A FOOTBALL COACH’S TRIUMPHS DON’T MATTER WHEN IT’S TIME TO GO AT 72
Pete Carroll sought to continue running the Seattle Seahawks, but the owner and general manager said no, reminding the world that a coach who hasn’t won a Super Bowl in 10 years can’t carry on
What we’re learning, no matter how much success an NFL coach has enjoyed, is that he doesn’t own or direct the franchise. Pete Carroll won a Super Bowl in Seattle and two national championships at USC and assumed he was returning for a 15th season with the Seahawks, regardless of his 72 years on Earth and the relatively tight abs on his core.
“I plan to be coaching this team,” he said Monday. “I told you I love these guys, and that's what I would like to be doing and see how far I can go. I'm not worn out. I'm not tired. I'm not any of that stuff. I need to do a better job and I need to help my coaches more and we need to do a better job of coaching, and there's a lot of area for improvement.”
The chair of his Seahawks is Jody Allen, sister of the late Paul Allen. The team’s general manager is John Schneider, who has evolved with Carroll as a productive clan running the front office since the same January week in 2010. They survived 14 seasons. The sister who owns the team isn’t leaving. The GM isn’t leaving. The very best of the operation came in the mid-2010s, with the Legion of Boom in the secondary and Russell Wilson cooking at quarterback. Nine years have passed since Carroll and his offensive coordinator threw the ball on New England’s 1-yard line, instead of scoring with Marshawn Lynch, and Wilson threw a game-clinching interception to Malcolm Butler.
That is enough time. Many seasons have passed in which the Seahawks kept trying, dumping Wilson at the right time with a sweetheart deal and trying Geno Smith, but they slid into mediocrity. It wasn’t in his interest to consider how the team declined. As he has honed for decades, Carroll wanted another shot.
He won’t have one. He was fired, with his former defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, the likely next candidate at 53. To his credit, Carroll fought hard in talks with his bosses to keep his position. At an emotional news conference, he said he “competed pretty hard” but ultimately went along with the intentions of Allen and Schneider. The coach only coaches. Others control the team, especially when a man’s best work was 10 and 20 years ago.
“I want to make sure that that's clear as things have shifted so quickly in most people's perspective," Carroll said. “It's been an honor and a thrill to be part of this program and I've loved every minute of it. You've watched me love it.”
There are thoughts in Los Angeles that the Chargers should chase him. Nah. They need to generate the skills of a top quarterback, Justin Herbert, and Carroll’s troubling work with Wilson will be recalled as the downfall of his career. Despite Jim Harbaugh’s monstrous demands, expect John Spanos to open the pay window and compete against the Rams with a prominent coach.
Consider it this way, sad to say. Carroll is gone in the same offseason when Bill Belichick is gone with the Patriots. Even the very best in the business, one with six NFL titles and the other with one, can’t stay in their gigs forever. It’s a remarkable achievement to reach the playoffs 10 times in 14 appearances. The Kansas City Chiefs have won two Super Bowls. The Baltimore Ravens are ready to win theirs. No one thinks of Seattle as a behemoth anymore. So he’s gone. Of Schneider, he gives high marks. “It’s been 14 years and he’s been sitting there waiting for his opportunity, and he deserves it and he’s great at what he does,” Carroll said. “He deserves this moment. I was cheerleading for him. That was the biggest factor … it was to help make sure he could have this opportunity, and he’s going to go for it, and I would do whatever I could to help him be successful.”
“Pete is the winningest coach in Seahawks history, brought the city its first Super Bowl title, and created a tremendous impact over the past 14 years on the field and in the community,” Allen said. “His expertise in leadership and building a championship culture will continue as an integral part of our organization moving forward.”
The Hall of Fame awaits him, though he was fired twice in the NFL — remember, he preceded Belichick in Foxborough — and left USC when the Coliseum was on fire amid Reggie Bush cheating allegations. To have survived as long as he did, with hardware, is worth a place in history. We should worry about his passion.
He wants to coach. He can’t now.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.