PHOENIX — He is the other coach in Super Bowl XLIX, the one without Spygate and Deflategate on his résumé. The one who has a chance to be the first Re-Pete champion since Bill Belichick a decade ago.
He is the restless one who chews gum and can’t stand still and bounces on the sideline and exhorts and encourages, the Red Bull of NFL coaches, the one without the hoodie.
He is the one who was laughed at and mocked when he and his Jets assistant coaches would play three-on-three basketball on a court outside Weeb Ewbank Hall back in 1994.
He is the one who does it his way, who isn’t afraid to think outside the box, who is no longer perceived as more Dale Carnegie than football coach, who was atop the AP poll in back-to-back years at USC at the same time Belichick was winning two straight Super Bowls with the Patriots.
Pete Carroll is The Other Genius in Super Bowl XLIX.
This isn’t Justin Bieber vs. Darth Vader.
It may be remembered as a Super Bowl matchup comparable to Chuck Noll vs. Tom Landry … Landry vs. Don Shula … Joe Gibbs vs. Shula … Bill Walsh vs. Shula … Tom Coughlin vs. Belichick.
Any advantage Belichick has in the X’s and O’s is deflated by Carroll’s unmatched interpersonal skills. For Carroll, at the end of the day, Winning Isn’t Everything, It’s The Only Thing, but that doesn’t mean the journey shouldn’t be a fun, exhilarating one.
If “Do Your Job” is Belichick’s mantra, “Do Your Job And Have A Ball Doing It” is Carroll’s.
Belichick is old school, Carroll is new school. Belichick is My Way Or The Highway, Carroll will ride on the highway with his players in the fast lane. Carroll doesn’t try to be anyone but himself any less than Belichick tries to be anyone but himself. Carroll sticks to his philosophy as firmly as Belichick sticks to his.
“What if my job as a coach,” Carroll once asked himself, “isn’t so much to force or coerce performance as it is to create situations where the players develop the confidence to set their talents free and pursue their potential to its full extent? What if my job as a coach is to really prove to these kids how good they already are, how good they could possibly become, and that they are truly capable of high-level performance?”
You can’t Re-Pete unless you compete, hence Competition Wednesday, Turnover Thursday, No-Repeat Friday.
“He doesn’t tear you down,” Seahawks defensive lineman Cliff Avril said. “He allows you to be yourself, but to understand how to work. He makes it relaxing to come to work. He plays music during meetings, before meetings, after meetings. He’s big into competing, so subliminally he does things like having us compete right before meetings by shooting hoops to see who’s going to make the most hoops in a 30-second span or whatever. Again, he allows it to be a fun place to be and allows you to be yourself, and once you cross those lines to go play ball you’ve got to be yourself to go make plays.”
Carroll supported Richard Sherman publicly following his rant to Erin Andrews. He has left a potential Babygate decision Sunday to him. He has Marshawn Lynch’s back when he goes Least Mode during Super Bowl week.
“He allows his players to bump their heads and scrape their knees, and learn from their experiences on and off the field,” Sherman said. “He gives us a chance. He trusts his players more than I think a lot of coaches do, and we appreciate him for that.”
An example of how protective Carroll is of his players: I had arranged with then-Jets head coach Bruce Coslet to write a story on an intrasquad training camp softball game, unbeknownst to Carroll, the defensive coordinator at the time. When I ran into Carroll in the lobby and asked him about it, he told me he knew nothing about any softball game.
“I think when I’ve watched Pete’s teams play through the years — most particularly with Seattle — the thing that impresses me the most and the thing that I guess I would like to do a better job of is just the way that his teams play for 60 minutes,” Belichick said Friday. “They play from the opening kickoff to the final whistle or the final gun. They play from the snap of the ball until the whistle blows at the end of the play. They play extremely hard down after down after down, week after week, year after year. They compete relentlessly as well as any team or any organization I’ve ever observed.”
Now they will try to finish.
“I really have spent a lot of time, a lot of focus on finishing and trying to get to what that’s all about, knowing that any great performer or any great team really takes pride in the way that they can finish,” Carroll said. “You don’t let those factors of the clock running down, the team you’re playing, the matchup, the weather, the conditions or whatever it is enter into the way you perform. I think the ability to have that kind of focus and demonstrate that kind of consistency in those opportunities is something that all performers and all coaches wish that they could be a part of.
“I really think it is being just like you always are in those situations. What happens is, a lot of times, teams give you opportunities and they present themselves and you’re there ready for the opportunity to take place in your favor. It’s an area of great focus and it’s an area I like to see people chill out as much as possible and really show who they are.”
So they can Re-Pete.