So we just got done talking with Pete Carroll, who explained the team’s “mutual decision” to part ways with Lofa Tatupu. By his own admission he was “gray” with his explanation of a decision that came down to the team wanting Tatupu to take a pay cut and the linebacker not being willing to do so.
“We had a few days of discussions and really mutually figured out that this was something that was going to work out,” Carroll said. “I’m kind of leaving you a little bit in a gray area. I’ve known Lofa since he was a young kid when (his father) Mosi brought him to SC years and years ago, and I’ve loved him ever sense. He’s a great kid and a great guy and an unbelievable competitor. We came to an understanding that this is a good thing, so on we go. We keep moving, and we wish him the very best. We’ll see where it goes and we’ll probably end up knocking heads together soon.”
Asked if the decision was harder given his connection with Tatupu going back to USC, he said: “I love Lofa. In following him and supporting him and coaching him and watching him grow up. Because this is a decision we agreed to, I support him in this. We helped him in this regard and he helped us. It’s just a mutual agreement that we made that we both feel good about.”
Tatupu’s departure means David Hawthorne takes over the starting job at middle linebacker.
“David Hawthorne is ready, he’s been ready,” Carroll said. “When Lofa got hurt a couple of years ago, he took over for quite some times. . . He’s ready for this opportunity. One of the first things I did was to go to David and talk to him and say, ‘This is what you’ve been waiting for, this is your chance to do it.’ I think he’s going to do a very good job at that.”
Asked more about the Tatupu’s decision, particularly how the team is better for making the move, Carroll was again, um, “gray” in his answer:
“Because we’ve agreed to respect the situation, I think it’s a good thing for us. I don’t know that anybody else sees it that way, but I know that Lofa and I do. We feel very good about this time, and I’m wishing him the best and he’s wishing us the best.”
“The timing was to give him every opportunity to make sure he could take advantage of the time frame right now with free agency being wide open. It just made sense as we talked through it.”
Asked how the team came to the decision to part ways with Tatupu, Carroll said:
“I’m not going to take you into the details of that, but it was a few days of talking and really good conversations and putting things in perspective and recognizing that it’s going to take some time to figure it out and make some sense and see what was best. I love Lofa as a football player and like him on our football team, and I told him that. I was really clear about that, that he’s done a tremendous job and he’s still a tremendous football player, but under the circumstances right now, it was just the right thing to do to let him go ahead and hit it and see what happens and see where it goes from there.”
Confused? You’re not alone.
One other linebacker note, Carroll said that, once free agents are allowed to start practicing Thursday, Leroy Hill will be the front runner to take over the weakside linebacker spot. Rookie Malcolm Smith, a seventh-round pick, will also be in that competition. Hill was Seattle’s starting linebacker from 2005-2009, then missed all of last season with an Achilles injury.
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