Congress may honor USC's Rose Bowl winning season

The U.S. House of Representatives will consider a resolution today to honor USC for their 2008 season, which culminated in a victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

Written by Los Angeles-area Congresswoman Diane Watson, the bill has 10 co-sponsors from California; three from Georgia, New York and Ohio; two from North Carolina; and one from New Jersey,  Oklahoma, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Michigan and Washington.

And none from Pennsylvania.

Read the full text of the resolution:

111th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 153

Commending the University of Southern California Trojan football team for its victory in the 2009 Rose Bowl.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 10, 2009

Ms. WATSON (for herself, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. ANDREWS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. RICHARDSON, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mr. BOREN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms. WATERS, Mr. ISSA, Ms. SOLIS of California, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. FARR, Mr. HINCHEY, and Mr. WATT) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

RESOLUTION

Commending the University of Southern California Trojan football team for its victory in the 2009 Rose Bowl.

Whereas the University of Southern California (USC) Trojan football team achieved many historic accomplishments during the 2008 regular season;

Whereas the USC Trojan football team has now won more Rose Bowls than any other team in the Nation;

Whereas USC has achieved its seventh straight top 5 finish;

Whereas USC achieved an unprecedented seventh consecutive season of at least 11 or more victories;

Whereas USC was invited to make an unprecedented seventh consecutive Bowl Championship Series appearance;

Whereas USC won an unprecedented seventh consecutive Pacific-10 (Pac-10) Conference championship;

Whereas USC has become the first school to win 3 consecutive Rose Bowls;

Whereas USC has appeared in a record-tying fourth consecutive Rose Bowl;

Whereas USC is now tied with the record for most bowl victories of all time;

Whereas USC has won 86 of its last 96 games;

Whereas with USC's 2009 Rose Bowl victory, the Pac-10 Conference finished a perfect 5 and 0 in post-season bowl appearances;

Whereas, during the 2008 season, USC's defense was ranked number one in the Nation, holding opponents to just over 221 yards per game;

Whereas, during the 2008 season, USC featured 3 All-American first team players (linebackers Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing, and safety Taylor Mays);

Whereas USC will feature 5 players in the Under Armour Senior Bowl game held in Mobile, Alabama (linebackers Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing, and Clay Matthews, and defensive linemen Fili Moala and Kyle Moore);

Whereas USC head football coach Pete Carroll is 88 and 15 (85.4 percent) in 8 years (2001 to 2008) as a college head coach at USC, his record is the best winning percentage of any current NCAA Division I coach with at least 5 years of experience;

Whereas Coach Pete Carroll was featured on CBS's `60 Minutes', not only for his football accomplishments but for his work with `A Better L.A.', a nonprofit group consisting of a consortium of local agencies and organizations working to reduce gang violence by empowering change in individuals and communities;

Whereas, in the fall of 2008, Coach Pete Carroll helped organize `LA Live Peace 08', a march and rally at the Coliseum to promote gang intervention and non-violence in Los Angeles;

Whereas the annual Rose Bowl is the oldest of all college bowl games, and its history and prestige have earned it the title `The Granddaddy of Them All';

Whereas USC has played in the Rose Bowl on 33 occasions and won 24 times, both records exceeding any other collegiate football program;

Whereas, during the 2009 Rose Bowl game, quarterback Mark Sanchez passed for a game second-best 413 yards, a game record-tying 4 touchdown passes, and ran for a touchdown;

Whereas Sanchez's efforts resulted in him being named the Offensive Most Valuable Player of the game;

Whereas, during the 2009 Rose Bowl game, linebacker Kaluka Maiava made 4 tackles and 2 pass breakups, and he was named the Defensive Most Valuable Player of the game;

Whereas with linebacker Kaluka Maiava taking home Defensive MVP honors, each linebacker in USC's starting lineup has now been named defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl (Kaluka Maiava in 2009, Rey Maualuga in 2008, and Brian Cushing in 2007); and

Whereas, under the leadership of USC's 10th president, Steven B. Sample, USC has established itself as a world-class research university, known for its leadership in the fields of communication, media, public diplomacy, the sciences, and the arts: Now, therefore, be it

  Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) commends the University of Southern California (USC) Trojan football team and USC President Steven B. Sample for USC's victory in the 2009 Rose Bowl;

  (2) applauds Coach Pete Carroll for his leadership not only on the football field, but also in the community; and

(3) recognizes the achievements of the players, coaches, students, alumni, and staff who were instrumental in helping the University of Southern California win the Rose Bowl.

-- Adam Rose

Photo: U.S. Capitol building. Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images

Comments

[smokeybandit]

Glad to see Congress doing important things at work instead of worrying about stuff like, say, the economy.

[matthew]

Can we please keep paying them to do more of this kind of stuff instead of handing bags of money to bankers? I much prefer this.

[PortlandTrojan]

I'm a huge Trojan fan... and I think this is absurd. And kind of appalling, actually. Taxpayers are not paying these representatives to be sports fans. Commending a team/university for something means nothing. How about we focus all of our attention on making sure people have jobs and can feed their families?

[mike]

ok.... i might be the biggest USC homer, but they was freakin ridiculous. congress needs to stay out of sports completly. on a side note, i normally love reading about USC stats and congress even managed to make that horrible to read. way to go congress, screw something else up. FIGHT ON!

[Count Dooku]

Congress did this when USC won the nat'l championship in 2004, and it made some sense. After all, the Girl Scout who sells the most cookies meets the President, right? And the President has better things to do, right? But being the nation's best at something apparently means our federal gov't tries to make time for you -- probably 30 seconds for a handshake and photo.

But commending USC just because they had a great season (and seven straight great seasons) does seem a little much. Did ALL the BCS bowl teams get one of these? You know Florida did. How about all the Final Four teams? As the resolution shows, USC made history in all kinds of ways, but they can splash that all over their website, merchandise, and the sports pages. Leave the rest of the newspaper and Congress to important things.

By the way -- the story says Congress will "consider" it. It hasn't passed yet.

[Bobak]

Can the eliminate the BCS and force a playoff instead of wasting time time with these gestures? That would be best for America. Not only is our President in favor of it, a much larger majority of the people than voted for him also are for it.

[Marc L]

Why in the heck won't any reputable reporter or media outlet take USC to task - and have them forfeit all wins in the 2006 season - let alone the NCAA for the Reggie Bush scandle?

[Andrew Lupton]

Nothing to see here. The House probably averages more then ten of these suspension bills each day.

[Elizabeth Campos]

This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Why commemorate a football team when there are so many other more USEFUL acts that can be commemorated. I'm a student at UC Berkeley, and even if my football team were ever going to be formally commemorated I would stop and think to myself, "Aren't there more meaningful things that the Congress could be thinking about? Like what we should be doing about our economy? And our health care? And our domestic violence?" There are things going on in this country, like marathons benefiting the research for curing breast cancer and people giving money to the poor, that merit more of a remembrance than a trivial things like a football victory. USC football, I admit, has had great victories, but gloating to the Nation about winning a football game is not going to solve any bigger issues that our government needs to attend to more diligently at this time.

[3rdGenBruin]

This is so freaking stupid. America is facing its greatest economic downturn in three generations, and this is what our elected officials are wasting time, money and resources on. Diane Watson should be thrown out of office for introducing this nonsense.

[Ciarra]

As a student at USC this is really honoring and excited. Our team definitely deserves this and it is much better than any other bills they are putting out right now!

[KATHY]

WHEREAS Congress must surely have something, anything, better to do.....
WHEREAS Univ of S. CA is supposedly an Institution of HIGHER LEARNING.....
WHEREAS Pete Carroll, their coach, grosses $4.3 million a year which makes him the highest paid person on any job on any US campus:
BE IT RESOLVED Congress bends over & gets our collective feet up their butts!

[Tristan]

What an utterly stupid waste of time. And she's a UCLA alum! I would definitely vote her out of office for incompetency.

[John D]

So SC is now not only a football school, but a world class research institution?
I think of OJ (Murderer), Lendale (Belt Whipper), Bush (NCAA Rules Violations), OJ Mayo(NCAA rules violations).

Just a few bad apples that come to mind. They have a long way to go if they want to command the respect of an instituion like UCLA.

[InglewoodBruin]

Ms Watson
When UCLA wins its next championship we hope Maxine Waters gets the invote over you.
USC is under multiple investigations; they are the Karl Rove of college sports. WTH are you doing? They don't even care about winning the Rose Bowl and have said so.
Meanwhile, my house is 70% unemployed, What are you doing in that regard?

[Senora Rose]

I think this is great, maybe they can pardon OJ.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

JD
Dude get over it it's just our stupid government they are just a bunch carpet baggers .

[Jarrett Shawber]

This is beyond rediculous. How can are government spend one minute or one dollar on a such are worthless activity. In addition, there are a number of allegations surrounding this program in regards to a large number of NCAA rule violoations and the conduct of its athletes off the field. Can we please keep our eye on the ball rather than foward some public officials personal agenda that obviously is directly related to her own preferences and the campaign funding she recieves.

[PortlandTrojan]

Um... John D? "...command the respect of an institution like UCLA"

What about the US News college rankings?

UCLA - ranked #25 in national universities
USC - ranked #27 in national universities

Are you trying to argue that UCLA is vastly superior based on that ranking? Your perception of USC as an institution doesn't match up with the perception of the experts who are paid to analyze university performance.

[Hardtail]

Um... PortlandTrojan... 25 is a higher ranking than 27. But yes, I think your right. I remember plenty of football rankings where UCLA was ranked higher than USC, so yes I get your point. USC is almost as good as UCLA academically and UCLA is arguably better in football. I mean, I've seen the rankings....