Damian Williams, Taylor Mays: Quit Whining and Play Football!

The sports world is abuzz over the shocking development that Pete Carroll did not draft his former players. Except that it isn't about all of Carroll's players; it is only about two of them. Why? Because those two, Taylor Mays and Damian Williams, are the only ones who have complained publicly.

So, out of all the draft-eligible Trojans, the only two that are complaining about Carroll not drafting them are Mays and Williams? How curious and how revealing.

If Mays and Williams are that broken-hearted about their former coach not drafting them...well, would it have made them happier had Carroll drafted them in a later round? Would Mays have traded going in the second round to the 49ers for going in the fourth round to Seattle? Or would Williams have traded going in the third round to Tennessee for going in the sixth round to Seattle? Of course not.

And let us alter that still more.

Suppose Taylor Mays had gone No. 1 overall to St. Louis and Williams had gone No. 2 overall to Detroit. Would either guy hang his head and say, "Wow, this stinks. I really wanted to go to Seattle. I would have rather gotten drafted in the seventh round by my former coach than gone No. 1 or No. 2 overall!"? Of course not!

Make no mistake: This isn't about Carroll not drafting them. This is about their not going as high as they wanted to or thought they would and making Carroll the scapegoat.

After all, Mays is regretting his decision not to turn pro last year when there would have been no Carroll in the NFL to draft him in the first place. And Williams is clearly regretting his decision to come out early.

Well, neither Williams or Mays can blame Carroll for their own bad business decisions. They have to face those themselves.

And there is more still. Imagine that you are, say, an Arkansas Razorbacks fan listening to Williams whine. Why on earth should Williams demand loyalty from Carroll when he showed absolutely none whatsoever to the Arkansas Razorbacks program that he initially attended?

Williams went to Arkansas one season, and then transferred to USC. Why? Because Arkansas chose to hand off to Darren McFadden and Felix Jones rather than throw him the football. Did I mention that both McFadden and Jones were drafted much higher than Williams was?

Looks like the Arkansas coaches—the ones who lost their jobs due in no small part to Williams and his buddy Mitch Mustain leaving the Razorback program—made the right choice. But the absolute nerve of Williams' demanding loyalty from Carroll when he himself wasn't willing to show it to Arkansas.

Mays is a tougher case on the exterior, but in truth not really. Look, Mays had to have known that NFL teams require their safeties either to cover or blitz. He also knows that USC doesn't require much of either of their safeties, or for that matter their DBs in general.

As a result, Darnell Bing and the other highly recruited DBs to that USC program under Carroll generally haven't gotten drafted as high or done as well in the NFL as have, say, the LBs. (Troy Polamalu was recruited by a different regime and used differently in Carroll's defense before he put his own system in.)

Mays knew this. Or should I say, if he didn't know this, he easily could have, and would have had he wanted to. Mays could have gone to FSU, Miami, or one of the many other programs that uses their DBs like the NFL does and regularly sends such players to the NFL. (As for the people who say that Mays should have been playing OLB to begin with...well, more of the same.)

But the problem is that Mays didn't want to know. Mays wanted to go to the No. 1 program in college football, the USC Trojans.

Mays listened to Carroll's recruiting pitch when he was a high school senior because it was what he wanted to hear. And when Mays was going to be a surefire high first round draft pick, he listened to Carroll's recruiting pitch to stay in school, be the man, the leader on defense, the star of the show.

And according to Mays' own words, when he asked Carroll and the USC coaches if he was doing what he needed to get to the next level and succeed and they told him, "Don't worry, you're fine, you're the greatest," he believed that too.

Why? Because it was what he wanted to hear. Instead of seeking out the many college programs that use their safeties the way most NFL teams do, instead of following Mark Sanchez out the door, instead of working the coaches to put him into more situations where he would be in coverage, force turnovers, and hammer QBs on blitzes, he went for the smooth talk.

Now Mays wants to talk about how he trusted Carroll. Well, so did the other safeties that Carroll recruited, the guys who were never going to get into the starting lineup and get their shots at the NFL while Mays was there.

Didn't Mays look at the four and five star defensive backs riding the pine at USC and the ones who didn't get drafted while he was at USC and think to himself, "Gee, Carroll told those guys when he was recruiting them the same thing that he told me...isn't it time I start thinking about my own future for myself?"

Apparently not. Mays didn't want to think for himself because listening to what everyone else was telling him (the best player in the country, Heisman candidate, surefire top 10 draft pick, etc.) was much more fun.

Look, are we to believe that Mays has never sat down and watched NFL film or simply the NFL on TV, saw how the NFL safeties play the game, and thought to himself, "You know, I can't do any of that stuff!"? If he didn't, how on earth is that Carroll's fault?

Sorry, Mays and Williams. You were using Carroll and USC to advance yourselves just as he was using you.

Neither of you would have given USC the time of day if they were some 1-11 team, would you? You came to USC because Carroll made them No. 1 and you wanted Carroll to make you No. 1. Things didn't work out as you planned? Well, that's life.

So time to admit it, shut up, grow up, and play football.