It’s really hard to know what to make of this…
With the issue of weather or not WR Vidal Hazelton will redshirt this season took an interesting twist yesterday with a letter from Hazelton’s dad to Pete Carroll being published in its entirety on the USC Scout site SC Playbook. Its an teresting thread. The OCR has also written about it today.
Here is the letter...
Oh, where to begin...
The fact that this is a major invasion of privacy is hard to miss and the person who leaked this letter should be ashamed. There is simply no benefit to anyone by making thise letter public.
It is perfectly acceptable for the parent of a player to inquire about these sorts of issues. I think we would all agree that the health and well-being of the player should be first and foremost in our minds regardless of the level of success on the field of play.
What I have a problem with is that the person who released this letter obviously has an axe to grind towards Pete Carroll otherwise why release it? It serves no purpose, it doesn't show what Pete Carroll's response or actions were when he received the letter and it does more to hurt the reputation of Dexter Hamilton. We all remember the trials and tribulations of how Dexter Hazelton wasn't sure if he wanted his son to go to USC and that he would have preferred that Vidal had gone to PSU. Whomever put this letter out in the open probably did more harm than good. How they got it is another matter entirely and not one I intend to explore.
The issue of whether or not Hazelton should redshirt it would appear goes back for a number of weeks. Hazelton himself felt that redshirting would do a lot not just for his football career but also for his growth as a man...his words. Whether he redshrits or not is an issue for the team and Hazelton's family.
This simply adds fuel to the fire and it does nothing constructive for this situation. I don't know how this will turn out but this sort of meddling in players personal issues only hurts the program. I hope that the person responsible for this is admonished in the worst way possible.
Personally, I find it disgusting...