Lol this narrative that Pete Carrol is a young 67

[primetime]

Carroll looks and acts young, but he coaches like someone who the game passed by a few years ago.

This article is very, very good:

The Dynasty That Never Was: Inside the Unraveling of the Seattle Seahawks

 

[Kontradiction]

He'll eventually get and look aged. That job is something else. The actual act of coaching football players is easy. The game of football is easy to learn. What's tough about it is the sheer amount of hours they have to put in on a day to day basis. 12-16 hour days are not uncommon.

 

[primetime]

He'll eventually get and look aged. That job is something else. The actual act of coaching football players is easy. The game of football is easy to learn. What's tough about it is the sheer amount of hours they have to put in on a day to day basis. 12-16 hour days are not uncommon.

The actual X's and O's theory of coaching is relatively easy, though the how often it gets ****ed up suggests to me that the people who end up coaching are rarely the cream of the crop. The exceptions, the cream of the crop who do stick with it, are glaringly obvious - the Belichicks and Sabans of the world, and those guys are all... unique personalities. Others are driven off by the hours and the horribly ****ty pay for everyone but the top 0.1% of the profession, so you're just left with the best of the dregs rising to the top.

I would take issue with the idea that coaching football players is necessarily easy, though. Even in the NFL, it's like being a teacher to 50+ manchildren in their 20s who have been coddled and told they're the best their entire lives (or, for college coaches, an even worse thing - 90 undergraduates, who are basically sub-human as a general rule even when they're not the big men on campus). That's enough to drive most people who could excel out of the profession, and enough to give the rest of the profession premature gray hair. Unless you're Pete Carroll, who just lets his favorite player run the team.

 

[PP2]

He had a very talented team in Seattle and had to break it up because he lost the players over one SB call and the coddling of his QB. That's stunning to me.

This is an absolutely great article about exactly that:

Richard Sherman won't let go, and it's a problem

This is why BB has always drafted character over talent, and why this board hates his drafting philosophy so much, but it does work over the long run when you draft players with high character.

He wants players who can bounce back after a mentally crushing play.

 

[Kontradiction]

The actual X's and O's theory of coaching is relatively easy, though the how often it gets ****ed up suggests to me that the people who end up coaching are rarely the cream of the crop. The exceptions, the cream of the crop who do stick with it, are glaringly obvious - the Belichicks and Sabans of the world, and those guys are all... unique personalities. Others are driven off by the hours and the horribly ****ty pay for everyone but the top 0.1% of the profession, so you're just left with the best of the dregs rising to the top.

I would take issue with the idea that coaching football players is necessarily easy, though. Even in the NFL, it's like being a teacher to 50+ manchildren in their 20s who have been coddled and told they're the best their entire lives (or, for college coaches, an even worse thing - 90 undergraduates, who are basically sub-human as a general rule even when they're not the big men on campus). That's enough to drive most people who could excel out of the profession, and enough to give the rest of the profession premature gray hair. Unless you're Pete Carroll, who just lets his favorite player run the team.

To me, it’s just like managing people in an office. All have different personalities and all have different buttons you need to press to get the most out of them. Some respond more to harsh criticism while others need to be coddled a bit and have their accomplishments praised a bit more. But since that’s what I do for a living, I guess I’m more apt to say that I don’t think it’s all that hard.

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

He chews gum him like a 53 yr old. Amazing how fast those choppers move

 

[primetime]

To me, it’s just like managing people in an office. All have different personalities and all have different buttons you need to press to get the most out of them. Some respond more to harsh criticism while others need to be coddled a bit and have their accomplishments praised a bit more. But since that’s what I do for a living, I guess I’m more apt to say that I don’t think it’s all that hard.

Except the people in the office are overgrown maladjusted children with millions of dollars.

 

[Le Numéro Douze]

To me, it’s just like managing people in an office. All have different personalities and all have different buttons you need to press to get the most out of them. Some respond more to harsh criticism while others need to be coddled a bit and have their accomplishments praised a bit more. But since that’s what I do for a living, I guess I’m more apt to say that I don’t think it’s all that hard.

I am a manager as well and I'd say the hardest part for me is not getting frustrated at idiots. Most people are idiots, unfortunately.

 

[borg]

BB knows all the tricks......grow the hair longer, pack on a few extra pounds , fatten up the face..... hide the wrinkles
Skinny Pete is a blend of Lou Holtz and the homeless guy on the A Train with Tourette's who craps next to his shopping cart.

 

[Deus Irae]

This is an absolutely great article about exactly that:

Richard Sherman won't let go, and it's a problem

This is why BB has always drafted character over talent, and why this board hates his drafting philosophy so much, but it does work over the long run when you draft players with high character.

He wants players who can bounce back after a mentally crushing play.

But if he hadn't been coddling the QB, players wouldn't have been so pissed about how things were being done. Reports talk about how many members of the team felt he had Wilson throwing down on the goal line so that he would be named the game's MVP, as opposed to running the ball and having Lynch end up with the award. So,

• Create a fiercely competitive, confrontational team style
• Openly exempt and protect your QB from that confrontational style
• Be seen as altering your game plan in a SB loss just to make your QB look good

That's more about the coaching "character" than about the players. And let's not kid ourselves, because BB has not always drafted character over talent, and he's certainly not always signed FAs, or made trades, that way.

 

[Simpelton]

He had a very talented team in Seattle and had to break it up because he lost the players over one SB call and the coddling of his QB. That's stunning to me.

By the time he broke the team up, a lot of them were aging and breaking down anyway.

Let's not forget that Carroll, despite his mistake in SB49, actually gave the Seahawks the only Superbowl they ever won. Sure he has a media-fueled boondoggle of epic proportions on his resume, but he also has a rather impressive Supberbowl win. So the insults thrown at him right now over his decision making in the closing seconds of SB49 are really a bit exaggerated and undeserved.

I mean how many people threw shade at the Rams guy for his defense breaking down in 2001? None really, because they won the championship the prior year in the One Yard Short game. Honestly I don't see the difference, one's a failure of offense, one's a failure of defense, in both cases the skill of the opponent has to be borne in mind, or at least so you'd think.

Frankly I think Bledsoe had a lot to do with those failed seasons under Carroll. And again -- lest we forget, Carroll got the Patriots to the Superbowl himself in 96.

He's a good coach. He's not a great coach, he got outcoached by the man, the myth, the legend, but he is a good coach, and the indisputable fact that he's well above the average for NFL head coaches is either a point in his favor or a real indictment of at least half the coaches in the league.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

BB just traded for Gordon. Character over talent?

 

[BradyFTW!]

The actual X's and O's theory of coaching is relatively easy, though the how often it gets ****ed up suggests to me that the people who end up coaching are rarely the cream of the crop. The exceptions, the cream of the crop who do stick with it, are glaringly obvious - the Belichicks and Sabans of the world, and those guys are all... unique personalities. Others are driven off by the hours and the horribly ****ty pay for everyone but the top 0.1% of the profession, so you're just left with the best of the dregs rising to the top.

I would take issue with the idea that coaching football players is necessarily easy, though. Even in the NFL, it's like being a teacher to 50+ manchildren in their 20s who have been coddled and told they're the best their entire lives (or, for college coaches, an even worse thing - 90 undergraduates, who are basically sub-human as a general rule even when they're not the big men on campus). That's enough to drive most people who could excel out of the profession, and enough to give the rest of the profession premature gray hair. Unless you're Pete Carroll, who just lets his favorite player run the team.

If you're going to sit here and try to tell me that Jeff Fisher isn't an extremely intelligent and insightful man, then I dunno how to process that.

 

[ivanvamp]

Frankly I think Bledsoe had a lot to do with those failed seasons under Carroll. And again -- lest we forget, Carroll got the Patriots to the Superbowl himself in 96.

Bill Parcells says, "Uh, what?"

 

[primetime]

If you're going to sit here and try to tell me that Jeff Fisher isn't an extremely intelligent and insightful man, then I dunno how to process that.

Imagine Jeff Fisher and Gregg Williams stamping on a human face, forever

While Mike Singletary rips off his pants in the background

 

[Soliel]

Close to what I call him. An old but young dirtbag

Two people arguing about artifact garbage. Look, it’s a million year old bunch of trash that only seems several hundred thousand years old. Isn’t that great? No

 

[PP2]

But if he hadn't been coddling the QB, players wouldn't have been so pissed about how things were being done. Reports talk about how many members of the team felt he had Wilson throwing down on the goal line so that he would be named the game's MVP, as opposed to running the ball and having Lynch end up with the award. So,

• Create a fiercely competitive, confrontational team style
• Openly exempt and protect your QB from that confrontational style
• Be seen as altering your game plan in a SB loss just to make your QB look good

That's more about the coaching "character" than about the players. And let's not kid ourselves, because BB has not always drafted character over talent, and he's certainly not always signed FAs, or made trades, that way.

I don't dispute the first point you make- that Carroll created an atmosphere of inequality, but his core players didn't have the necessary character, some sort of stability, to keep together through some difficult challenges.

Yes, BB takes a risk in drafting players or signing FA's with character questions, but IMO, he only does so because he knows he has very strong character in his locker room, core players that will keep order.

I think that BB sees that the player he signs or drafts, capable of being rehabilitated, or aren't necessarily bad, but just made a bad mistake at one point or another. They are for the most parts, literally kids.

But he does make mistakes- there are players that, even in the most structured organization in the NFL, do not rehabilitate or are very resistant. And occasionally there are sociopaths like Hernandez, who simply just cannot be rehabilitated.

 

[PP2]

BB just traded for Gordon. Character over talent?

I would say he believes or is taking a gamble, that Gordon can be rehabilitated in the most structured and disciplined organization in the NFL (as opposed to the animal house that is Cleveland).

If not, Gordon gets cut with a minimum of loss. We get a 7th if Gordon is not on the roster for at least 10 games.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I would say he believes or is taking a gamble, that Gordon can be rehabilitated in the most structured and disciplined organization in the NFL (as opposed to the animal house that is Cleveland).

If not, Gordon gets cut with a minimum of loss. We get a 7th if Gordon is not on the roster for at least 10 games.

BB does have a penchant for pissing away 5th round picks. I do agree that it isn't much of a loss as the 53rd player whose cut for him is unlikely to be the key to the SB. Ninkovich is against this move as he feels it sends a bad message to the team. Not having experience in the Pats locker room, I defer. FWIW I believe that Gordon will crash & burn even here. It's in his nature.
If instead he's key to the SB win, bookmark this post & have some fun in February!