Maualuga plays on for benevolent -- or self-serving -- USC

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Can football save Rey Maualuga?

Southern California coach Pete Carroll must think so. Never mind that at a lot of places the freshman linebacker would be suspended at this point -- perhaps worse. That's a safe assumption after the 18-year-old allegedly punched a man twice -- unprovoked, police say -- at a Halloween night party.

Rey Maualuga is shown after a win over Washington State on Oct. 29, two days before he landed in legal trouble. (Getty Images)

One account said the victim's head hit the side of a house after Maualuga hit him. There was blood. When a woman said she was going to call the police, the Los Angeles Times quoted a witness saying that Maualuga replied: "I own the police." Then he fled into the night.

A few hours and $20,000 in bail money later, Maualuga was free after turning himself in, booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.

Since then Maualuga has been rewarded with the most playing time of his short career. In Saturday's 35-10 victory over California, he was arguably the best defensive player on the field with six tackles, an interception and a sack.

"He's a beast. He's mean," linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. said in what might not be the best choice of words right now.

It's not clear if Maualuga was even suspended after the incident, although he sat out the first half of last week's game against Stanford. When Thomas Williams went down with a dislocated knee Saturday, in came Maualuga, a teenager calling defensive signals for the No. 1 team in the country.

Don't be surprised if the middle linebacker starts next week against Fresno State -- which would be three days before a court appearance to possibly face charges.

"I don't know where I'd be right now (without football)," Maualuga said.

But on Monday and Tuesday, he was without football, excused from the team to visit his ailing father in Eureka, Calif. That's where the story gets complicated. If Maualuga did what is alleged, it is heinous. Carroll's reaction seems to approach the Lawrence Phillips tolerance scale.

Phillips, you'll remember, was Nebraska's former star I-back who dragged a woman down a flight of steps by her hair and was back in the lineup for the eventual national champs after a six-week suspension.

At the time, coach Tom Osborne believed that football's "structure and discipline" would help Phillips. Maybe that's Carroll's rationale. Except there is a huge asterisk next to this controversy.

Talatonu Maualuga is back in Eureka fighting cancer. Rey flew home to be with him early last week, then returned to practice Wednesday.