just a thought about Thompson/Mainord

Mar 6, 2005, 8:13 AM

I remember shaking my head last year - and getting into a flamewar with some USC fans - when Holtz signed K.T. Mainord. The way it had gone down was: Mainord had thrown off Alabama's campus during his official visit for allegedly stealing a girl's purse and checkbook. He told a somewhat different story, but even by his own admission he'd thrown the purse away...and held onto the checkbook for "safekeeping." On the drive home from Alabama's campus, Mainord apparently called up Holtz and was assured that no such travesty of justice would ever occur at USC, and he committed to Holtz on the phone right then and there.

A few days later, you had reporters from quality publications like The State doing really bang-up journalistic jobs about what a great misunderstood fellow Mainord was, and what a great fellow Holtz in turn was for not being fooled by how badly those mean folks down in 'Bama had treated K.T. If somebody still has a link to that one article in particular I'd love to see it...but I have this funny feeling it's been yanked by now.

Now, Holtz clearly didn't do his homework. All it would have taken was one phone call to the Alabama campus cops or Alabama AD to have gotten Alabama's version on what went down with Mainord on his official visit, but clearly Holtz wasn't interested in doing his homework. Mainord was a big, athletic, 260+ pound D-lineman, the rarest commodity among high school prospects, and Holtz clearly wasn't interested in character references, and he didn't even seem particularily interested that Mainord might have been committing felonies on his first official visit to the place where he might have been spending the next five years of his life.

One might be forgiven now for thinking Mainord was a little bit more than the victim of a "misunderstanding" with the University of Alabama. It appears now Mainord might actually be a habitual criminal. But was Moe Thompson? I don't think so. I certainly haven't heard of any incidences like this involving Thompson before. From what I understand of the story coming out of Columbia, it was Mainord who was largely the instigator - and benefactor - of the crime committed. Thompson was allegedly there, he allegedly participated, but it looks like his "take" from the crime was substantially less than Mainord's - some accounts I've heard say he got all of $12 - and it doesn't appear Thompson was the instigator of this particular piece of singularly bad judgement.

So letting Mainord in didn't merely backfire on USC one time. It doubled down; letting Mainord in may have also cost USC their best defensive lineman, and probably their single best defensive player. It may have also cost Moe Thompson his future...or at the very least, it seriously derailed it. Yeah, yeah, I know: Thompson is responsible for his own actions. But without the bad apple there, would that situation have ever even arisen?

I dunno if the "full, unvarnished truth" about what happened with Thompson and Mainord will ever come out...but I do know that Holtz was more than slightly remiss in ever allowing Mainord near his locker room without a full and complete inquiry into the kid's background, especially in light of what happened with Alabama. Why the USC administration and athletic department tolerated that kind of conduct is beyond me...and to me, that makes them equally complicit. Moe Thompson might indeed be guilty of what he was charged with, but he had accomplices...not the least of which were Lou Holtz and the whole USC administration. Moe's mom, I'm told, is hopping mad...and while her behavior has seemed more than a little strange in retrospect...one can also say she's probably got a definite right to be angry. If I entrusted my boy to a coach for five years, and that coach was knowingly putting felons right at his elbow in the locker right next to him, I think I'd be more than a little angry myself.

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accountable for his part in all of these things going on at usc now. As you said he brought many young men into contact with criminal elements and these same young men may never have even considered doing things they are now charged with,ala Moe. I do not know Moe Thompson and he may be as bad as Mainord but I don't remember hearing of him getting into trouble before going down to that place. Other guilty parties are the reporters who have spent so much time trying to find something on CU while coddling and making excuses for usc, lou and the whole bunch at coot u. Sure we have had some guys do bad things but I can't recall this many or to this extent. The reporters are just now getting arround to placing any blame on lou and even then they are very careful to stay in his "good"graces.

just a thought about Thompson/Mainord

Another masterpiece from Q***

The root of the problem: Andrew Sorenson. There I've said it

Ding Ding Ding......we have a winner.***

Re: just a thought about Thompson/Mainord

If I understand correctly this crime does not

As I understand it, Yes.

i agree in part, but the whole Holtz, USC accomplice schtick

Sandlapper the sad thing is that lou will never be held

it is not like Moe was some 12 year old....he is probably 21

LOL Lou was changing the culture alright!***

I remember that incident also...

What about Mainord's brother?

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