Rey Maualuga

Here's an ESPN College Gameday segment on Maualuga that Shep mentioned last week.

The clip doesn't specify what kind of trouble Rey got into, so I tried to do a little research into what happened. Here's what I came up with:

• November 2005: Maualuga arrested for punching another USC athlete, charged with misdemeanor battery.
• December 2005: Maualuga's father passes away
• Early 2006: Maualuga caught by police urinating outside a bar, not charged with a crime.
• Spring 2006: Prosecutors agree to drop battery charge on the condition that he perform 100 hours of community service, receive 24 hours of anger management counseling, and attend 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Also, Maualuga must avoid being charged with another crime within the next year.
• September 2006: Maualuga tells reporters that he's completed his alcohol and anger management program: "I've done what I need to do and I'm just concentrating on football."
• October 2006: Maualuga becomes aggressive at a frat party, going around pushing people. Campus security are called in to resolve the situation, but nothing is reported to the LAPD. Had he been arrested & charged with anything, prosecutors would have reopened the misdemeanor battery case against him.

  As punishment for getting in trouble again, Pete Carroll makes Maualuga re-enroll in the alcohol and anger management courses.

• October 2006: Maualuga benched for being late to a meeting.

That's all that I've found on Maualuga having trouble with the law or being disciplined by the coaching staff, though I've seen unconfirmed reports that Maualuga has fallen asleep during meetings. Whenever Pete Carroll is asked about disciplinary action against his players, he responds that he deals with those matters "in-house." So it's definitely possible that there have been more instances than the ones noted above.

In the last two years, Maualuga has managed to avoid any trouble with the law. And to his credit, he's dropped some excess weight and appears to be more focused on football.

What concerns me, however, is that he still seems to be making some pretty bone-headed decisions:

• October 2007: Maualuga suffers a hip injury during the Arizona game. The training staff diagnoses it as a hip pointer, but Maualuga tells the media he think the trainers are wrong: "It just feels bad. It's like one of the worst pains I've felt. They say it's a hip pointer, but I came out because I felt a pop. They can say one thing, but who knows my body [better] than I do?"

  A few days later, Maualuga does a complete 180 and says he's healthy enough to play the following week. Coach Carroll tells the media that Maualuga isn't ready; after all, he had missed a ton of practice time that week. Maualuga doesn't start against Notre Dame and only sees limited time on the field.

• August 2008: Maualuga decides to take two Vicodin painkillers before USC's opener at Virginia (he had a broken finger). The narcotics make him feel woozy and extremely nauseous. Whenever he tries to drink some water, he ends up vomiting it back up.

  While the team is waiting to board its flight back home, Maualuga collapses due to dehydration. The medical staff administers six bags of IV fluids by the time their flight lands in Cali.

And when I went looking for the College Gameday segment, I came across this clip of Maualuga being a goofball.

Brian Cushing's trying to be professional in what seems to be an important interview to him. All the while, Maualuga's making funny faces behind him & messing with his hair. Not only does Rey appear to piss off Cushing, but he comes off as a total idiot when he proceeds to tell Holly Rowe how emotionally poignant this funny face-making moment is for him.

My Curry fandom probably makes me a little biased on this stuff, so I'm wondering if this info makes any of you worry about Rey possibly having some serious character issues.

At the very least, I have trouble seeing Rey as the guy a Belichick disciple would want to build his defense around. He's not the Tedy Bruschi-type; he's more of a Channing Crowder.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but is it what you should want in a guy you're taking that high in the draft? I don't think so.