In his first interview since being released by the Seahawks, LenDale White acknowledged smoking marijuana during his NFL career and criticized Pete Carroll, the man who coached him in college at USC and coached him again, briefly, in Seattle.
“I did it, so it is my fault,’' White told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean of his looming four-game drug suspension. “I smoked marijuana; that is all I have ever done. That’s all I do, that’s it. I smoke. I don’t care about any other drugs, but it’s marijuana. . . . But I have changed. I am a good man. Unfortunately the stuff that I did in my recent past caught up to me in the present and it’s affecting my future.’'
White seems angry at Carroll, the Seahawks coach who traded for him on draft day only to release him a month later.
“Pete Carroll? The same Pete Carroll who ran out on ‘SC?’' said White, shaking his head. “I have no comment on Pete. I better wait ‘til I’m on a team one day before I say anything.’'
Whether White is ever on another NFL team is an open question. In both Tennessee and Seattle, there was talk that he doesn’t work hard enough at getting himself into shape, and that he’s more trouble than he’s worth in the locker room.
White seems to understand that he might not get another chance.
“My emotions have been all over the place,” White said. “My hope is to keep playing in the NFL, but I know now nothing is guaranteed. I now have to find a team, someone, that believes in me and trusts me and I can show I’m not a bad guy, not a bad teammate. I’m just going to keep praying to God that everything is going to work out.’'