Bumped...A great read - P

Gentlemen,

I wanted to send you guys a few comments from a season ticket holder and a USC alumnus.

I am certain that each of you has faced personal and familial issues over the past few years. Going to a university and getting excellent grades is hard enough, but doing so with additional schedule pressures of being a part of the team adds challenges.

To the seniors - I want to especially thank you for showing courage and sticking with USC through the last few years of the bowl ban. I felt it was very unfair what happened to you by way of the NCAA COI and PAC-12 ban on the after season opportunities to play. It is very sad that politicians and bureaucrats prevented your competition on the athletic field.

And, that is precisely what these unfair people did to you.

But, what was more amazing was your resolute inner drive to compete and display Trojan athleticism and honor. The words of courage, honor, and integrity will always carry with you. In fact, if I ever meet you guys in life many years from now, I will state here and permanently that you guys deserve the most support from our alumni. Your personal integrity and character was tested in the last few years, but it seems to me that the USC Trojan Family is circling wagons and in a bigger way than in prior years. For those who want to mess with the Trojan family, you better think twice because this time the USC Trojan family is really circling the wagons.

But, to all the athletes this year, I want to thank you for how you have carried yourselves over the past few years.

During the past few years the Trojan faithful have endured alot of insults that attack our character. In the stands there are people who have had our businesses attacked, our homes pressured or foreclosed, and jobs lost. But, over the past year of play, there was one place where we could start to turn for inspiration. That place was to rely upon the USC Trojan family built upon physical endurance, integrity, and courage. Your play has given us all inspiration in the face of these other challenges, be they political, economic, or physical.

I can not thank you guys enough. Let me share with you a comment that I heard on the way out of the Coliseum tonight.

There was a guy in the stands around me. We were treated to UCLA fans yelling that we were cheaters in the start of the first quarter. These UCLA fans were yelling about lost scholarships and NCAA rule violations. Instead of the USC fans responding angrily at the character attacks, we just kinda sat there. We had to endure the verbal diarrhea spewing from this group's mouths. Heck, I was ready to give him some meds to put him back in his Westwood dope stupor, but I ignored him with the rest of the season ticket holders around me.

As you guys started to score, the guy kept yelling but it just got really funny to us. The more the idiot kept chanting "UCLA fight fight fight" the more you guys kept scoring. Finally at the end of the second half, a few people said "look at the score board".

When the officials brought out the tape to measure for a UCLA first down, I yelled down to the field, "Oh god, give them the fricking first down already, we're up by 30 points!" I wanted to just see the clock stop and get us the ball back so we could see more scoring. The entire team played so strong that it was truly inspiring. All of us fans in our section were truly impressed and honored to be watching. We all realized what a special thing we were seeing on the field before us earlier this season (you can see my earlier post about Lane Kiffin), but to the players themselves, thank you for standing tall and taking us back to the top.

A USC fan in front of me said that when times were getting hard that he would go to his tape collection and pull out the USC Trojan football games to listen to or watch again. You see, his life and our lives as fans and alumni, are very difficult these days. There are days of real let down in our businesses, work, and day-to-day jobs. We've suffered unfair things at work and have to put up with the politics playing against us. Some have lost jobs, had alot of money taken from their retirement accounts and trading accounts, and had no justice in the ignorant bureaucracy. It was enough to get you down and drain the spirit of competition from us. And, that is probably precisely what was intended by our opponents in the board rooms and other political chambers across these United States.

You can not possibly know how much spirit you have put back in my tired heart and courage you have transmitted to us with your clean play. Your dedication to compete without giving up on yourselves and your team is truly contagious. In this way, the team has taught the USC alumni and fans a great lesson in life in general. How ironic that the student-athletes would teach us instead of the other way around.

You've taught me to truly FIGHT ON!

FIGHT ON! Many blessings to all of you in the off season and in the years ahead!