It’s always fun to watch the pregame player intros on NBC. They play a video-recorded clip of each player saying his name and his school. Many players say announce their school with pride, and most mention their colleges. Some players who bounced around different schools or want to represent their hometown shout out their high school in these intros. San Francisco 49ers rookie safety Taylor Mays was one of those people.
In his intro, Mays said “O’Dea” for his school, which is where he attended high school. Most NFL players have a ton of pride in USC — just ask Carson Palmer — so to hear him say that was a surprise. Mays’ slight was most likely the result of bitter feelings between himself and former Trojans coach Pete Carroll, who passed on him during the draft.
Winston Justice’s slight against the school was much less intended. The Eagles lineman said “Southern Cal,” which would make any USC fan bristle. They prefer USC and University of Southern California while “Southern Cal” is considered a pet peeve by most.
Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson gave his typical introduction. Instead of mentioning Cal as his school, Jackson said his high school, Long Beach Poly. Jackson has been doing this for a few years, so it’s nothing new. It’s pretty obvious that he’s more proud of LB Poly than Cal, but we don’t know if something happened that made him lose a connection to his college. I’m just chalking it up to another example of his brash personality.
