Report: Steve Sarkisian Is Taking "A Leave Of Absence" From USC, Will Seek Treatment (UPDATE)

This afternoon, USC football coach Steve Sarkisian apparently got sent home from practice, after showing up “in no condition to work.” Sarkisian is halfway through his second season with the Trojans. He has since been asked to take a leave of absence.

Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin had exactly the same records through their first 18 games (12-6, 7-5 Pac 12). The team currently stands 3-2, which is a decent record, but two of those wins came against cupcake opponents and they have looked out of their depth in losses to Stanford and, most recently, Sarkisian’s former school Washington.

The wheels started to come off much earlier, however. He got into hot water with the school for getting drunk at a booster event and dropping a bunch of F-bombs. Before that, he was accused of being racist by Anthony Brown. Sarkisian will reportedly seek treatment. These reports, coupled with Sarkisian’s previous alcohol-fueled incident, would seem to suggest that type of treatment, but it’s not yet known what precisely he’ll be doing.

We’ll update this post when more information becomes available.

Update (7:17 p.m.): Here is some more information, from the LA Daily News’s Scott Wolf:

Photo via AP

Contact the author at patrick@deadspin.com or @patrickredford.