Last season felt like a transitional period for the Seattle Seahawks. It was Mike Macdonald’s first year in Seattle after Pete Carroll’s 14-year stint as Head Coach. Macdonald’s him now, but I wanted to pay one final tribute to Carroll before he becomes a folk legend. Mike Holmgren was the guy who got it started, but Carroll took it to another level. Holmgren won five division titles, had seven winning seasons, and took the Hawks to the Super Bowl in 2006. But Pete was next up. Super Bowl 48 is the high point of his tenure, but he built Seattle into a National brand. This wasn’t guaranteed, considering Carroll’s checkered past. When hired in 2010, there were mixed feelings. He was a once-failed NFL coach who also ran from a recruiting scandal at USC. He wasn’t always a beloved figure. This article will examine the highs, lows, and swagger he brought to the Hawks Franchise.
The Bad
The last nine years of his tenure were a letdown considering the Hawks’ unexpected rise to the top.
After the loss in Super Bowl 49, the Seahawks didn’t advance past the divisional round during the rest of his time as Head Coach.
The goal-line call against the New England Patriots tarnished his legacy, but these weren’t the only problems.
There was the Earl Thomas incident, a violation of excessive contact rules that resulted in losing a fifth-round draft pick, and five PED-related suspensions from 2010-13.
Carroll was far from perfect, but he provided a style unlike any coach in the history of the Seahawks.
It’s also impossible to overlook his involvement in the USC recruiting scandal. It is unlikely that he didn’t know that Reggie Bush was getting a $300,000 loan for a house and a new Cadillac.
I’ve always been Pete’s biggest supporter, screaming through the roof when Seattle hired him, but his past is real.
A past that he ran from when USC got its sanctions in 2010. He left the Trojans five months before SC got hit with crushing penalties.
Some of these sanctions included a loss of 30 scholarships, a two-year bowl ban, and removing their 200 National Championship.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget this amidst his greatness.
The Good
Pete Carroll is probably the best thing ever to Seattle Sports. Many would argue Ken Griffey Jr., but it’s a tie.
Carroll brought life to the Pacific Northwest, changing the Hawks’ reputation from the “Seachickens” to a respected brand.
No one wanted to get hit by the “Legion of Boom.”
During his time as Head Coach of Seattle, he won 147 games and eleven winning seasons, and he captured the Hawks’ only Super Bowl in 2014.
But it was his style that separated him. He was a player’s first coach who pumped loud music and felt like a hype machine on the sidelines. He and “Flavor Flav” might be related.
Even though many thought that Carroll put Russell Wilson before others, and maybe so, Pete was respected by the majority of his players for the type of man he was.
His players will never forget when he “stood with them, marched with them, across the I-90 floating bridge over Lake Washington in full-throated support of racial and social inequality.”
He stood on his values and wasn’t afraid to compromise them for the sake of business.
He also wore a “black WE WANT JUSTICE” shirt before a Seattle home game.”
Pete Carroll is a coach who has won at every level, but his value system is why his players respect him.
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