, Bo, what’s up?

Not much. Who’s this?

Pete.

Pete who?

Pete Carroll. Hey, man, I’m ready, man. When can we go out there?

Taylor was stunned. Not only did Carroll follow through, but there was something in his tone. He was asking to visit neighborhoods where police don’t like to go, and he was asking without fear. “He asked like he wasn’t afraid,” Taylor says. He turns to look at me in the backseat, to make sure I’m sufficiently astonished or to make sure I’m still awake. “He asked that shit like he was not afraid."

[closetojumping 62261]

That is a fucking puff piece exalting the mighty leader of the Trojans from over 11 years ago. It’s nauseating in its nut hugging of Carroll and absurd to review over a decade later. What the fuck is wrong with you and why would you possibly think this merited its own thread?

[PilotsError 2286]

This had its own thread on TOS about a decade ago.

[Neonmoon 38127]

If left out the part where he was implicit in paying players, but left for the NFL before he could face any of the penalties because he's a narcissitic sack of shit, which I always thought was a pretty good part of the story. 

 

 

[jeevsie 3725]

Oh, great.  Someone bagged on Derka.  Can't wait to see where this thread goes...

[DaggerHorns 3058]

The article forgot the part about him being a 9/11 conspiracy theorist...

 

 

....and a steaming pile of shit. In all fairness I didn’t read the article because fuck Pete Carroll.

[TreatyOak 16168]

[SwanderedTalent 5761]

2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

That is a fucking puff piece exalting the mighty leader of the Trojans from over 11 years ago. It’s nauseating in its nut hugging of Carroll and absurd to review over a decade later. What the fuck is wrong with you and why would you possibly think this merited its own thread?

to say it another way, what does Pete Carroll have the need to "give back" for, precisely?

[The Triple Lindy 56]

Not sure this guy is totally happy with Pete

[Goo Punch 4275]

8 hours ago, jeevsie said:

Oh, great.  Someone bagged on Derka.  Can't wait to see where this thread goes...

Here's some interesting info for your own edification: 95% of the people who still say this type of stuff about me don't post in any of the threads that i post in on a daily basis- we're talking the hoops, baseball, other sports, and varsity forums. conversely, 95% of the people who do post in those hreads with me on a daily basis don't have any more run-ins with me than they do with anyone else. hard to believe maybe, but true. in other words, don't believe the hype.

hell, did you see the sam ehlinger and 2018 alabama threads? dozens of people just mercilessly bashing me for days on end, my notifications going off at all hours as yet another poster just crushes me with hatred and vitriol and really really personal attacks because i had an opinion that didn't jibe with theirs. did i ever freak out on anybody or "go all derka" in those threads? nope. maybe start observing these things and then form your own opinion. 

and for the record, i like pete carroll and thought it was a cool story. he's retarded for leaving bush on the sideline, he's insane for throwing the ball vs NE, and i'm not happy about the way Earl was treated this year, but i still enjoyed the story, puff piece or not.

Edited January 15, 2019 by Goo Punch

[Neonmoon 38127]

You know, if you take away that whole rape scandal, Art Briles is a pretty cool guy too. 

[futureman 22421]

fascinating?  ok.

[52-80 19110]

Take off that blue shirt so you won't get shot.  Now, hop into my blue van.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

I love stories that prove that guys one assumes are awful human beings based on their activities whilst in positions of power are actually nice guys because puppies.

[Disco Missile 456]

8 hours ago, SwanderedTalent said:

to say it another way, what does Pete Carroll have the need to "give back" for, precisely?

Recruiting?

[closetojumping 62261]

10 hours ago, jeevsie said:

Oh, great.  Someone bagged on Derka.  Can't wait to see where this thread goes...

I didn't "bag" on Derka. I bagged on the thread and topic. My experience with Derka is that he's intelligent and understands the difference, and he's aware enough to understand other posters' behaviors, approaches, outlooks, etc., mine included, and handles himself accordingly. I've personally never gotten my head around the baiting/bullying bullshit I see posters throw at him in groups. I don't see how that's gratifying. Anyway, whatever. 

[SwanderedTalent 5761]

6 hours ago, Disco Missile said:

Recruiting?

What is the quid pro quo there? "I gave a kid from this neighborhood a $200,000 scholarship to play football at a university whose name he could barely spell, but I feel like I owe a debt to those of you from the area who don't play football good, so. Yeah. Yay me."

[Goo Punch 4275]

6 hours ago, closetojumping said:

I didn't "bag" on Derka. I bagged on the thread and topic. My experience with Derka is that he's intelligent and understands the difference, and he's aware enough to understand other posters' behaviors, approaches, outlooks, etc., mine included, and handles himself accordingly. I've personally never gotten my head around the baiting/bullying bullshit I see posters throw at him in groups. I don't see how that's gratifying. Anyway, whatever. 

yeah for the record you're right, i didn't take offense at anything you said, and in fact i smiled when i saw the amount of pos rep you got for your post; a healthy hatred of ones enemies is a good thing. still, i like pete carroll, always have; and i think it's pretty cool that he actually walks that walk. any goofy old white guy can turn his hat sideways and dance in the locker room, or say "fiddy" and feel cool, but this dude actually walks into dangerous neighborhoods and then owns the place. that's awesome to me, even if it was a puff piece as you said (i mean jesus christ, "the largest sports figure in the town"? uh, no, that would be Magic Johnson, going on about three decades now).

Edited January 16, 2019 by Goo Punch