Pete Carroll talks about his exit as Seahawks coach: ‘We made something special’

RENTON, Wash. – To the very end, Pete Carroll did things his way.

As media, Seahawks staffers and a handful of players that included quarterback Geno Smith and linebacker Bobby Wagner waited for Carroll to take the podium at the team facility one last time Wednesday afternoon, music blared.

Celebratory, happy tunes such as “I Love Music” by the O’Jays.

And during a roughly 30-minute news conference in which he discussed the team’s decision to remove him as coach, Carroll tried – as he did throughout his time in Seattle – to accentuate the positive.

“We weren’t anything, and then we were something,” said Carroll, who led Seattle to its only Super Bowl title after the 2013 season and leaves as the winningest coach in franchise history. “We made something special.”

Throughout, Carroll insisted he made something special again with the Seahawks even though they missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record this season.

“There’s no doubt,” he said when asked if the Seahawks have what it takes to again become elite. “There’s no doubt in my mind. And they, we all know that.”

And as late as Monday afternoon, when he met with players before they headed into the offseason following Sunday’s season finale, Carroll said he thought he would still coach in 2024.

“No,” he said when asked if he knew then that he wouldn’t return.

But in meetings with team chair Jody Allen, general manager John Schneider and others Monday and Tuesday, Carroll said it became clear the team wanted to go in a new direction despite his protestations.

“I competed hard to be the coach, just so you know,” he said.

But Carroll – who turned 72 on Sept. 15 and was the NFL’s oldest active coach – said he eventually came around to understanding why the team wanted to move on.

“We got to a good part, good, clean spot where it made sense, and I went along with their intentions,” he said. “… We had our year-ending meetings with ownership and planning sessions, with Johnny, just talking through stuff, getting ready. It takes us to the point where you get to what’s next. And this isn’t about me being the head coach. It’s about this organization being successful and being on course for the long haul of it as well. I realize that. I’m about as old as you can get in this business. There’s coming a time they’ve got to make some decisions.”

In a statement, Allen attempted to portray the parting as collaborative, saying: “After thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interest of the franchise, we have amicably agreed with Pete Carroll that his role will evolve from Head Coach to remain with the organization as an advisor.”

Allen said of Carroll’s adviser role that: “His expertise in leadership and building a championship culture will continue as an integral part of our organization moving forward.”

Carroll’s contract, thought to pay him at least $15 million a year, runs through the 2024 season with an option for 2025.

Carroll, though, seemed to dismiss the idea he will have any major say in team moves going forward.

“If there’s some way I can add something to them down the road, we’ll see,” he said.

As Carroll made clear, the man who will now have final say on team decisions is Schneider. He has been Carroll’s right-hand man since being hired just a few days after Carroll in 2010. Carroll, in fact, essentially made the final decision to hire Schneider from a list given to him by the team.

Schneider had shared control of team personnel with Carroll but with Carroll, who also held the title of executive vice president of football operations, having final say.

But it is Schneider – whose contract runs through the 2027 NFL draft – who will hire a new coach and have full control.

At one point, Carroll said giving Schneider the ability to run the ship on his own was one reason he eventually accepted moving on.

“That was the biggest factor,” Carroll said of the timing. “… It was to help make sure that he could have this opportunity and he could go for it.”

Schneider stood against a wall as Carroll spoke but did not speak to the media – he is expected to do so Thursday.

But Carroll several times looked his way in explaining the team’s decision.

“I want him to have his chance,” Carroll said of Schneider. “It’s been 14 years he’s been sitting there waiting for his opportunity, and he deserves it, and he’s great at what he does, and now he’s going to find out.”

Then he looked at Schneider, smiled and said, “Going to find out, big fella.”

Within minutes of Seattle’s announcement on Carroll, speculation began to focus on Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn – who was the defensive coordinator when the Seahawks advanced to the Super Bowl in 2013 and 2014 – as a possible successor.

Carroll was the only one who spoke Wednesday at a 1 p.m. news conference called shortly after the team’s announcement at 11:20 a.m. that the Seahawks were making a change.

Carroll opened with a roughly 11-minute statement in which he thanked his assistants, players, Seahawks staffers and family – he noticeably choked up when he talked of the support of his wife, Glena, later saying that spotting her in the crowd from during the Super Bowl trophy ceremony in New Jersey was his favorite Seahawks memory.

He also recounted how he wasn’t sure he’d last more than three or four years when he arrived in Seattle following nine years as the coach at USC. He went 97-19 there in a run as successful as any coach in then-Pac-10 Conference history.

Carroll joined the Seahawks after Jim Mora went 5-11 in 2009. He vowed then that he would be true to himself, something he felt he hadn’t been during earlier head-coaching stints with the New York Jets, where he had been fired after going 6-10 in 1994, and the New England Patriots, where he was fired after going 28-21 in three seasons.

“I called (longtime friend and assistant coach) Tater (Carl Smith), and said, ‘We got a chance to go to Seattle – how about we take a shot and get up there,’ ” Carroll recalled. “In maybe two or three years they’ll give us a chance, and then they’ll kick us out of here, and we’ll see what happens. But I’d like to take the culture we had at USC and see what happens.”

Carroll did just that, implementing his themed practice days of “Tell the Truth Monday” and “Competition Wednesday.” He also gave players a wide latitude to be themselves on and off the field.

“Fourteen years later we’re both still shocked (that they are here),” Carroll said. “But we’re grateful for it as well. But what I am most proud of is that we took a culture that we developed there in those college days and came here to see if you cared for people deeply and you loved them for who they were and tried to find the extraordinary uniqueness that made them and celebrate that, and not try to make them something that they’re not, and not to try to expect them to be something other than that.”

He also wanted final say over personnel, something he hadn’t had with the Jets and Patriots. Though Schneider handled much of the day-to-day personnel work, Carroll could always wield a final veto.

The two worked quickly to remake the roster, and by the end of Carroll’s first year in 2010 just 21 of the 53 players on the active roster had been with the team the year before.

Carroll and Schneider used three of the best draft classes in NFL history from 2010-12 to build what became one of the best defenses. They drafted safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor in 2010, cornerback Richard Sherman and linebacker K.J. Wright in 2011 and linebacker Bobby Wagner in 2012 – a group that would become known as the Legion of Boom.

Carroll and Schneider capped that with a heavily criticized move, selecting 5-foot-11 quarterback Russell Wilson in the third round of the 2012 draft.

Wilson (and running back Marshawn Lynch, acquired via a trade in 2010) proved the stabilizing force the offense needed. It complemented a defense that allowed the fewest points every season from 2012-15, still the only team to do so in the Super Bowl era.

It all coalesced in the glorious season of 2013 as the Seahawks won 11 of their first 12 games to earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. The defeated New Orleans and San Francisco – the latter capped by Sherman’s dramatic last-minute tip of a Colin Kaepernick pass into the arms of Malcom Smith for a game-deciding interception – to reach Super Bowl XLVIII against Denver.

The Broncos, led by future Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning, entered the game with an offense considered one of the greatest in league history after scoring a record 606 points.

Denver scored only eight against Seattle, and those came after the Seahawks had scored 36. The Seahawks’ 43-8 victory was considered one of the greatest performances in the game’s history. It also happened with one of the youngest rosters of any Super Bowl champion team – which had many predicting a dynasty.

The Seahawks appeared on the doorstep of making those predictions come true before the fateful intercepted Wilson pass from the 1-yard line in Glendale, Arizona, in Super Bowl XLIX that allowed New England to escape with a stunning 28-24 victory.

It was on that same field Sunday that Carroll coached what turned out to be his final game. It ended in fitting fashion – a 21-20 victory earned on a touchdown pass and 2-point play with 1:54 left, clinched when Arizona kicker Matt Prater missed a field-goal attempt on the final play in the same end zone where Wilson threw his interception.

Carroll spoke enthusiastically after Sunday’s game about the Seahawks’ future saying, “Of course I’d love to do that” when asked if he expected to coach the Seahawks in 2024. “… I love this team, and I love the way that these guys play.”

But that changed Wednesday, ending possibly the most successful run for any coach in the city’s major pro sports history, including five NFC West titles and 10 playoff berths.

But there have been only three playoff wins since the Super Bowl loss following the 2014 season. Only two division titles since then. A record of 25-26 the past three seasons and a lone playoff blowout loss to the 49ers.

All of which led to Wednesday.

Carroll at one point acknowledged that the Seahawks the past few years “lost our edge, really, the edge to be great.”

Asked if he’d coach again, Carroll said he didn’t know.

After about a half-hour, he exited stage right as he had thousands of times before in the wake of big wins and crushing losses, this time getting a round of applause as he walked up the path and out of the auditorium.

But before he did, he was asked what he might do now.

As part of his answer, he cited something one of his mentors – longtime Vikings coach Bud Grant – once told him.

“There’s some great discoveries that are going to come our way,” Carroll said. “… there’s rivers to wade, there’s waves to catch, and there’s mountains to hike. And it wasn’t exactly how Bud said it, but I get it. That’s some cool stuff that we’re going to do here, and I look forward to all that.”