PHOENIX • Seattle Seahawks coach
Pete Carroll was fired from his first two NFL head-coaching jobs.
Understand that Carroll wasn’t a bad coach; he just wasn’t the coach he
wanted to be. Carroll was too worried about fitting the NFL prototype.
Concerned with playing the role of coach instead of actually coaching in
his own way.
Too many head coaches sleep in their
office. They’re overly intense and heart-bypass serious. If there’s one
thing we’ve learned about most modern NFL head coaches, it’s this: These
men work awfully hard at being miserable as they obsess over every
arcane detail of their jobs.
Carroll was fired by the New
York Jets after one season (1994) and that was a raw deal. In his
second shot, with the New England Patriots, Carroll was moved out after
the 1999 season so team owner Robert Kraft could hire close friend Bill
Belichick. Carroll led the Patriots to the playoffs in two of his three
seasons, but he wasn’t Belichick. And it’s not as if Kraft made a
horrible decision; Belichick has won three Super Bowls, six AFC
championships and 12 division titles over the last 14 seasons.
Still,
it wasn’t quite fair. But Carroll also knew he could be better. So
Carroll took some time off. Before he took another run at head coaching
he needed to find out who he was, and what he wanted to be. And Carroll
concluded that the next time he would do it his way — or not at all.
“A
tremendous amount of growth,” Carroll said this week, as the Seahawks
prepared for Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown against the Patriots. “It’s
really just about evolving as a coach and as a man. There’s a lot of
things that we go through...there’s so many experiences that have come
along and so many opportunities to expand your thinking and the way you
do things and the way you handle situations and people and all of that.
“I
like to think I’m a beneficiary of a lot of really good experiences
that have really helped, so that I’m doing things better than I’ve ever
done before. There were a lot of days back in those years when, man, I
was just winging it and trying to do the best I could in figuring it
out. Hopefully you make the good choices and turns in your direction so
you can demonstrate more closely the person that you’d like to be.”
Carroll
re-entered the profession through the collegiate ranks, accepting the
USC job in 2001. He would win two national championships in his nine
seasons there — winning 34 consecutive games in one stretch. Carroll
would also leave just before the NCAA slapped USC with a loss of 30
scholarships and a two-year bowl ban for multiple NCAA infractions. If
that cloud hangs in Carroll’s background, he pretends he doesn’t see it.
His jaw is set to the smiling, happy mode.
But as for coaching the USC players, the remade Carroll was a spectacular success.
What changed? The real Pom Pom Pete emerged.
All
of that enthusiasm and exuberance that Carroll tried to suppress in
leading the Jets and the Patriots? Carroll set himself free.
Actor-comedian Will Ferrell would give pep talks to the Trojans. Snoop
Dogg and other celebrities would hang out at the USC field. Carroll
blared hip-hop and metal music during practices, and challenged players
to basketball-shooting contests before team meetings. The Trojans were
talented, but they also played the game with unrestrained energy and
joy. Carroll set the team’s personality.
It is the same
style that Carroll would take to Seattle when he became the Seahawks’ HC
in 2010. The Seahawks are brash, they are loud, they are abundantly
confident. And they are crazy about their coach. This isn’t just a
party; Carroll is seriously wired. He constantly gets on his players,
urging them to compete, compete, compete. (It’s apparently his favorite
word.)
Carroll also wants his Seahawks to express
themselves and be true to their personalities. Carroll doesn’t care if
cornerback Richard Sherman talks trash, or if running back Marshawn
Lynch is a grump with the media. In a team sport — and the Seahawks are a
very close team — Carroll provides room for individual thought and
freedom.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Seattle defensive
end Michael Bennett said. “I think a lot of times football players feel
so confined by who other people want us to be. I think it’s good that
Pete lets people be themselves. I think when you do that, you get more
success … you think about any successful businesses in America right now
and it’s all about letting people be themselves and letting them work.
Sometimes when you have people doing too much, they just forget who they
are and they aren’t happy. And when you’re happy, you do a lot of
things better.”
At 63, Carroll bounces up and down on the
sideline, much to the annoyance of fans tired of watching the Seahawks
win so many games. But there’s a lot more to Carroll then the rah-rah
stuff.
Before getting back in, at USC, Carroll wanted to
shape a philosophy on leadership, and he turned to books. He read
everything he could about legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden’s
principles for success. He read books on self-actualization. He read
psychologist Carl Jung, and the Zen master D.T. Suzuki.
How
do you get players to compete at their best? How can you push them to
the limits … but also keep it fun? How do you establish a collective
identity in a way that fosters unity and a shared purpose?
According
to an old profile in Esquire magazine, Carroll even turned to the
wisdom of the late Jerry Garcia, leader of the band the Grateful Dead.
Yep. Jerry Garcia. Don’t be surprised; Carroll grew up in San Francisco.
The message: Be unique. Strive to be like no other team.
“Jerry
Garcia said that he didn’t want his band to be the best ones doing
something,” Carroll was quoted as saying at the time. “He wanted them to
be the only ones doing it. To be all by yourself out there doing
something that nobody else can touch — that’s the thought that guides
me. We’re going to do things better than it’s ever been done before in
everything we do, and we’re going to compete our (tail) off. And we’re
gonna see how far that takes us.”
It’s taken Carroll and
the Seahawks to a 36-12 record over the last three seasons. And Sunday
the ’Hawks will be trying to swoop in for their second consecutive Super
Bowl championship. Pete Carroll became the coach he always wanted to
be. And the colorful Seahawks have established a strong brand, a
singular identity. In personality and style, there’s no other NFL team
quite like them. Jerry Garcia would approve.
