Pete Carroll was looking for answers. It was 1999, and he had just been fired as the head coach of the New England Patriots after two-straight mediocre seasons. That followed another firing four years earlier after one year leading the New York Jets to a 6-10 record.
Carroll was holed up in the corner of Massachusetts thinking about his next career step when a certain “blue book” helped him develop a new outlook on how to coach. That book happened to be A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, written by legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
It took Wooden 16 years to finally win his first national championship, and the rest, of course, is history. Wooden led UCLA to nine more championships after the initial title, including a remarkable string of seven in a row.
“I couldn’t close that book fast enough,” Carroll said at a Seahawks Town Hall event on Wednesday in Seattle. “I was immediately affected by the book. … Once [Wooden] figured out his plan, once he knew exactly what was important to him and he knew how to best represent the core of his being and his coaching, nobody could touch him.
That’s where the plan really kicked into high gear and a lot of things came to me. I went to work feverishly to try and put together everything that was important to me in and around my coaching. From there, the philosophy just unveiled itself right before my eyes.”
Carroll, speaking to a group of Seahawks fans at the Paul Allen-owned Cinerama theater, said that his philosophy “started with being a competitor.”
“Competition should be the central theme in our program and I needed everything to connect with that,” he said. “Things just came together in marvelous way and I got the opportunity at USC to see how it worked out.”
Carroll went on to post a 83-18 record at USC before eventually taking the head coaching gig in Seattle and leading the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl win two years ago.
“It’s been way better than I could have imagined,” Carroll said of his time in Seattle.
The 63-year-old spent a half hour sharing more insights into his leadership philosophy, which has been cited in places like Forbes and used by fast-growing startups. Tom Cable, assistant head coach for the Seahawks, also spoke on Wednesday.
“Coming here and getting to be part of this coaching staff has taught me how to enjoy the day,” Cable said. “It’s well-documented how much energy [Carroll] has every time you see him on the sideline, but you know what’s cool about that? That’s how he comes to work every day. … What I enjoy about being here is you can be hard-nosed, tough, and have that great passion and perseverance to keep grinding, but then coach allows us to really go out and enjoy every day we are around here. That’s unique.”
Here are some more tidbits from Carroll:
On the team mantra of “always protect the team”: “That’s rule number one in the program. Always protect your team really speaks to conscious. We want our players to have a mindset that they’re always connected to the fact that they are a Seahawk. Early on it was crucial that we utilized that in terms of football and expand it. We’ve had tremendous success with our guys taking care of business on the field as well as off the field. That’s in part due to this mentality that you’re always mindful that you are a Seahawk, and in that, you will do whatever you need to do to protect it. So it’s how you speak, how you act, when you’re in the media, it’s how you take care of yourself off the field, it’s how you protect your teammates, it’s how you study and work.”
On being mindful and “in the moment”: “It takes discipline. We feel that when we are in the moment, as purely as we can be, that’s when we have the best opportunity to give our very best to that moment. The confidence and the trust that we gain through the process is able to come to front because when you are totally immersed, that’s when your focus at its best.
All we want from our players is them to be the best they can be. We don’t want them to be like somebody else or something they dream about — we just want them to be the best they can be. The best way to do that is to make sure that you’re available for the moment. That’s nice to say that, but with that alone, it doesn’t get it done. You need to practice the discipline that it takes to be right in the very moment at hand in everything you’re doing.
So if I can’t do it, I can’t expect them to do it. I do work hard at it and I do work with the thought that I want to make sure that I’m giving everything I have to that opportunity right in front of me. We have to practice this in every way that we can. We have a mantra of, ‘every game is a championship game.’ That’s a discipline to get that done which sounds like just rhetoric and football, but what that’s calling for is for us to play at our very best, the best we’re able to be, in every single game forever from now on as long as we’re together.
But that’s not enough to get it done. To practice that discipline and appreciate that focus, we have to do it on a month-to-month, a week-to-week, a day-to-day, a drill-to-drill, a step-to-step basis. That is what these guys are continually convinced of learning how to focus on. We want to be more disciplined than anybody can be at focusing on capturing the great moment that’s in front of us. When we do that, we don’t give up much, we don’t miss much. We are there for the opportunities and it allows us to be at our best. But it also allows us to enjoy what we’re doing as well. So it’s way more than just words. It’s not just rhetoric. This is really a focus and a discipline — it has to be constant. I certainly have to live it if I expect them to do it.”
On bouncing back from the gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss to New England: “We all had to deal with that. Everybody did. I don’t think I was the only one. The moment it happened, I knew you were all going through it with us. Just as the [Super Bowl win over Denver] had a huge life-long impact, this game did too. They’re the same in that regard. It’s how we deal with it that is so crucial.
So from the moment I was looking at the ground, thinking that I can’t believe that just happened, to standing up, it was like my whole life flashed before me and OK, here we go. This is what we’re going to have to deal with.
We’ve been in process doing that. We’ve given our guys an opportunity to deal with it individually, knowing that everybody is going to feel a little differently, myself included, and we’ve worked our way through it. What I’ve seen, and so that you know, these guys have come roaring back.
… I want you to understand that it ain’t easy sometimes. It’s not always the way we want it to be. Sometimes it is, though. But when it isn’t, what are we going to do? We’re going to take that next step together. We’re going to get to the truth of it all and go ahead and attack the next opportunity just like we have the last one. I’m so excited to put this together again and show what we’re made of and who we are and demonstrate what it takes to get back again. Our players are absolutely there.”
On how the team has improved from last year: “Our depth may be the best that we’ve been. That means we feel the most competitive sense all the way through the ranks. We have a young group of offensive lineman that looks like a very, very exciting group. I think our tight end play is going to improve a little bit. I’m really excited about Jimmy [Graham]. The first practice in the red zone, the ball just kept going like it was funneling to him. Russell [Wilson] couldn’t help but find him. On defense, I think when we get them all together, it’s the fastest we’ve been.”
