Pete Carroll says ‘not football people’ played big role in his dismissal by Seahawks

SEATTLE – During an interview that aired Friday on Seattle Sports 710, former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll elaborated on the process that led to what was essentially his firing this week and said one issue is that it was “not football people” making the final call.

During an interview that aired on the Brock and Salk Show, Carroll said he thought he had a plan for how to deal with what would be coming next and getting the Seahawks beyond the 9-8 records they had the past two seasons

What Carroll referred to as “not football people,” who may have been influenced by the media, didn’t agree.

“What is the essence of the adjustments that are necessary?” Carroll said of what he viewed as the basic issue that he was addressing with the team. “That’s where maybe we don’t see eye to eye on, because I see it one way and I think I’ve got a way to fix it and I’m not going to kind of halfway fix it. I’m trying to fix it so it’s perfect.

“I’ve got real precise and specific thoughts, and they may not see if that way, they may not agree with it, they may not see that that’s the right answer or that’s not the answer that makes them feel good. The difficult part is, if you guys could know, it’s really hard because they’re not football people. They’re not coaches, and so to get to the real details of it is really difficult for other people.”

In a news conference Wednesday shortly after the decision was announced, Carroll said he “competed” to try to stay during meetings with the Seahawks organization, meaning team chair Jody Allen and, likely, vice chair Bert Kolde and possibly team president Chuck Arnold. Carroll on Wednesday said he had meetings with general manager John Schneider.

Carroll said he knew going into the meetings that he would be “challenged” to make his viewpoint heard.

“Every year it feels like that, that you’re going to be challenged by opinions that are kind of media opinions, because what else do people have when you’re outside of the game?” he said. “How could you know other than what you guys talk about on the radios and what the articles say and what the pundits are drawing conclusions on?

“That’s why you have to go in realizing that that’s what you’re dealing with and then try to talk through to get to the essence of stuff. That’s always going to be a challenge because when you don’t have legitimate dyed-in-the-wool football people calling the shots, then you have to try to make sense of it.”

As for the approach Carroll took to the meetings, he said: “The first thing that we do is we go through the season and what happened and what took place, and what were the reasons why. What could we have done better along the way, and what would be the choices to move ahead?

“Because you’re competing, you’re trying to figure it out. I have very, very strong feelings about what we did, and where we screwed it up and why we didn’t come through the way we wanted to and what we did well. So we just needed to touch on all of that, and the perception that the media has on the outside is not always accurate.”

Carroll called the meetings “very intense.”

“It was crucial to me that I was able to express my thoughts and my feelings about it, and my concerns about moving forward and trying to help as much as possible, to bring clarity to the decision-making and what to expect and all of that it,” he said. “I was really pleased that we had the intensity of it because it needed it. And also the depth, that we want to make sure that Jody could feel what this is and what it takes and what the expectations are that come along with this job and these decisions that you make, and how difficult it is to do this well and to do it right.

“It’s hard to do the coaching job well, and it’s hard to do the selection process well, to get the right guys to answer the call. So because we care so much, because we all care so much, it was really intense. And it wasn’t uncomfortable at anytime. It was just we need to get to it, and we were able to do that.”

Wednesday, Carroll said one reason that ultimately led to him agreeing for the departure to be characterized as “amicable” and that he would stay on in a role as an adviser, was allowing Schneider to pick his successor.

“Moving toward the future if there’s some way that I can add something to them down the road, we’ll see what happens,” he said. “But this is a good move for them, and Johnny’s going to take this thing, take the bull by the horns and roll. I’m so thankful that I get to see him take that next step and watch what he does with it.”