Carroll: Wasn’t ‘football people’ who decided fate

Brady Henderson, ESPNJan 12, 2024, 04:11 PM ET
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SEATTLE — Pete Carroll’s 14-year run as Seattle Seahawks coach ended Wednesday when team owner Jody Allen announced that he’s transitioning into an advisory role with the organization, but not before Carroll fought hard to keep his job.

The challenge in making his case to ownership, according to Carroll, was that “they’re not football people.”

Carroll shared details of his end-of-season meetings with Allen when he appeared on Seattle Sports 710-AM for the final installment of his weekly radio show. He said the first objective was to get to the bottom of what happened this past season as the Seahawks finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the second time in three years.

“And then, OK, what is the essence of the adjustments that are necessary?” Carroll said in a conversation that aired Friday. “That’s where maybe we don’t see eye to eye on, because I see it one way and I think I’ve got a way to fix it and I’m not going to kind of halfway fix it; I’m trying to fix it so it’s perfect. I’ve got real precise and specific thoughts and they may not see if that way, they may not agree with it, they may not see that that’s the right answer or that’s not the answer that makes them feel good. The difficult part is, if you guys could know, it’s really hard because they’re not football people. They’re not coaches, and so to get to the real details of it is really difficult for other people.”

It’s not clear who aside from Allen and Carroll took part in those end-of-season meetings, though Bert Kolde is the Seahawks’ vice chair under Allen, who assumed control of the team after her brother, Paul Allen, died in October 2018.

Asked if he had an idea that the meetings would go the way they did, Carroll said he knew he’d be challenged.

“Every year it feels like that, that you’re going to be challenged by opinions that are kind of media opinions, because what else do people have when you’re outside of the game?” he said. “How could you know other than what you guys talk about on the radios and what the articles say and what the pundits are drawing conclusions on? That’s why you have to go in realizing that that’s what you’re dealing with and then try to talk through to get to the essence of stuff. That’s always going to be a challenge because when you don’t have legitimate dyed-in-the-wool football people calling the shots, then you have to try to make sense of it, just like we try to make sense of it for your audience, it’s no different.”

General manager John Schneider is leading the search to replace Carroll, who exits as the winningest coach in franchise history and the only one to lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title. Including playoffs, his 181 wins are tied for 13th most in NFL history.

Carroll said he has received hundreds of texts and phone calls in the wake of Wednesday’s news, the sources ranging from Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells to political commentator Rachel Maddow.

“I can’t catch up with it all, but I’m working at it,” he said. “It’s really nice and flattering and warm to feel that there’s that much response.”

Carroll said during his farewell news conference Wednesday that the particulars of his advisory role have yet to be discussed. He also made it clear that at 72 years old, he still believes he has what it takes to coach, a point he reiterated on his radio show when asked whether he sees himself coaching again.

“I don’t know that,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of energy for it and thought and willingness, but I can’t imagine there’s a place, the right one. I don’t know. I’m open to everything, but I’m not holding my breath on that. There’s a lot of world out here that I’m excited about challenging and going after. So if that happens, it happens. We’ll see. I really don’t know what to tell you about that yet.”