Pete Carroll: 'I've Never Been the Guy That Feels Players Needed to Be Paid to Play'
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he's never thought college athletes needed to be paid, saying, "when a kid's on scholarship, he's taken care of pretty well," reports NBC Sports Northwest's Joe Fann.
"I don’t know the real depth to (the law). I’ve never been the guy that feels players needed to be paid to play," Carroll said, according to NBC. "I’ve felt like their scholarship and all the advantages that the guys got was always a pretty darn good deal. To me, that sounds like it’s an adult situation trying to make sense of a kid’s experience, and so they’ve justified it. I don’t know that it’s wrong, good for the kids and all, and if it’s the right thing then maybe the rest of the country adopts it. I never thought that it was necessary. Even though there’s times that are tough for kids who don’t have a lot of money to take as incidental spending and stuff like that, when a kid’s on scholarship, he’s taken care of pretty well. They can make it. To start that, I’m surprised it happened. We’ll see what happens."
Carroll's comments came in response to the proposed California Fair Pay to Play Act, which passed the state's assembly and senate unanimously this month. California schools and the NCAA have opposed the bill, which would make it impossible for schools to follow the NCAA's amateurism rules. The bill would allow college athletes to be paid for the use of their name, likeness and image. The bill is now headed to the California governor to be signed or vetoed within the next month.
Carroll was ripped on Twitter for the comments given his college coaching history. The 68-year-old left USC and took a job with the NFL before the school received sanctions from the NCAA. Before the sanctions, Carroll helped lead USC to two national championships between 2001 and 2009. The Trojans' football program got a two-year bowl ban and lost 30 scholarships over a period of time after the NCAA determined former running back Reggie Bush and his family earned extra benefits. Twitter users hit on the Bush connection.
