In an interview that aired Friday on Seattle Sports 710, former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll explained the process that essentially led to his firing this week, saying one problem was that “no football people.” made the final decision.
During an interview that aired on The Brock and Salk Show, Carroll said he believes he has a plan for how to handle what comes next and get the Seahawks past their 9-8 records the last two seasons could bring out
What Carroll described as “non-football people” who may have been influenced by the media did not agree.
“What is the core of the adjustments that need to be made?” Carroll said what he sees as the fundamental issue he is addressing with the team. “This is where we may disagree because I look at it that way and I think I have a way to solve the problem and I'm not going to solve it halfway. I'm trying to fix it so it's perfect.
“I have really precise and concrete thoughts, and they may not see if that's the case, they may not agree with it, they may not see that that's the right answer or that that's not the answer that makes them feel good feeling.” The hard part is, if you knew, it's really hard because they're not football people. They’re not coaches, so it’s really hard for other people to get to the real details.”
In a news conference Wednesday shortly after the decision was announced, Carroll said he was “vying” to try to stay during meetings with the Seahawks organization, implying team chairman Jody Allen and likely vice chairman Bert Kolde and possibly team president Chuck Arnold said. Carroll said Wednesday he had meetings with general manager John Schneider.
Carroll said he knew he would be “challenged” at the meetings to make his point of view heard.
“Every year it feels like you're challenged by opinions that are kind of media opinion, because if you're not in the game, what else do people have?” he said. “How else could you know what you are talking about on the radio, what is in the articles and what the experts are drawing their conclusions from?
“So you have to recognize that this is what you're dealing with and then try to talk through it to get to the heart of the matter. “That will always be a challenge because when there are no real, die-hard footballers in charge then you have to try to understand it.”
As for the approach Carroll took in the meetings, he said: “The first thing we do is go through the season and figure out what happened and what took place and what the reasons were for it.” What would we have on the way can we do better there and what options do we have to move forward?
“Because you’re competing, you’re trying to figure it out. I have very, very strong feelings about what we did, where we made mistakes and why we didn't come through the way we wanted to and what we did well. So we just had to address all of that, and the perception that the outside media has is not always accurate.”
Carroll called the meetings “very intense.”
“It was crucial for me to be able to express my thoughts and feelings about this, but also my concerns about moving forward and trying to help as much as possible to bring clarity to the decision making and say, what awaits me and so on. “That’s it,” he said. “I was really glad we had the intensity because it needed it. And also the depth that we want to make sure that Jody feels what this is and what it takes and the expectations that come with this job and the decisions that you make and how difficult it is to do this well and do it right make.
“It's hard to do the job of coaching well and it's hard to do the selection process well to get the right people to answer the call. Because we care so much about it, because we all care so much about it, it was really intense. And it was never uncomfortable. We just had to do it, and we did.”
On Wednesday, Carroll said what ultimately led to him agreeing to call the departure “amicable” and that he would remain in an advisory role, leaving Schneider to select Carroll's successor.
“If there’s a way to add something to them in the future, we’ll see what happens,” he said. “But this is a good move for them and Johnny will take this thing, take the bull by the horns and go for it. I'm so grateful to be able to watch him take the next step and what he does with it. “He’s going to kick ass.”
Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or [email protected]; on twitter: @bcondotta. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He reports on the team daily throughout the year.