Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll having fun with his players on the field before Super Bowl XLVIII.(Photo: Adam Hunger, USA TODAY Sports)
Story Highlights
- With positive reinforcement and love of individualism, Pete Carroll has put the "fun" back in the NFL
- Being a dour coach who hammers his players and avoids the media is not the only way to succeed in the NFL
- Despite once being viewed as too much a player's coach, Carroll has shown his approach also works
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Regardless of the final score Sunday night, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll will finish his first Super Bowl with a big win.
And every other coach, at every level, will benefit.
By reaching the Super Bowl in only his fourth season in Seattle, Carroll has shown that you don't need to be Bill Belichick or Nick Saban to win titles. You can have a personality – and let your team have one, too – and still be successful.
"It's just the only way I know how to do it," Carroll said this week. "We've created a culture that, hopefully, allows for guys to be at their best. ... Whatever that takes, that's what we're competing to figure out.
"(It's) the culmination of years working with guys, and teams and coaches, all of that. This is what you're seeing," he added. "This is the result of a journey to figure out how you can create an environment where people can find their best, stay at their best, foster their best for the people around them so that everybody can join in."
Going back to the days of Vince Lombardi, George Halas or Bear Bryant, the perception has been that the best coaches at the college and professional levels are, how shall we say it when kids might be reading? Tough-minded and no-nonsense. Their word was law, their opinion fact, and anyone who dared question it could find another line of work.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the media at Gillette Stadium last July.(Photo: Stew Milne, USA TODAY Sports)
Belichick and Saban might not wear wool hats like Lombardi or Bryant, but they are made from the same cloth. Dour and suspicious, they treat every question – and the person asking – as if he or she were trying to ferret out nuclear codes. The next bit of information they dole out will be the first, and if either ever smiled, his face might break.
Anyone around to see it would surely keel over from the shock.
That style clearly works – the New England Patriots have won three Super Bowls under Belichick and played in two others, while Saban's teams have won four of the past 11 BCS titles. That kind of success gets the attention of younger coaches, who think if they have similar styles, they'll get similar results.
But the Belichick and Saban way strips a lot of the fun out of the game. These are games, remember?
Carroll has always been different. When he got bounced out of the NFL after forgettable stints with the New York Jets and Patriots, the knock on him was that he wasn't tough enough. That he was too nice to wrangle with the big, bad boys of the NFL. At the time, being a "player's coach" meant being soft.
But by building a dynasty at USC, he reminded himself and everyone else that you didn't have to take yourself too seriously, that you could have a little fun along the way and still win. He opened practices, and let Hollywood celebs Will Farrell and Snoop Dogg get in on some plays. He played nice with the media, treating reporters as if they were his equals rather than something to be scraped off the bottom of his shoe.
He was one of the first coaches to embrace social media, posting songs of the day and giving shout-outs to his friends and followers. And he trusted his athletes to be adults – probably too much so, as the Reggie Bush violations showed.
It was a novel concept, but it worked. The Trojans were The Associated Press national champions in 2003 and 2004, and runners-up in 2005.
So when Carroll went to Seattle to try his luck in the NFL again, he decided he was going to stick with what worked.
And sure enough, it has.
Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talks with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (left) on the field before Super Bowl XLVIII.(Photo: Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports)
Carroll and the Seahawks have put the "Fun" back in NFL. Their jerseys are hip and, in the ultimate sign of cool, rapper Macklemore is their No.1 fan. Their secondary has the NFL's best nickname – "The Legion of Boom" – since the "Monsters of the Midway." Carroll doesn't muzzle his players – the whole world saw Richard Sherman's postgame rant two weeks ago – and he doesn't give up on them even when they make mistakes.
And yes, there have been mistakes. The Seahawks have had more players busted for substance abuse – performance-enhancing and recreational drugs – than any team during Carroll's tenure, including three this season.
But instead of stonewalling, passing the blame or, worse, bunkering down, Carroll and his players have taken responsibility for it.
"We were a very young team, with young minds," Carroll said. "We realized that we had a tremendous commitment to what we were doing on the field, and that we needed ... that commitment to extend off the field as well, in all areas."
Can you imagine Belichick or Saban saying that?
Carroll's methods aren't for everyone. It's safe to say he and San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh won't be going out to dinner during the offseason.
But his approach works for him, and it might work for another coach, too. And that reminder might be the best thing to come out of this Super Bowl week.
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