When the Los Angeles Rams announced the dismissal of head coach Jeff Fisher on Monday, it had an immediate impact on the Seattle Seahawks, as the Rams come to Seattle to face the Seahawks on Thursday. However, many are wondering whether Fisher’s firing might have a long-term effect on the Seahawks, too.
The past couple days there’s been a fair amount of speculation from the national media about whether Seattle coach Pete Carroll could be the next head coach of the Rams. Carroll has deep ties to Los Angeles dating back to his days as the head coach at USC from 2000-09, when he turned the Trojans to the biggest thing in town. Could L.A. lure Carroll away from Seattle?
Carroll was asked about that by the Los Angeles media on Tuesday. His response:
Pete Carroll, when asked if he'd rule out any chance he'd want to coach the Los Angeles Rams: "Yes."
— Jack Wang (@thejackwang) December 13, 2016
Of course, one wouldn’t expect any other answer in the middle of the season, especially in the week before the Seahawks face the Rams. So don’t consider this definitive.
However, it’s also worth noting what Carroll would be giving up. Carroll and general manager John Schneider have built the Seahawks into one of the model franchises in the NFL, capable of being a Super Bowl contender on an annual basis. Seattle has a young franchise quarterback in Russell Wilson, as well as a host of defensive stars tied down to long-term contracts. Because of the way he works with Schneider, Carroll has a tremendous amount of influence in personnel decisions compared to other NFL coaches. And he just signed a contract extension this offseason.
Would Carroll, at 66 years old, be willing to give all that up to start over from scratch in Los Angeles, with a franchise that hasn’t had a winning record since 2003, and not knowing how much control he’d have over personnel matters? At this stage, maybe we should take Carroll at his word.
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