My Take: Punish Pete...Not Just Bush

Much of the talk this week in college athletics has not been about a team, or even a player that is still in college footba. The talk has been all about Reggie Bush returning his Heisman Trophy because of violations he made during his time at USC for taking money.

But is Bush the only one that should be paying the piper personally. USC is already paying with the sanctions that have been put on the football program. The university also fired their Athletic Director Mike Garrett after the sanctions were put in place. But there seems to be one person missing from all of this...Pete Carroll.

All of these violations took place under the watchful eye of the former head coach. Then when it looked like the NCAA was about to come down with sanctions against the program...Carroll bolted for the NFL.

It seems quite odd that a man that had offers from NFL teams time and time again all of the sudden decides that now is the time to leave town. Right before the sanctions hit. Taking his millions he made while at USC, and making millions more in Seattle.

While Bush should not have been taking money, doesn't the head coach deserve part of the blame? Shouldn't Carroll have known what his star player, and future Heisman winner was doing? The answer is of course yes.

It is by no means fair that now Reggie Bush can never return to USC. He can never look at his Heisman trophy again. Meanwhile, Pete Carroll who did get paid millions by USC took his money and ran, and now is making even more money.

The only true punishment for Carroll would be to forfeit his sallery from the years that Reggie Bush was at USC. I mean Bush gave up his Heisman Trophy, and dignity. USC gave up millions of dollars, a National Championship, and countless wins. So why doesn't Carroll have to return the money he made while obviously not doing his job? That's a question that will probably never be answered, but it isn't like Pete is going to miss the money anytime soon...he can just take it out of the 33 million he's making from the Seahawks.