After another enjoyable and exhausting weekend in Vegas, I had to wake up early this morning in order to make an 8:30am meeting. Of course, I beat the Los Angeles traffic and am one of the first people to arrive at work only to find out that the meeting has been postponed to 10:00am. Alas, I now have some time to learn how other "meetings" go (via Rumors and Rants): Pete Carroll’s meetings with his USC Trojans have become the stuff of internet legend over the past few seasons. From having players fake-arrested, to impromptu visits from Snoop Dogg and Will Ferrell, the coach Carroll tends to keep the teams meetings, like the rest of his program, on the light side of things.
Last night was no exception.
According to Ben Malcolmson’s USCRipsIt blog:
It was
American Idol night at the start of USC's team meeting Sunday.
In a scene made for a movie, freshman linebacker Marquis Simmons wowed the Trojans with a rendition of "Lean on Me" that had the roomful of players, coaches and staffers standing, singing along, locking arms and swaying to the tune.
What started off as an impromptu sing-off between Simmons and fullbacks Stanley Havili and D.J. Shoemate at the onset of the meeting turned into a runaway for Simmons, who easily won thanks to never-before-seen audience participation that brought laughter, smiles and joy to all crammed in Heritage Auditorium on this Sunday night. And to top it all off, Coach Carroll played piano during the song, making it quite a festive environment.
An impromptu sing-off developed between fullbacks Stanley Havili, D.J. Shoemate and freshman linebacker Marquis Simmons. It culminated when Simmons’ rendition of “Lean on Me” was aided by audience participation. The result was the whole team chipping in to help the freshman - even Carroll, who accompanied him on the piano.
Congrats to Simmons for blowing away the competition and winning the contest.
In case you were wondering, my work meetings are nothing like this. Gotta love Corporate America.
