Ex-USC coach comes clean in deposition

On the day Pete Carroll officially became the newest employee of the Seattle Seahawks it appears a new skeleton in the coach’s closest may have surfaced — a skeleton veering far from the alleged NCAA sanctions to come.

According to SI.com, Dave Watson, a former defensive line coach for the Trojans from 2006 to 2008, allegedly came clean to Carroll in February 2008 about a serious addiction to painkillers he had developed dating back to his days as a player on the Minnesota Gophers’ football team. Rather than handle the issue head on, Watson alleges that Carroll, while supportive initially, determined it was in the best interest of the former coach to conceal his addiction.

In deposition documents obtained by SI.com earlier this week, Watson claimed under oath that 12 university doctors, six with an affiliation to the football team, provided him with 1,680 tablets of prescription medication to deal with his ongoing battle. Watson was retained as a member of Carroll’s staff and was provided with a vehicle by the university.

Three months later Watson was involved in a two-car auto accident in which he errantly slammed his USC-provided vehicle into another, injuring one person. He pleaded no contest to DUI charges stemming from the accident and was given three years probation.

In January 2009, a mere eight months after the accident, Watson was released of his duties as a member of the coaching staff. However, Carroll did not cite his addiction or pending legal issues as a source for his dismissal, but rather that the coach was too hard on his players and that the program was looking to make room for Brian Schneider to take over the position of special teams coordinator.

Carroll may be forced to testify during the civil case regarding the accident in which the injured party is attempting to sue Watson and the university an estimated $500,000. According to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, Carroll was issued a subpoena forcing him to appear for a deposition regarding the civil lawsuit while on campus for his final press conference Monday.