Pete Carroll has, for almost the entire 21st century, been an icon of positive thinking, a leader masterfully deploying the human potential theories popularized in a previous generation. That has served him remarkably well as head coach of the USC Trojans and Seattle Seahawks, as he remains one of only three coaches ever to win a college football national championship and a Super Bowl. Now a Seahawks franchise that was supposed to be in rebuilding mode has exceeded initial expectations to return to the playoffs in a wild-card game against the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday afternoon.
Yet a surprising number of people within the Seahawks’ loyal fan base have been grumbling lately about whether their legendary coach has lost his touch and become overly cautious in his game management and decision-making. As the Seattle Times’ outstanding and level-headed Seahawks beat writer Bob Condotta observed this week:
Let’s remember for a moment that most fans are psychopaths, at least within the context of assessing their favorite teams’ places in the universe. They hate the refs, they hate rival players, they hate the league officials, but above all they’ll turn on their own heroes and tear them apart the moment they seem to be holding the team back from greater success.
Still, some of the frustrations here are understandable and legitimate. Experts, many versed in big-data analytics and probabilities, can point to ways in which Carroll’s game management has seemed unusually risk-avoidant this year, in tangible ways that helped drop the Seahawks from potentially the No. 1 seed in the NFC to the fifth seed.
Pete Carroll may be taking fewer risks these days; but his style is less different from yesteryear ... [+]
In his USC heyday, fans nicknamed Carroll “Big Balls Pete” for his willingness to go for it on 4th down with multiple yards to go if his offense was on the opponent’s side of the field. Yet even with one of the game’s elite quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and a power running attack that Carroll prides himself on, he now frequently elects to attempt field goals or punt in such situations, occasionally with counter-productive, game-turning results.
And so the whispers and the occasional shouts rise among fans and journalists: Is the 68-year-old Carroll, the oldest coach in the NFL, no longer at the top of his game? Has time made him less willing to tolerate risk, has past success made him too complacent and not as hungry as he used to be?
He indeed seems to have grown less eager to take chances and less willing to try to step on an opponent’s throat when an opportunity arises, content to try to grind out a heart-stoppingly close victory. But a little context is in order. For one thing, Carroll isn’t that different today from yesteryear.
Consider how a Bleacher Report columnist suggested that Carroll was wearing out his welcome because his absolute power in the organization had made him stubborn and arrogant … back in 2011. Or how sportswriter Jerry Brewer argued that Carroll’s conservatism was ruining his team’s prospects for success … all the way back in January 2014, just a few weeks before Seattle’s decimation of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Carroll’s two most famous decisions were certainly not conservative: He chose to go for it on 4th-and-2 in USC’s national title game matchup against Texas, and to pass the ball in vain at the end of Super Bowl XLIX.
Yet apart from an occasional riverboat-gambler moment and beyond his cheerful, anything-is-possible attitude, he has always displayed a conservative sensibility. His football foundation has always consisted of not turning the ball over on offense and on not giving up the big play on defense. That’s the essence of risk-avoidance, as conservative as a navy suit.
And the larger truth is that long-term leaders in any field do tend to be conservative. (Even a long-term leader who is politically liberal will generally be conservative in temperament and style).
As the aviation quip goes, there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old and bold pilots. So it is with leaders.
And this is especially so among football coaches, who often feel more comfortable failing with conventional strategies than attempting to succeed with novel ones. A host of new-breed coaches are more daring than Carroll; but let’s see if they in a decade can match Carroll’s resume, or if they go in the direction of one-time nemesis Jim Harbaugh.
So, yes, Pete Carroll is conservative, and yes, he may be getting more so with time. Like all successful leaders, he carries a particular mix of sometimes-infuriating quirks and wondrous strengths (like his boundless energy, optimism and ability to build a positive, resilient organizational culture). Fans do well to remember to take the downs with the ups, because you can’t swap out leaders without losing much or all of the good.
Yet for those who cheer on Carroll (including those of us here who have long held him up as a model for contemporary leadership) we can’t help but hope, as he approaches the final years on his contract, that he tosses caution to the wind a bit more often. It could well make the difference between winding down his glorious career with wild-card round exits or Super Bowl appearances.
