There were no thoughts of football Wednesday when the guilty verdicts came down for USC signee Maurice Simmons in a Los Angeles courthouse.
For a young man from a Compton family whose children had all managed to get to college, not to mention their degrees, with an older brother Melvin (Champ) Simmons a starter on USC's 2003 national champs, the only thought was of the Simmons family and the tragedy this has become for them.
Two felonies and a misdemeanor conviction could mean Maurice Simmons will get a three-to-eight-year sentence for the armed robbery he was alleged to be a part of with a friend -- and not a college scholarship at USC.
Simmons' life, no matter what happens on appeal, and that of his family will never be the same...