Born and raised in Chicago, Paul Ervin has an older brother and a younger sister. He went to Florida A&M University for college where he obtained his bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism while minoring in social work. After college, he moved back home and became an elementary school teacher/basketball coach for two years before moving to Bristol, CT and working as an associate producer for ESPN. After a little over a year at ESPN, he was offered the same position with Fox Sports Net and "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," a position he still holds. Music and sports are his passions, and he enjoys listening to music and playing video games in his spare time. After USC's 34-game winning streak came to an abrupt end in Wednesday's Rose Bowl, Matt Leinart acted like anything but the two-time champion he was. Instead of admitting the Trojans fell to the better team, Leinart pointed out every reason his team "lost" the game as opposed to the reasons Texas "won." This is not the way he should have ended his storied collegiate career.
Whatever happened to being gracious in defeat, to giving credit where credit is do? Is this not practiced in southern California? Have Pete Carroll and his Trojans been too busy winning to worry about how to gracefully take a loss? Judging by Matt Leinart’s comments following USC’s 41-38 defeat to Texas in Wednesday’s Rose Bowl, the answer is a resounding – yes.
It is very understandable why Leinart was as disappointed as he was. After all, the guy had just lost for only the second time in his collegiate career and had become accustomed to always holding the spotlight. It must be tough to go out like he did, but his impressive collegiate resume is exactly the reason he should have been a more gracious loser.
In his three seasons as the Trojans starting quarterback, Leinart was 37-2, won two national championships as well as a Heisman trophy, and engineered the sixth longest winning streak in Division I-A history, 34 games… nothing to be ashamed of. The things he accomplished at USC are unprecedented, which makes his post-game comments even worse.
During post-game interviews, Leinart made comments such as, "I still think we're a better team. They just made the plays in the end… we still feel like we're champions." Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t being able to make the plays at the end what makes you the better team? Furthermore, and I know this is a tough one, isn’t the team that scores the most points in the title game declared the champion, making them the better team?
If Texas didn’t have any business being in the championship game, maybe Leinart’s comments and failure to give the Longhorns any credit would not have seemed so bad, but that wasn’t the case. Texas was ranked number two from the start of the season and stayed on USC’s heals all year, even putting together a now 20-game winning streak of their own over the past two seasons. There is no shame in losing to a team of Texas’ caliber, especially after you’ve dominated your sports for three consecutive years. Leinart should have recognized that and admitted his Trojans lost to the better team.
Unfortunately, Leinart didn’t stop at discrediting the Longhorns’ victory; he even took a shot at two at his own teammates. "We couldn't tackle him," he would say when asked about Texas quarterback Vince Young, "we missed some tackles," he continued. If that’s not a shot at the defense, I don’t know what it. If the head coach makes that statement, I have no problem with it. But, that is not for the quarterback to say in front of everybody, especially not a quarterback that threw an interception in the end zone and exercised awful clock management throughout the game. "People in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones." Ever heard that one, Matt?
After the game, USC head coach Pete Carroll called Leinart "a great champion." I wonder if Carroll had heard Leinart’s comments at that point.
USC is often referred to as "The University of Spoiled Children" by rival schools, and, unfortunately, Leinart didn’t do anything to end that perception. Like a child accustomed to always getting his way, Leinart wined, cried and placed blame on everyone but himself when the ball finally bounced someone else’s way.
All he had to was give Texas a little credit, but, instead, he chose not to. Leinart’s last soundbite, much like his last pass, was incomplete.