Pete Carroll was My Guy. I don’t know any other way I can characterize him for myself.

I vividly remember the day when it was announced that he was taking over as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. I was so excited, that almost created a wreck in traffic. I listening to Sports Radio KJR, heard the news, screamed, and swerved, and course corrected. Then once I heard all the horse crap out of the station’s blowhards complaining about the hire, that is when I decided I was going to be a KIRO 710 listener from then on.

It all happened just like that, and the minute they started talking shit about Carroll, I was done as a regular listener. They couldn’t even give the hire a single benefit of doubt. Why should I give them another listen?

You see, to further set up context, back in the Mike Holmgren era, I was a film believer that the next head coach should be Pete Carroll. I once said that to my brother, and he looked at me as he so often did when I was a kid eating crayons and dog food, and he thought I was an absolute knucklehead for even entertaining the idea.

“Pom Pom Pete?!”

“That shit will never fly in this league.. fuck, I don’t ever want to see that here.”

My rational was simple. The Seahawks were a fun little kick ass team for a while in the 1980s with a defensive minded head coach who was all about great defense and running the football. I was tired of the more finesse pass happy approach of Holmgren, and I wanted more smash mouth to go along with the cold wet blustery Sundays in Seattle in the Fall and Winter.

“Dude, look what he’s going in USC.. they are running the shit out of the ball, throwing darts off play action, running up scores, and they are killing it on defense.. that is what I want up here.”

Pete Carroll was my guy long before Pete Carroll became my coach, so you can imagine my excitement that almost forced my Ford Ranger into a ditch over the news of his hiring. I wasn’t certain about much in life, but I was pretty certain we were going back to a Super Bowl, and actually winning the motherfucker this time.

Pete Carroll is the greatest thing that has ever happened to Seattle Sports. He is by far the greatest coach this region has ever seen, and I say that in complete respect to Don James, and Lenny Wilkins.

This is not my opinion. It is a statement of fact, and I will not have any debate on it.

In 14 years, Pete Carroll has guided the Seahawks into the playoffs 71 percent of the time. This team went to back to back Super Bowls, winning one, and almost winning another. They won five division titles, and were a wild card team five other times.

Without Pete Carroll, we never would has experienced the Beast Quake that galvanized us as a fanbase. Marshawn Lynch was a troubled third string running back in Buffalo, and Carroll took a chance on him. Lynch would not have likely been a fit on a Mike Holmgren coached team.

Without Pete Carroll, I highly doubt Russell Wilson would have become a long term starter in this league. Philly might have drafted him, and he would have played for Andy Reid, but I doubt they would stayed with him long term in Reid’s high volume passing system that requires a taller quarterback. He would have more likely been a bridge to the next guy, and then likely would have had a Gardner Minshew type impact on the league, but Carroll gave him a shot, grew to love him, and tried to make it work as long as he could.

Without Pete Carroll, Geno Smith would probably still be a second or third string backup, or out of the league.

Without Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman may have not ever gotten a fair shot as a starter.

Without Pete Carroll, Red Bryant may have been out of the league by his fourth year.

Without Pete Carroll, I don’t know if Kam Chancellor would have been a starter in this league when everyone was playing Tampa two stuff.

Haters are always going to hate on this dude, but Pete Carroll gave us so damn much, and I think a lot of us got really spoiled in the process. When your team goes to back to back Super Bowls, just making the playoffs is no longer enough. That’s the expectation before the first kick of the season happens.

Nah, these kids who were eight years old when Pete first got here are in their twenties now, and they don’t know football life without him. Well, get ready for it.

A lot of them want the next 33 year old Sean McVay type, but they might find themselves missing Pete a lot over the next few years. I’m not saying this to be cryptic about the future. I am just saying that Hall of Fame level coaches typically do not grow on trees, and Carroll is most definitely a Hall of Famer.

The team could hire Jim Harbaugh, or Kalen DeBoer and either one of those guys isn’t likely to have the sustained success as Pete. That’s just the nature of the league.

Pete Carroll’s greatest attribute as a head coach was not his Xs and Os, or his schemes. Pete Carroll’s strength was and always will be his heart, and his willingness to believe in others, to give opportunities, and to stay steadfast in his belief in others. That is a thing easier said than done, and this is what gave the breeding ground to his culture being the best in the NFL for nearly a decade in a half.

Pete Carroll is a great leader of men because he leads with his heart. You could feel that in his very raw and authentic way he allowed himself to be in his final press conference to announce with the team. Leaders who are willing to lay it on the line, to be real, and present, and caring, can inspire a collective to move mountains. That is what he did here in Seattle.

My dad was a combat war veteran, and he was as badass as badass could be. Like, old school Lee Marvin badass. He always used to rave about General Omar Bradley, and he hated high ranking officers because of his experience dealing with them as a squad leader in Korea.

In his booming voice, Dad would say that the only person to wear stars who was ever worth a damn was Bradley. He loved Bradley because the general always insisted on marching with his troops and carrying a rifle. If he was going to ask a man to lay down his life, he wanted that dude to know that he was willing to lay his own life on the line with him. The US troops fucking loved Omar Nelson Bradley.

I think Pete Carroll is a lot like Bradley. He’s thoughtful. He cares. He wants others to care. He is very much a servant leader.

That’s what Pete Carroll was at USC for many years, and that is how he rolled up here in Seattle. I wanted him to be the head coach of my team because I thought his style of ball was kick ass, but once I grew to know of him more after he got here, I pretty much wanted him to coach here for life.

Football is a funny fluid thing, though. In recent years, I grew tired of the dramas that crept up like the Jamal Adams stuff this year, and the odd coaching hires that led to the offenses and defenses getting worse instead of better, and I started to entertain more the idea of Carroll moving on. He had been here much longer than Holmgren or Chuck Knox ever were, I felt that maybe hubris filtered in more, and I just thought maybe it was time.

This season, I really started to feel it, and I found it creeping into my writings in ways that made me feel very Get Off My Lawn Dude. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing with that type of energy, but I couldn’t ignore my frustrations as a fan, either.

I actually started this blog as an attempt to create a space for Seahawk fans to visit that wouldn’t be so hypercritical over every little spending decision, or coaching decision, or bad play that happened in a game. I wanted my writing to have some fun, and celebrate all the highs, and joke around with the lows, and maybe share an insight or two, if ever I felt one.

I think subconsciously, I wanted my writing to reflect the goofy nutball nature of my favorite coach. That is how much Pete Carroll has impacted me as a fan, and person. I will always deeply appreciate him, and hold him in the highest regard.

I won’t deny that it’s a bit weird that I wrote about my ideas of moving on from him, and then seeing the team actually do it. I find myself in a very strange, split place with this whole thing, now.

Emotionally, I am very attached to Carroll the person, and I am really going to miss this dude as my team’s head coach. Logically, though, I believe this was the right time to move on, and give another coach a shot.

As stated, chances are significant that the next head coach won’t be nearly as good. That’s not saying this next dude is going to suck, and they won’t have success. This is just acknowledging that Pete Carroll is a Hall Of Fame head coach, and those coaches do not grow on trees.

That said, Carroll is 72 years old and was heading into his final year. I suspect ownership wanted significant changes on his staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also wanted a bit more of a roster overhaul with some of the older players. It is entirely possible that they do want to draft a quarterback this Spring, and Carroll isn’t super down.

In any case, I think Carroll is very attached to his guys, and I am just guessing here, but I think he maybe didn’t want to fire a bunch of dudes, or cut a few players that he is very close with and still believes in. This is where being in your seventies might impact proper decisions. You might feel less likely to want to overhaul things once again even if it is clearly needed.

Coaching at this level has got to be an exhausting practice. Mike Holmgren was a superb coach for many years, and he knew he was done much younger than Carroll is today. I think it is incredibly difficult to find sustained success such as Pete has had along with Belichick, Tomlin, and the sane Harbaugh brother. These dudes are coaching rarities.

This team has been underachieving, though, and it has been this way for many years now. They have become perpetually mediocre to good but not great. Something needed to give.

I think Jody Allen wants greatness again, and I think she probably wants a good younger coach to come in who will probably not be as attached to players on this roster. It is very possible she wants someone who will be more of a disciplinarian that maybe Pete has it in him to be at this juncture, and will push his coaches and players more in the details of the game.

Frankly, I think this is what this team needs. It kinda needs a fresh new kick in the pants, and this is what I have been feeling greatly this year.

That does not take anything away from who Pete Carroll is as a coach and leader. In my mind, this just means that all things come to their natural ends, and this was the time for the Carroll era to close, and as I wrote the other day after the win against the Cardinals, if his final game as coach of this team is a nail biting victory, it would be very fitting.

I will never forget this era, though, and all the wild ass shit that went down on the football fields. I will never forget Beast Quake, the Richard Sherman tip in the NFC Championship game against San Fran, the insanity that took place in the come from behind win against the Packers in the following NFC Championship, Michael Bennett riding the cop bike, the Kam Chancellor hits, all the Russell Wilson ridiculous Jedi shit, Geno beating Russ as a Bronco, the insane Jermaine Kearse catch against the Pats in the Super Bowl, all the wild Doug Baldwin grabs, and the Tyler Lockett ones, and that crazy touchdown pass Jon Ryan threw to a backup offensive tackle in that wild championship game against the Pack. This list could go on, and on, and on again.

Pete Carroll gave us all this stuff. He gave us a decade and a half of crazy ass adventure. It was fun. It was stressful. It was annoying at times, and exhilarating.

There is absolutely no debate in my mind who the greatest Seattle Sports icon is. It is Pete Carroll, and it is not even close.

And my brother was dead fucking wrong about him, and so were all of those loud blowhard radio personalities on KJR. I am not right about a lot of things, but I was spot on correct about Pete Carroll.

So please, Jody Allen. Build the Pete Carroll statue in front of Lumen Field. Hire us a good new coach, but build us that statue.

Seattle owes Pete Carroll everything. Period.

Go Hawks.