Pete Carroll and general manager John
Schneider are willing to do and try just about anything if they believe
it will result in increased success, as evidenced by a reported 284 roster moves in their first year together.
They fear neither criticism nor failure. They draft whom they believe
in. They chase the free agents they like. They play whoever earns it on
the practice field. They ignore conventional wisdom.
"We really don't care about what
other people think and we're not going to be driven by what the status
quo might think and we've really trusted our gut on decisions," Carroll
said. "We've done a lot of questionable moves that people want to know
about … it has helped accelerate the process."
From the outside, Pete Carroll
can look like cheerleader-in-chief, just an uplifting motivator. Inside
they swear there's a smart football mind obsessed with competition in
everything, winning the small battles that lead to winning the big ones,
like a Super Bowl.
If no one else recognizes that as
great coaching, Carroll doesn't seem to mind. He had practice to run
Thursday anyway. Set to music, of course.
"We have fun doing it."
He'll never apologize for that, either.
