But for Pete Carroll to draft a safety he does not know, Earl Thomas, ahead of Taylor Mays in the 2010 NFL Draft means a number of things, none of them good. First, it means Carroll thought Earl Thomas was better than Mays, even though he coached Mays. Period. That's an insult to Mays.
Second, it means Carroll may have misled Mays into thinking he was going to be a high draft choice in the NFL Draft and if ESPN's account is accurate, a possible pick by the Seattle Seahawks.
That Taylor Mays didn't go in the first round and not to Seattle is a horrible way of going against the expectations Pete Carroll set up for Mays.
Third, it calls into question Pete Carroll's integrity: can Coach Carroll's word be trusted? That opens a door to a possible look back at USC and what Carroll did there versus what he said he did.
Pete Carroll made a terrible error in judgement. Pete's got to know that at this level of football the one action that's under a complete microscope and more so than in college is the establishment of a personnel base. At the NFL level, college students are rock stars so how they're treated becomes part of pop culture news, fast.
Right now, Pete Carroll's a part of that and how he handled Taylor Mays is front and center. (Moreover, Carroll's comments in the LA Times, overemphasizing Earl Thomas, only rub salt in the wound.) Pete's got to look in the mirror and ask himself how he wants to be regarded by the people one would think mean the most to him outside his family: the players he recruited. If Taylor Mays is any example, Coach Carroll's developing an enemies list. And in Mays case, in playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Carroll will feel the impact of his decision this NFL season.
Stay tuned.
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