FanHouse PeteCarroll

ESPN put a new Twitter policy in place this summer designed to urge its reporters to think before they tweet. But this weekend, the policy didn't stop ESPN the Magazine senior writer Bruce Feldman from ripping Sports Reporters panelist Mike Lupica -- then later thinking better of it and deleting the tweet.

It all started with Lupica talking about USC coach Pete Carroll on The Sports Reporters.

LOS ANGELES -- There's no question about the success USC's football program has had in the Pete Carroll era.

Two national championships and seven consecutive Pac-10 titles (a league record), 11-win seasons, AP Top-4 finishes and BCS bowl appearances.

Throw in the fact that the Trojans have also produced three Heisman Trophy winners, along with a truckload of first-round draft picks every year, and it's easy to understand why any decisions Carroll makes with his program are rarely second-guessed.

Until now.

---

---

LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.

USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.

Recently, Stanford University unveiled its imaginative new slogan for the upcoming football season. Are you ready? Hold your breath. It's astounding, it's going to rock your world. "We work."

That's it.

The sum total of Stanford's distilled brilliance, the essence of sports. Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit," so somewhere he's laughing. Everyone else? They want the athletic department to get a refund check.

For the last month, a video was available on UCLA's official YouTube channel that showed head football coach Rick Neuheisel saying he's "ticked off" at his crosstown rival, USC coach Pete Carroll, and promising to "get after their ass." But after the Orange County Register publicized the video Tuesday, UCLA pulled it down.

What had Neuheisel so upset is that Carroll voted against Neuheisel's proposal to allow coaches to have their children with them on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel explained on the video that the Pac-10 has a rule that children aren't permitted on the sidelines during games, but Neuheisel wanted a waiver for coaches' children, because he thinks fathers and sons can bond on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel said the proposal was put to a vote at a meeting of Pac-10 coaches, and that the vote was 9-1, with only Carroll opposed.

Erin Andrews. Google her name and you'll get about 771,000 results, many of which are blogs that obsess over the ESPN sportscaster's every word. But meet her in person and you'll find a woman who may seem like you or I, stunning good looks aside. She loves sports, remembers old Nintendo games, and yes, does get her feelings hurt from time to time.

FanHouse recently had a chance to chat with the most popular female sports reporter at the NCAA Football 10 premiere party to find out what drives her, what gets under her skin, and whether she'd drop her career to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears. Our full interview with Andrews is below.

On Wednesday, a group called America's Promise Alliance issued its latest report on the education of our country's youth. America's Promise was started by Gen. Colin Powell back in 1997 with a band of corporations, nonprofits, foundations, policymakers, advocacy and faith-based groups to ensure that we provide our kids a foundation from which they can be successful.

The newest report from America's Promise found that nearly half (47 percent) of all young people in the nation's 50 largest cities are not graduating from high school on time and that many of those aren't graduating at all, hence, becoming dropouts.

It is a problem because, the report reminded, the median income for high school dropouts is $14,000, which is significantly lower than the median income for high school graduates ($24,000) and for college graduates ($48,000). More troubling, the report pointed out, high school dropouts were the only workers who saw their income levels decline over the last 30 years.

On Jan. 15, USC quarterback Mark Sanchez announced that he would forgo his senior season to enter the NFL draft. This news made head coach Pete Carroll very unhappy. In fact, during the press conference announcing Sanchez's decision, Carroll was clear:

On Sunday at the NFL Combine, we got our first glimpse of Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez. And while it was difficult to divine much from, well, glimpses -- Stafford didn't take part in the passing drills and Sanchez didn't stand out in his handful of attempts -- it provides coaches, scouts and front-office types one more piece to the evaluation puzzle.

Although conventional mock-draft wisdom has Stafford going before Sanchez -- and probably to the Lions -- those sentiments aren't shared among all scouts. Via the Chicago Tribune's Dan Pompei:

The Falcons are trying to trade Michael Vick. Can't say I blame them. The club probably isn't expecting any legit offers -- and, in all likelihood, they'll end up releasing him -- but it doesn't hurt to ask. Vick, the 2001 first-overall pick, is currently in federal prison on a multiple puppy murder conviction, but could be a free man in time for the 2009 season.

But like the other 30 teams, not even the Lions are interested in Vick's services. And this is the same outfit that won exactly zero times last season. Part of the reason, certainly, is because Vick doesn't solve the team's current quarterback situation.