Pete Carroll Pt. 2: The Admiral Thrawn of Football

The second half on Pete Carroll. In this episode we pick up with his time with the 49ers before he moves on to bigger and better things. Then we follow him though USC to Seattle and finally theorize on what the future holds for Pete.

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Transcript

Shaun: 0:13

Pete would be in San Francisco for two years soaking up as much knowledge as he could off the Super Bowl winning coaches. And when then he decided, hey, I can go get a job here with the New England Patriots because they were looking for a new head coach, the Patriots owner at the time was Robert Kraft, same owner as he is now. Do you remember, nate? Robert Kraft got his Super Bowl ring stolen by Putin, sounds familiar? Yep, literally Putin was meeting with a bunch of people and Robert Kraft was there and Putin was like, hey, that's a cool ring, can I look at it? Robert Kraft was like, sure, why not? What do you expect is going to happen? He's going to look at it and hand it back to you. Putin literally looks at it and just sticks in his pocket and just keeps on walking. That's awesome. And Robert Kraft just said what do I do now?

Nate: 0:55

Because that's cool.

Shaun: 0:56

Yeah, what are you going to do? I mean, the dude was flanked by his security. What are you going to go and spray him by the shoulder? He'd be like hey, look here, mf'er. I mean, you can get some polonium in your tea. However, the secret is too, with a lot of those wards and stuff, you can always order a ring back.

Nate: 1:08

Did he get back If?

Shaun: 1:08

you lose it. I think he did ever get it back. He had to buy a new one. Yeah, pretty sure. Farzanya Putin was just like it's mine now. They asked about it. He was just like yeah, it's a nice ring. Yeah, you can look it up more if you'd like. It's an interesting story. So Robert Kraft this was before he got his ring stolen by Putin hired Pete Carroll, and the reason he wanted Pete Carroll is because the 49ers in San Francisco had a winning culture and they had a really good setup there with the way everybody handled everything, and they wanted Pete Carroll to basically take that entire set and bring it straight over to New England and just transplant everything there and be like we're going to meet the San Francisco 49ers of the East Coast.

Shaun: 1:46

Pete was actually really excited about it. He's like yeah, I love their philosophy there and I can integrate it with mine, and would you just got to change the way football's done? Unfortunately, he realized that when he got there it was still basically all the old staff from the old regime and a lot of those people weren't exactly down with his plans either. The big takeaway Pete had from this encounter was if you're going to go to a new job like that and try to overhaul the culture.

Nate: 2:08

Just replace everybody which is what we actually do coming up. I mean, that's pretty brutal, especially if some people have been there for a while, but at the same time it's like if you're not just trying to fill in a role but you're wanting to fundamentally change everything that's going on there, you kind of do need to get rid of, even if people are like, oh no, I'll fall in line.

Shaun: 2:27

They're still going to have some baggage from the previous setup and yeah.

Nate: 2:29

I mean it's a tough little swell.

Shaun: 2:31

but you're right, it's kind of like a yeah, I've burned it down to the ground and start over again. But yeah, that's something where you just you wait to do that and tell everything is just so bad that nobody has any excuses. It's like you're all horrible at your job. So I don't feel bad for firing you. All, right, but yep. So yeah, pete learned from this job. If you're going to do a cultural overhaul, get rid of everyone and bring in your own people. So that's kind of like colonialism if you think about it.

Shaun: 2:54

28 wins and 23 losses were Pete's record with the Patriots and then he got canned after three years because 28, 23,. I mean that's not an awful record, but it's not that great. And also, you know, pete the quote unquote, winning traditions of the 49ers, didn't really like transplant over because his staff and was picky and finicky and wasn't necessarily working. So Pete's fired this year 2000. He pretty much assumes that his football coaching career is over. So he starts looking at jobs in the media sports broadcasters, analysts, pundits, this and that Suddenly one of his buddies calls him and goes I can get you an interview in North Carolina. You're a shoe-in for the job, pete. Get on the plane and get out there right now he's like, yay, so he heads out there and no, they don't give him the job, they don't give him enough. They don't give him the job. No, they're like, nah, they said they doesn't have enough experience in the college level, I guess.

Shaun: 3:42

So then Pete goes back home, sits around by the phone for another month or so. He gets another call. Usc or the University of Southern California calls up famous college around down in California. They call up and they're like hey, we need a new head coach Coming in an interview. And Pete went in there and he nailed the interview and got the job. And also pro tip here from Pete Carroll. He says if you're going in for an interview and this is actually 100% true, I can back this up he says when you go in for an interview, only talk about positive things. Only say positive things about yourself, your previous employer, your worst enemy. Only say positive things, because interviewers hate negativity in an interview, because they just assume you're gonna drag that negativity with you to work. Yeah, I got you.

Shaun: 4:20

Yeah. So if you're gonna be in an interview, don't talk trash about anybody. Just bring up positive things.

Nate: 4:26

Let me give you my reading, my tome of things I hated about my last employer.

Shaun: 4:30

Well, that kind of happened to the job I'm at. Now. One of the guys one of my coworkers I guess went to apply to the place one town over and he went in there and I guess the entire interview with him with the other place was just him trash talking of the boss that he currently had and everybody he worked with and whatnot. Yeah, he didn't get the job, man that's. In fact it was like so bad that the boss over there called up my boss and was like you won't believe the interview I just had with one of your dudes. Oh really.

Shaun: 4:57

Yeah, yeah that's especially around your area.

Nate: 4:59

It's so small.

Shaun: 5:01

Yes, exactly, it's small town.

Nate: 5:02

It is a small town. You know Shelbyville is the same, but a lot of people live in Shelbyville working Louisville. So, like you know, in Louisville they call it a small, big town because, I mean, you'd be surprised how many people know each other.

Shaun: 5:14

So even still like even a size of town. Yeah, cause you got generational families there for ever and ever.

Nate: 5:18

Yeah.

Shaun: 5:18

Yeah, we go back 42 generations.

Nate: 5:20

Even a place like Louisville. You don't necessarily want to be like talking shit, especially if it's in the same industry, because everyone is gonna find out about it yeah.

Shaun: 5:30

Southern folks in gossip go together like Southern folks in sweet tea, what? Or Southern folks in meth?

Nate: 5:35

Right, yeah, I can't imagine the backlash that would happen, you know, up there.

Shaun: 5:39

Yeah, yeah. So Pete Carroll gets the USC job. Fans not really excited about it. Basically they saw him as a failed NFL coach and there's a lot of attitude of like you can't just bring in an NFL attitude to the college level, it doesn't work, You've got to be like a college coach, Pro level stuff doesn't work down here. But you know what turns out. It did work for Pete. One thing he did is when he showed up this job, he basically overhauled everybody, hired up the entire staff that he wanted and that he knew was gonna work for him, got all the players that he wanted on the same level with him and basically he was gonna be.

Shaun: 6:11

He wound up being there from the 2001 season all the way through the 2009 season and during his tenure he became one of the winningest coaches in college. At the time he led them to a 97 win and 19 loss record, including a 34 game winning streak. He had a winning percentage of 83. Yeah, he won 83% of his games there, Won seven bowl games and two national championships. Apparently, his always compete philosophy works really well at the college level and also, too. Once he started winning, naturally all the fans loved him.

Nate: 6:42

Yeah, of course Fans loved him because oh what?

Shaun: 6:43

I use. That's such a surprise. Everybody was like really skeptical on him as soon as he started winning. They're just like we love Pete Carroll.

Nate: 6:50

And I tell you, the University of Kentucky up here Sorry, not university, that's a different one, a Kentucky State University. No, it is UK. Sorry the other way, because there's one's a smaller college in Frankfurt, that's a black college and the other one's the big, so it's UK, so it's a university in Kentucky. That is like a massive college town. I mean it's like everyone wears blue walled cast, blah, blah, blah. I mean it's the whole state, you know. Then you have UK, sorry, uofl. They have their college too and they're just mainly just Louisville. I mean it is huge. You know, kentucky doesn't really have any professional teams of any. They don't have football or basketball, so it is all.

Shaun: 7:30

College sports is life down there. Oh, my God, dude, and so there was Don't you guys have like a college basketball program or something that everybody loves down?

Nate: 7:38

Yes, Like yeah, words. Yep, yeah, and so one of those, as actually the basketball team they it was happened a few coaches ago, but they weren't doing too well and people would go to his house and they would put four sales signs in his yard.

Shaun: 7:52

Yes, yeah.

Nate: 7:54

I mean that's real mature people. It is, I mean, brutal. Yeah, I would. I would never want to be in there without what few to be on. Oh no, rick Patino. He was the college coach for.

Shaun: 8:05

Oh, I recognize that name.

Nate: 8:07

Yeah, because he was big. He was a big controversy because they were he was originally UK and then he left but then came back and started using you. A lot of people were like really really pissed, like the UK people were a common trader and you know people didn't like him because you know he was to be, you know, uk and it was so funny to he actually ended up leaving for a while for a medical condition. You know I'm quoting medical condition because you're like, oh, it's something to do with this. I can't remember what they said it was, but it was STD. I mean he because he was like and he was got in trouble for like I think, basically getting his players like hookers and he was having an affair with someone. It was a whole thing Like for it's. Yeah, but I can, I can totally so.

Shaun: 8:56

that goes with the hooker comment you made earlier about hey get him a hooker. Yeah, I had a feeling there was some basis in reality on that. Yeah, so basically yeah just long.

Nate: 9:04

I'll just go ahead and say I completely understand the college mentality behind.

Shaun: 9:09

You know, if you start winning, then you're loved, yep, then you are a god among men and you could literally murder somebody in front in the middle of that college campus and everybody, like I, didn't see nothing. Yeah, pretty much you can get away with anything, and if it's one of those storied colleges too, you can make so much money being a coach. I'm actually getting into that a little bit in a moment, but Pete Carroll's philosophy was a smash hit at USC. Is idea of helping his players fulfill their pyramid of needs turned out to work out really, really well. You know, instead of just hammering players over and over again about, you know, doing drills in this net, he would actually, you know, crowdsource opinions from players, be like, hey, how do you think we as coaches could do better, which is kind of unheard of in the. You know the sports world, you know most people. It's like, hey, you're the player on the coach, you do exactly what I say.

Shaun: 9:53

And one thing about Pete, too, is part of the. He turned out to be a really good recruiter too, because he was so personable and he was into sports psychology. So you know, a lot of times when you go around recruiting a coach will just be like you run real fast, we like that, you know, and they would just talk about nothing but football, the X's and O's and this and that. But, pete, he would actually like to get more into the mind and spirit of the players that he was interviewing. You know, talk to them about you know sports, of course, naturally, but you also learn about their family, what kind of music they like, what kind of arts they're into. He'd really get down to the nitty gritty of them and that would actually help them kind of get out the most about his players learning everything that he could about their heritage, this and that.

Nate: 10:31

He's walking up to him, put his hand in his face and like Kwato is like Open your mind.

Shaun: 10:35

Yes, actually I was thinking he's almost kind of like Grand Admiral Thrawn, where, you know, he doesn't just look at the X's as though he actually studies his opponent or his players.

Nate: 10:43

Right, Yep, he looks at some art. They did like here to draw something, and now I know your hustle, yeah.

Shaun: 10:48

Essentially, he's like what kind of music you like. All right, I know what kind of person you are, Well what was that?

Nate: 10:55

Oh man, you're a piece of shit, ain't you? Ha ha? I read a funny interview.

Shaun: 11:00

I can't rock my favorite.

Nate: 11:02

Get out of my house.

Shaun: 11:04

There was an interview I was reading. I didn't put the script, I'm glad you bought that up, but somebody was interviewing Pete and they were like, oh, what kind of music do you like, pete? And he's like, oh, I listen to all sorts of stuff, you know classical rock, this and that. And they're like do you listen to country, pete? And he's like, oh god, no. He's like, no, I'll listen to almost everything, but I'm not listening to country. So one thing Pete talked about that was a slight challenge that the USC has and other colleges don't. Is they got down the road from them, the land of temptation known as Hollywood and, like I said, probably the aforementioned hookers and everything. Apparently, pete made it a point to warn the players hey, if you go to Hollywood, don't do anything stupid that makes the team look bad or will kick you off. Because, yeah, apparently it was.

Shaun: 11:44

You know, go down to Hollywood, get drunk, do dumb things. Oh yeah, yeah, you know how college kids can be, and also adults, high school everybody in between. One thing Pete talked about too that was kind of interesting, I've seen this before was college kids kind of have an interesting situation. Sometimes they get put into like where they almost get their entire life destroyed in front of them. And the example I've heard this a few times from different coaches and stuff let's say you, nate, you are from I don't know, snoop-a-pooke, wisconsin, and you are like literally the greatest football player that Snoop-a-Pooke has ever seen, like 100%, everybody, all they talk about. You set all the school records like by a wide margin. You know you're one of the best players in the state.

Shaun: 12:24

Everybody talked about how you're going to put Snoop-a-Pooke on the map. You're going to be the greatest football player in the history of the NFL, so on and so forth. And then you know it's like, hey, all right, come down to USC, try out for this college team. And then you go from being like the greatest player ever in Snoop-a-Pooke history to being like the fourth best player in your position on that team. Apparently that can really crush somebody. And also, you go from being like I'm the greatest player in the world to being like oh wow, I'm just not very good overall.

Nate: 12:48

Yeah, that would. I could see how that would. That would definitely mess with someone's head. You go from like I don't know Gaston to I don't know.

Shaun: 12:56

Yeah, I'll say you're just like Marty McFly. Yeah, you're literally just like leased above everybody else at your school and just so much better. And then all of a sudden you just go wind up and practice and somebody just runs by, you like you're standing still and it's like oh, and you wind up, not even making the team kind of thing. Then you got to go back to Snoop-a-Pooke with your hat in hand and be like well, that didn't work out very well. And then you go that would suck, yeah. Then you got to go work at the foundry and develop an addiction and you know, and the circle of dues.

Nate: 13:24

That's, that's part of it.

Shaun: 13:25

It's part of the thing you yep once you collapse as a college player. You go back to your hometown. They hand you a card. It's just like all right, here's an alcohol brand that we've chosen for you it's Schmidt Ice and here you go. We're also giving you a slight pain, pill addiction. Have fun. But yep, so that's something that Pete's talked about having to deal with. Every once in a while it's like, oh, this poor kid just got destroyed and his life will never be the same. So, anyways, there's a fun thing to put yourself in. The empathize yourself with Fun's right. Kill the kids.

Nate: 13:56

Oh, he looks like he's not doing well.

Shaun: 13:59

Yeah, cold the week. We only have enough supplies for the strong.

Nate: 14:03

We're just taking yeah, I'm taking my back like look at the flowers, look at the pretty flowers.

Shaun: 14:07

Tell me about the rabbits Lenny.

Nate: 14:13

Why am I standing over a pit? Don't ask.

Shaun: 14:17

Well, pete was coaching at USC. He had a tendency of going for risky plays and trick plays, no big of the big plays that nobody else would think about making at the time, and he actually got the nickname Big Balls Pete out of the deal on this, to the point the crowd would actually chant Big Balls Pete sometimes during the game. I found that kind of amusing.

Nate: 14:33

I mean, what kind of trick is it being talking about? Like hiding the ball in their shirt? Like I got it.

Shaun: 14:39

Like fake punts, fake field goals, going it forward on fourth down and this and that, which are terms that really don't make much, as if you don't watch a lot. Yeah yeah, Flea flickers Sometimes, you know, do stuff like magic trick. You know they pull out a wand and do it over the ball and go poof, disappear and the ref would find under his hat. I made that part up.

Nate: 14:56

Yeah, I was like what. Well, my mind immediately went to like the glow trotters.

Shaun: 15:01

Yeah, yeah I mean, I know they're not football, but you know you get that. Yeah, it was still the same thing. Them and the Washington generals, yeah, through the football.

Nate: 15:10

There's a string of text. They pulled it back. I just think it was like the Washington generals, like it's so funny that the idea of this team, they's never win, just like one day also. I'm like I'm sick of losing, I'm going for today, I'm a win.

Shaun: 15:27

It's like the that Simpsons request. He's like bets on the Washington generals.

Nate: 15:31

He's like I could have sworn there for a win.

Shaun: 15:34

I remember watching them when I was a little kid and I was like, wow, they seem really good, why don't they play in the NBA? And she was like, because they're so good, they can't play in the NBA. They would just win every game. I'm like, oh, that makes sense, you might. I was like really small at the time. It's like I'm going to try, you know, back when they're on Scooby-Doo all the time and stuff. Yeah, sure, whatever I have heard, they are kind of a fun thing to watch live, but oh, yeah it looks really entertaining.

Nate: 15:57

They're definitely doing like magic with those balls, but right in front of the kids too.

Shaun: 16:04

Right, I did hear on the radio, well the guys, this is years and years ago. But he went to a globe chargers game and he said it was a lot of fun. But at one point they did kind of this skit where they pulled a kid out from the crowd and they like gathered around them, they're like doing this comedy bit with him, but they surround the kid and when they unsurrounded him they had like taken his shirt off. The kid was kind of chubby and you could see this kid was just like mortified over what happened. Yeah, hey, this will be funny, yeah, but the kid was like oh God, they're seeing my nipples.

Shaun: 16:32

They're using their ball mat. They're using their ball magic on me that evil, evil ball magic. Yeah, so nine years of rampant winning has gone on at USC and everybody loves Pete Carroll. He is a legend down there but it's January 11th 2010. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Pete Carroll announces I'm going to the Seattle Seahawks, a team that I root for. Yeah, Pete basically said I have accomplished all I can in college football and now I want to take my philosophy to the NFL and show it can work there.

Nate: 17:01

Thanks for all you've done for me. Now fuck you guys.

Shaun: 17:04

Yeah, yeah. Here's a fun fact too. Uh well, p-kerl's at USC. In the nine years he was there, he only lost one game in the month of November 25 and one in the month of November.

Nate: 17:16

The month of November, but all the rest of the months he did terrible, but month November, he won. How important.

Shaun: 17:22

Well, I mean, he did win 83% of his game. So Ah well, there you go. Yeah, so boo, your joke failed. Also, when he started out as a coach at USC, he was earning a cool million dollars. By the time he left, he was making over four million dollars. Not a bad raise, though. Over that time that's. I mean not hell, but you know, half a million dollars.

Nate: 17:38

Yeah, I mean, that's pretty iffy good.

Shaun: 17:41

Oh yeah, one thing too that Pete Kerl did that was kind of cool is every day while he was there at USC he bought breakfast for his staff every morning, cost him about 25 grand a year. He said, oh where? Yeah, I know that was my thought too. It was like everybody's like it's cost me 25 grand a year. Can you believe that? I was like, yeah, kind of, but we're making five million dollars a year. It's kind of hard to you know earn one million.

Shaun: 18:00

So, pete, such a legend down there, everybody loved him. Why would you leave USC? Was it just for the fame of the NFL, chasing Gloria and such and such? Possibly. But also to right after Pete Kerl left, the USC football scandal erupts, yep, by soon as he leaves. All of a sudden, like the hammer came down and they're like hey, we've been investigating USC for a little bit and we've got some stories to tell.

Shaun: 18:23

So what happened was basically I'm going to try to make this as simple as possible they I think they've changed the rules since then, but back then, in order to play in college, you had to be a literal amateur, meaning you couldn't make one penny or anything or get any kickbacks or whatever off the sports. It was considered verbote and, you know, you'd basically be kicked off the team or kicked out of the league, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, in turn, this one player named Reggie Bush and he, uh, one of USC's most famous players ever. Apparently, people, I've never watched him, but he's supposed to be one of the most exciting players to ever watch in football and during college years. So apparently Reggie Bush you know big hero down there had a good story where, like he came from poor town. You know a single mom, this and that. So apparently at one point during his college tenure, uh, some managers or agents decided to hook up Reggie Bush's mom with a hotel or a apartment nearby and they're like, hey, we're going to fly out here, set you up in the apartment and that way you can come by and watch your son play games and whatnot. You know feel good story kind of thing. Well, since all Reggie would occasionally stayed his mom's place, that's was considered a gift in the eyes of the NCAA.

Shaun: 19:25

And another thing that he got busted for, I guess, when you went to go get his Heisman Award because he won Heisman Award, which is basically the best player in college Uh, he was so broke that, you know, because he couldn't have a job, he uh couldn't afford a suit. So somebody bought him a suit and even bought him a limo ride to the Heisman Award ceremony. This was also considered taking a payout. So, uh, he had to actually forfeit that best player in the college trophy because of all this. Yeah, kind of BS if you think about it. All he got out of it was a suit and his mom got an apartment that he stayed at a few nights out of the year. But, uh, because of all this, usc was placed on four years probation and among the penalties they were forced to vacate 14 wins while Reggie Bush was a player, including its national championship win and a orange bowl win. And they got a two year post season ban for the program, meaning they couldn't play any uh bowl games or winning any championships, and they had to surrender 30 scholarships over a three year span. So, basically, they got hobbled right after Pete left.

Shaun: 20:21

Pete Carroll denies any knowledge of all this rule breaking going on, which? Um, that's probably BS, I'm sure he didn't know. But here's the secret though All the college teams do this. Any college team has gotten busted for doing this. University of Washington, huskies, got busted for this too. The team down the road for me, yeah, even your University of Kansas, I'm sure they've got busted plenty of times for a violation that glue this university, louisville, yeah, but what's the other?

Nate: 20:46

one UK. Yeah, there's you, well, uk. I'm sure there's been scandals, but most recently UofL had just like it was a torrent of scandals all at once. It was apparently in in this world of sports. It was actually a pretty big deal, to the point like UofL is actually at risk of losing its credentialing. Yeah, oh yeah, it was. Uh, there was. It was at risk of becoming not a school anymore. So it was, it got pretty bad.

Shaun: 21:12

And the way this always works out. It feels like every college in the world does this and everybody's okay with it, right up until one person gets cheesed off at the school and decides to blow the whistle. Well, it seems like it just goes back to work for a bit back. Well, fine, I'm just going to go to the press or whatever, but right until then they're fine with it. So, yeah, my hammer comes down. Usc gets burned. Real bad, poor Reggie Bush, you know.

Shaun: 21:31

Oh yeah, also too, even legendary Lou Holtz, the coach we talked about earlier. He actually had a uh admission scandal, just like the one Pete Carroll went through. But also, since Pete Carroll uh, got out of dodge in time, yeah, nothing happened to him, which also makes it slightly, uh, a little more suspicious. He wasn't here when the cops came in. So, yeah, exactly, he saw the sirens down the road and he's or the lights down the road from the cops. He's like well, I'm going to hit the old dusty trail. Guys, bye, don't you want to leave the front door? Nope, I'm going to hop over this fence out back and run through some other people's yards. Uh, some of the USC people definitely felt betrayed and wanted. Pete Carroll said they're like you left us. You did all this to us. You ruined our program. You know, the same people loved him 10 minutes ago.

Nate: 22:07

Oh, of course, Again, it feels as long as you're winning.

Shaun: 22:10

However, the majority of USC fans still love Pete Carroll and consider him the uh greatest coach of all time there because they they have the same attitude I do, where it's like every college cheats, it's just not all of them get busted. Thanks to my coworker, kevin Anderson, for answering some questions about USC and Pete Carroll. Hi, kevin, the scandal he rucks down there, but in the meantime Pete is up here in Seattle being announced as the new Seahawks head coach. Five years and 33 million dollars is for that, that's a not bad. He also got full power of hiring of the staff and firing hiring and firing of players and staff, which is a power of very few NFL coaches have ever gotten. I believe Bill Belichick at the Patriots was the only other guy who's gotten that at that time.

Nate: 22:48

Oh, they don't like hire their own staff.

Shaun: 22:51

Usually what it is is the head coach doesn't do the hiring and firing. It's the general manager who is in charge of that. They're the numbers guy and they're the hire and fire and usually they work hand in hand with the coach, but typically the general manager has final say in everything, because also, basically, what is the owner can like step in and talk to the general manager and be like I know you and the coach are doing this, but I'm going to override it, and so on.

Nate: 23:14

But I would assume the owner had final say.

Shaun: 23:17

Yeah, for the most part, a lot of owners actually just stay the hell out of the office, though they're kind of smart in that regard. They just keep writing the checks. Pete has given ultimate power and boy, how did he use that power? 200 roster moves in the first year alone, 200 players hired or fired and 200 coaches hired or fired. But Seahawks kind of need it. We're on a downswing.

Shaun: 23:38

Then it had been a while since we had done anything a few years, and I do remember too, because I was a delivery driver at the time. So let's do a lot of sports talk radio and a lot of Seahawks fans were not exactly excited about Pete Carroll. A lot of people were screaming that he uses college coaching philosophy. You can't use a college coaching philosophy in the NFL. It won't work.

Shaun: 23:56

If that sounds familiar from the other times he did it yeah, people will never learn. Yeah, nope, they'll never learn. So although that whole you know the college level raw attitude doesn't work at the pro level, there is a little bit of credence to that, because I had heard in interviews like when you're like a young rookie and your first few years in the NFL, pete Carroll, you hear a speech and you're like, yeah, that's awesome, we can change the world, we can do it all, but by the time you're like an embittered 32 year old dude on your knees, hurt. Yeah. Yeah, you're kind of like, yeah, sure, buddy, so, which also that kind of backs the fact it feels like Pete Carroll is always his best at his head, his best teams when they're like the youngest teams that he had right, yeah.

Nate: 24:35

I feel that I hate. I hate Motivational stuff. I mean I I have a low thing for it. I mean there is a Some media and what it went to camp, I think, was it was manager GameStop and they had like a whole region come and they, when the HR guys came up, he started playing this video and it was like inspirational music in the background and it was like kids running through a field playing soccer and like Huh, you know black and white pictures of like oh, there's a couple and they're like you know.

Shaun: 25:06

It's telling you music video. Oh my god.

Nate: 25:08

Yes, and they're like oh, Live your dreams and you follow the course. Yeah, I'm like oh my god, I'm dying.

Shaun: 25:17

Yeah, I had to go to something kind of like that. He didn't have a presentation with music and stuff, just a speech. But the dude said paradigm shift. So many times people were laughing audibly by the end of it, like, oh, I've never heard the word paradigm used so much in a speed. It was bad. The paradigm shift of this paradigm is what the paradigm is gonna be. It was I don't know. It almost sounded like it was a joke in a way.

Nate: 25:41

Yeah, like I don't know what, you're excited, but you failed.

Shaun: 25:45

Yep, your word of the day calendar said paradigm and you're just running with that, or maybe is maybe he's competing with himself. See how many times you can say paradigm in this speech and then try to beat that record. Maybe you learn that from Jerry.

Nate: 25:54

Rice or it's like that one movie oh man, yeah, it's evangelical Steve Martin, she the jerk. No, steve Martin was like a evangelical guy, he was a shister.

Shaun: 26:06

Oh yeah, I don't know the name of that.

Nate: 26:08

Yeah, I saw it once a long, long time ago, but then that was yeah, he came in and he was like he would actually work in like like the appeal place best, like oh, can you slip this in there? And he would got you, yeah.

Shaun: 26:19

Yeah, my dad hated Steve Martin, so I have like seen very few Steve Martin leave a faith. Oh yeah, there we go. So, yeah, you can bring up a lot of stuff about Steve Martin. I'll just like oh, also, shortly after Pete got hired at the Seahawks, he came out with the book that we sourced for this entire podcast win, forever, live, working, played like a champion.

Shaun: 26:36

We're point five stars with 800 or 786 reviews on Amazon. No sales figures for that book, by the way, but that's basically where all the info for this came from, along with some interviews and this and that some other reading. And this book was obviously written while you're still at USC, because basically they have an epilogue. At the end it's just like, hey, I'm going to the Seahawks, ain't that neat? And that was the end of it. So Pete gets to the Seahawks and, even though some people didn't want them there turns out, he becomes easily the greatest coach the Seahawks have ever seen, giving us such fun things as, like the Legion of Boom, which is one of the best defensive all-time in football. Yeah, we also brought in Skittles and marijuana, fishing, auto March on Lynch and also who gives the Beast Quake, which was when the crowd got so loud. It actually set off a seismic detector in a Seattle, which is kind of cool.

Nate: 27:20

That's kind of cool.

Shaun: 27:21

Yeah, and Carol's also the guy who took a chance on who was actually having an unpopular draft pick at the time. Mr Siara, aka Russell Wilson. Though 13 years with the Seahawks and Pete Carroll gets 117 wins and 78 losses. That's including the playoffs. He won us our only Super Bowl in 2013 and with that Super Bowl, when Pete Carroll becomes a very exclusive member of it, a very exclusive club, he becomes only one of three coaches to ever win a national championship in college and a Super Bowl in the NFL. Only Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer have ever pulled that off before, and technically, barry switcher kind of just inherited the same team that Jimmy Johnson won the Super Bowl with, so you could almost say that Jimmy Johnson Was kind of the only other person who really did it. Yeah.

Shaun: 28:04

Barry book you suck. Your dreams are stupid. Yes, exactly yeah. Pete also took us to a second Super Bowl in 2014 and that season had the infamous hey, we're not gonna run the ball, we're just gonna pass it. What you see memes every time. So we bring up Pete Carroll. Somebody will post a meme about that, being like huh, hey, I could hand you your coffee or I could just step back two feet and throw it at you. It was one of those plays that everybody's very emotional after it happened because it just felt right to have run the ball and gots the touchdown, but it wasn't a guaranteed play either way. So after a while I cooled down, was like well, it wasn't that dumb, but some people still call it the stupidest play of all time. Also, to it's kind of unconfirmed, but some of the players on that team were actually saying that Russell Wilson, the quarterback, actually changed the play at the last minute and it was all on him. Pete Carroll has neither neither confirmed nor denied.

Shaun: 28:48

Also, during his time with the Seahawks, pete Carroll became known for chewing bubble gum on the gate all game long on the sidelines. He's always got a piece of gum in his mouth, just always chewing away. In case you ever wondered, it's bubble. Yeah, meet you original flavor. And he goes through about 15 pieces a game. Average game is about three hours, so he goes through about a piece every 12 minutes. So there you go, math man. That's. That's a lot of gum.

Nate: 29:08

Actually, if you think about it, there's like a I don't know. It hurts much after a while.

Shaun: 29:12

Yeah me, what's my?

Nate: 29:13

time I could do it, but now it's like. You know I don't like it.

Shaun: 29:16

Yeah, and also to you know it's just sugar, sugar goo. However, despite Pete being popular here Most people loving him he still has some haters. But this, just this last scene repeat was Pete Carroll's final year as Seahawks head coach. So at first it was kind of like at the end of the season, you know, they got revealed like hey, Pete Carroll is no longer the coach of the Seahawks but he's got offered a Executive position, you know, as a higher up is. You know yeah.

Shaun: 29:41

So, uh, god, what's the advisory board? Commission kind of thing, an advisory role? And everybody was like, well, that seems kind of sudden. Well, they just out of the clear blue because, uh, we didn't make the playoffs, but it's not like we were a horrible team this last year, I mean yeah.

Shaun: 29:56

But as time went on, it turns out that at the beginning of this season, pete went up to the higher ups and he was like I'm going to retire at the end of this year, but they didn't make a statement about it or anything. Because you know, it just kind of affects the season a little bit and affects the players, if you know coaches last season. So they kept it under wraps. But you know, the owners were like, all right, we'll start putting, you know, the wheels in motion to replace it the end of the year. But then, like at the very end of the year, pete Carroll like what's the orders? Like I changed my mind. I want to stay with the team. Please, let me stay with the team.

Shaun: 30:22

But as you know what you kind of like to start putting the wheels in motion on these sort of things. You can't really just go back on it, Right, yeah, I mean, sorry, pete, I know you would have liked to stay, but once you tell them you're going to retire, they kind of need to start doing things that, uh, you know that you can't really go back on, right, all right, so you know, city is going to retire, decided last minute, not to which, ironically enough I don't know if ironically is the right term, but that same thing actually happened with our last Super Bowl winning coach, mike Holmgren. He literally was like well, this will be my last year, you know, whatever happens happens. And then the end of the season he was like I kind of want to stay around, guys, but uh, no same thing with him. They're like we already put the wheels in motion. Then they replaced him and then, uh, that guy's replacement was actually Pete Carroll. So that whole thing didn't happen that long ago either.

Nate: 31:04

Yeah, yeah. So you're welcome to stay, but if you, once you put those wheels in motion, you can't go back. Yep, exactly.

Shaun: 31:14

And also to uh, pete Kelly decided he didn't want to take that advisory job and he's just going to go do his own thing, cause I think he's kind of aware of the fact that, you know, it just wouldn't be that great having him around, cause the whole, you know, want a whole regime change, cause that's actually what the CLX is kind of doing now. They're sort of like turning over their entire coaching staff for the most part. Oh yeah yeah, we actually just hired a, our new coach, and he's the youngest coach in the NFL right now, at 36 years old, carol, when he left the oldest coach in the NFL at 72. So we literally replaced the oldest coach in the NFL with the youngest one in the NFL. Kind of cool. I think it depends on how good he does. The coach does, but right.

Nate: 31:48

He's that was one.

Shaun: 31:49

Yeah, that was one problem with Pete Kelly that people were talking about is, I mean, the dude's in great shape. He's probably in better shape than we are overall for being 72. But you know, hey, he has getting up there in kind of years and it was kind of getting to the point where it's like maybe it's time to look for his replacement, because you never know, he might have a stroke on the can one these days. Then where will we be, nate?

Nate: 32:09

Well we'll become of our world.

Shaun: 32:11

So, as of what Pete's going to do next, well, only Pete truly knows. The sports pundits are guessing anything and everything for Pete, as is tradition. My guess, well, I'm going to guess that Pete will decide that he has learned and done all he can with the game of football and he's going to retire to a tiny island with a single house. On it. A talking turtle will be his only friend and there he will train anyone pure of heart who comes to him seeking knowledge in the way of football, and you will help them fill their pyramid power and let them go super say it.

Shaun: 32:39

But they must bring hookers. Yeah, yeah, yeah For you, pete Carroll, living out his master, rosh, would be kind of you know well, yeah, master Rosh was a dirty man.

Nate: 32:49

Oh yeah, I know yeah.

Shaun: 32:50

Dirty, dirty man. So well, we could say the end result on this podcast, if you learn anything about Pete Carroll as he lives on tiny island, is really into panty.

Nate: 32:58

So that's pretty good he shoots out of those yeah.

Shaun: 33:03

What's this in my email Cease and desist.

Shaun: 33:07

So that's the story of Pete Carroll going from the man with the most competitive birth in the world all the way up to retiring as a COX head coach, bringing us a Super Bowl and tons and tons of good memories. He is also, you know, one of the first players to actually oh, one of the things he actually did as coach this president right that down when he was a USC actually open practices to the public, which was kind of cool because you know fans could go and watch the players work out and see kind of behind the scenes. It got the players some good exposure to, you know, having like real feedback. But also, I guess USC alumni will Farrell would often show up at the practices and start messing around and putting on like comedy routines and stuff with the players as a good stress release. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, so you can sit there and be watching practices. You know all your players also, will Farrell just show up and start playing with them, you know doing jokes and stuff, which would be pretty cool.

Nate: 33:54

So now, we'll try to be serious.

Shaun: 33:56

Yeah, ever. So there we go, nate. What's your name about? Pete Carroll and all the cities that he's been to? Yes, he's been to many cities. Yeah, too many cities. Yeah, he is spreading like a disease everywhere. He is a virus. Petus carolidus, that sounds like a virus name, right? Yes, whatever.