Former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll continues to drop hints that his departure from the sideline was not particularly his choice.
In his weekly appearance on Seattle Sports’ 710 AM Friday, Carroll seemingly hinted at issues with Seahawks ownership. The former coach said he ran into trouble at end-of-season meetings trying to explain his vision to those who are “not football people.”
“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,” Carroll said of his discussions with ownership, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “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.
“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, just like we try to make sense of it for your audience, it’s no different.”
Notably, Seahawks chair Jody Allen, who took part in the end-of-season meetings, was the one who announced what was characterized as a mutual agreement with Carroll for him to transition into an advisory role. Although Carroll did agree to the plan, he had already hinted that it was not really his decision.
From Carroll’s quotes, it sounds like he and ownership were not necessarily on the same page when it came to turning around a franchise that has missed the playoffs twice in three seasons. It is no wonder he will not completely shut the door on returning to coaching somewhere else.
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