RENTON — On January 12, 2010, Pete Carroll stood at a podium and talked about expectations.
“I hope that we can separate, that we can do things in a special manner,” Carroll said a day after being named the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. “And I hope we can do things better than they’ve ever been done before around here.”
Five years to the day later, Carroll was on that same stage at that same podium discussing his team’s latest playoff victory as well as Seattle’s upcoming NFC championship matchup with the Green Bay Packers.
Since that Tuesday five years ago, Carroll’s Seahawks have indeed done things better than they’ve ever been done around here. They have won three NFC West titles in five seasons, been to the postseason four times, have double-digit win totals in each of the past three, and most significantly, won the first Super Bowl title in franchise history.
“It’s gone great,” Carroll said when asked to reflect on his five years in Seattle. “It has been an amazing experience to come here and embrace a whole new environment, a whole new culture of fans, the history of a club, and ownership and all of that. It’s been an incredible journey, it’s been so much fun — more fun than I ever could have imagined.”
Carroll admits now that he wasn’t sure five years ago if his new job could ever top his old one. At USC, Carroll built one of the most dominant programs in college football history. And while he wanted a chance to compete at the highest level of football, he didn’t know if he would ever recapture the magic he had in Los Angeles.
“I thought I could never top what had happened at SC, and what we’re in the middle of right now — the youth, the connection we have with our following, it’s so special,” Carroll said.
“I had thought I’d seen the top of it. We had won for so long; we won a lot of games there, a lot of games in a row, and did a lot of stuff, how could you hope to hit it again? I’ve been around coaching a long time — it’s hard to do that and it’s rare when it happens. So it just feels like we’re very, very fortunate that we’ve been able to find a way to put it together in this fashion.”
When Carroll was asked in 2010 how soon he thought the Seahawks could be contenders, he wouldn’t give a timetable, because the competitor in him wanted to win from day one. And when the Seahawks became one of the NFL’s top teams in 2012, then champions a year later, he didn’t pat himself on the back for the quick turnaround of a franchise that had been 9-23 in the previous two seasons before his arrival, because in his mind, the winning hadn’t come soon enough.
But with his team one home victory away from becoming the first team in a decade to play in back-to-back Super Bowls, Carroll couldn’t help but reflect on how well things have gone in the five years since he stood on a stage in a navy blue suit and silver tie talking about a new job that he believed presented “an extraordinary opportunity.”
Back then, Carroll talked about how he had changed since his previous tenure in the NFL, saying, “I know so much more clearly where I’m coming from than I did then. I was not at my best in New York. I can’t tell you how far away I was then. I was not at my best in New England.”
Five years later, Carroll is at his best, and the Seahawks have benefited in a big way.
“This is as good as it gets, so I’m thrilled about it,” he said. “If you would have asked me in the middle of it, I would have said that it’s taking too long, because I’m extremely impatient. But now as you look back, OK we kind of washed out the first couple of years trying to get it going.
“And we’ve had the opportunity to really experience the best of the NFL. Our guys are really getting the full experience of it. It’s wonderful to see these guys growing up, and find out what this thing is all about.
“It’s about the hard work and the sacrifice and the giving to one another, and what you can get out of that when you really give of yourself. It’s been a wonderful experience for all of us and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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