Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was viewed as a failure -- and even a joke -- as an NFL coach in the 1990s, getting fired by the Jets after the 1994 season and by the Patriots after the 1999 season. But now Carroll is in the Super Bowl with the Seahawks, and he says those experiences shaped him into the coach he is now.
“It really took me getting fired a couple times, getting kicked in the butt, to get to where I am now,” Carroll said this morning. “It’s taken some shots to get here, but it’s a tremendous time for us now.”
Carroll added that he views himself as the same kind of positive, upbeat coach now that he always was, but he has figured out a better way to run an entire program the way he wants.
“I personally don’t think I’ve changed that much, I’ve just grown and learned,” Carroll said.
Asked how he got from his second NFL firing to where he is today, Carroll answered, “That’s a long story. . . . I don’t even know where to begin to answer that question.”
It’s been a long journey, but Carroll is now widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the NFL. Not many people would have predicted that 15 years ago.
