The Seahawks tried to create the impression that the departure of coach Pete Carroll and mutual and amicable. It was neither.
Carroll made that clear the day it happened, explaining that he fought to stay in the job from the podium at the team’s press room.
On Friday, he appeared on Seattle Sports radio to elaborate on the events that led to the ouster. Along the way, he made it clear that his fate was determined by those who don’t know football.
As explained by Brady Henderson of ESPN.com, it came up when Carroll was addressing efforts to turn around a team that missed the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.
"[W]hat is the essence of the adjustments that are necessary?” Carroll said. “That’s where maybe we don’t see eye to eye on, because I see it one way and I think I’ve got a way to fix it and I’m not going to kind of halfway fix it. I’m trying to fix it so it’s perfect. I’ve got real precise and specific thoughts, and they may not see it 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.
“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 one of the fundamental disconnects that arise for most teams. Someone who doesn’t know football is making football decisions.
Apply that to any other business. People who don’t know the core subject matter of the industry making key decisions about it. It’s lunacy.
In the NFL, it’s commonplace.
