Wow.
http://www.esquire.com/features/pete-carroll-1009
Different than Bill Walsh. But he somehow reminds of Walsh. The California air. Casual but nevertheless cool. Carroll is much more loosely wired. The deep attention to detail, according to their own values, what they want from athletes.
ADD apparently, as is his son, nicknamed BC.
Some excerpts from this long article ...
At a press conference ...
"There's something I want to say before we get rolling," Carroll said gravely, causing Jackson's pearly smile to wither. "We have members of the media here" — the emphasis his — "that we're really happy to have." He rolled his eyes theatrically, issued a large fake smile.
Big laugh from the crowd.
"So we have to be careful and respectful of all the issues that are about," he continued. "We want to respect the media... and not tell them a thing!"
Hoots and laughter.
"Let's introduce them," Coach Floyd said archly, warming to the game. In the grip of his viscous southern accent, the idea sounded ominous.
"Honestly," Carroll said, addressing the crowd with all earnestness, "we can't talk about everything. So you can ask great questions... and we'll answer the ones we like."
"Only the ones we like," Floyd added, a dead man sitting in a director's chair. He seemed to sense it.
"As a matter of fact," Carroll said to Jackson, puffing himself up lampoonishly, "that first question you asked? I'm not frickin' answering it."
Huge laugh, followed by applause.
"Big Balls Pete!" chanted the rowdy guys in the back.
"We both have ADD," Brennan says. "We're weird. It probably helps more than it hurts, being a little off the wall. In this profession there probably aren't a whole lot of people who would pattern their styles after the way he is, and now I'm the junior version of that."
"One day I was home in my office," Carroll told the group. "I was reading one of coach John Wooden's books. Of course I knew his story about UCLA, the great basketball program, and all that stuff, but I was reading it to confirm — well, I don't know why exactly I was reading it. Let's face it, I'd just been fired. I had plenty of time on my hands.
"I got to the point in the book where he said that he was in his sixteenth year at UCLA before he won his first national championship. He'd coached other places before; he'd won Pac-10 championships, he had a great winning record. But as soon as I saw that, I smacked the book closed." He clapped his hands together; the loud sound had a startling effect on the rapt crowd. "*poop*. It hit me just like I got punched right in the forehead!
"Once he got it, he just nailed it. Once he figured out what was right for him, how to engineer his program in the way that best exemplified his philosophy, nobody could touch him. He wins nine of the next eleven championships, and then he retires, just goes off into basketball heaven. How beautiful is that?
"And then I thought, Oh, crap, it took him sixteen years. And I don't even have a job. I better get my act together. I started working that moment. I got a notebook out and started writing. I asked myself: What is my philosophy, what is my approach? And I came up with the thought that if I was going to describe me, the first thing I'd say is I'm a competitor. Just one simple line. I'm a competitor. That's my whole life since I was three, four years old. I tried to beat my big brother in every game we played. All of his friends would just laugh at how hard I'd try. I'd be fighting and scratching and crying and whatever it took, from the time I was a little kid. Reading Wooden, I realized: If I'm gonna be a competitor, if I'm ever going to do great things, I'm going to have to carry a message that's strong and clear and nobody's going to miss the point ever about what I'm all about.
"From there, the next thought that came to mind was Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead."
Carroll stopped at the podium again. He surveyed the crowd. Everyone was expecting a joke... but none came.
"Jerry Garcia said that he didn't want his band to be the best ones doing something," Carroll explained slowly, wanting the words to sink in. "He wanted them to be the only ones doing it. To be all by yourself out there doing something that nobody else can touch — that's the thought that guides me, that guides this program: We're going to do things better than it's ever been done before in everything we do, and we're going to compete our ass off. And we're gonna see how far that takes us."
"Let's come out of our shoes today on these kids, man," he told his staff. "Let's just coach the sh** out of these guys. I want lots of enthusiasm. I want you frickin' screamin' and yellin' and makin' 'em feel it. Make it memorable — but don't abuse anybody."
He swiveled around and looked over the top of his reading glasses. "What do you got for me?"
Tell me about your parents, I said.
Carroll frowned. "Nobody really gets into too much of that. We're pretty private."
Did your dad like sports?
"My dad was a great fan."
Was he an athlete?
"A little bit. He was a good golfer and stuff like that. But he was real competitive. And really smart. It was hard to beat him in anything, you know, he was really tough. He was kind of brash and all that. A good man, though, a really good man. A good average guy."
How about your mom?
"My mom was really cool. She's the one that gave me the mentality about believing in myself and trusting it, that I was always gonna be okay and that I could do things in a special way. She just pumped me up, you know?"
Were you always a good athlete?
"I was the best guy, you know, all through Little League and Pop Warner and that kind of stuff. But when I went to high school, I was undersized. I didn't grow. I was behind the whole puberty cycle. I didn't like high school. I was always pissed because I wasn't who I wanted to be — the person I knew myself to be just wasn't happening. At one time I was the best. And then in high school — *poop*. I looked like the mascot in the frickin' team picture.
"When I went to junior college, it started happening for me. And when I finally got to Pacific, my first year I made the all-conference team, I was captain, all that *poop*. It was like I had a chip on my shoulder. I had something to prove; I was gonna prove it to everybody. I've lived that way ever since."
Not quite from the cookie cutter. He is for sure very different. I am a big fan.
..........
I especially like what he has done with "A better LA," and "A better Seattle," working to get away from gang culture.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.
Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.
Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.