Pete Carroll gets more out of football players by seeing more than football players
He wins not with Belichick-ian strategy and rigid leadership. Carroll’s superpower is that he is all over the place and comfortable being that way. Such agility enables him to be a shape-shifter, a coach who prefers to customize himself to tap into the diverse personalities and talents of his roster.
During the Seahawks’ back-to-back Super Bowl runs five years ago, the concept was celebrated. Carroll’s style allowed Marshawn Lynch to be both an enigma and a dependable driving force. He unleashed big personalities such as Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Earl Thomas and Doug Baldwin. He helped a 5-foot-11 quarterback named Russell Wilson grow into a superstar and gave middle linebacker Bobby Wagner the freedom to find his voice on a defense full of big mouths. Those Seahawks were the craziest chemistry experiment in sports, and they won for a long time even though the potential for combustibility was always evident.
Then, when age and ego forced them to break up, Carroll adjusted a little but kept the same humanistic approach, and the Seahawks rebuilt themselves without suffering a losing season.
“It may look different than how other guys look at it, maybe because of the way we embrace the individual and how we celebrate the uniqueness of what somebody offers to our program,” Carroll said in a recent interview. “It doesn’t matter where you come from or what’s your color or your background, your religion, none of that stuff matters. Once you get to us, we’re looking at who you are, and in that environment, it becomes rich in exchange. And I think rich in the sense that people do care about you. In that, you wind up breaking down some barriers, and you’re more open to be part of the team and connected, and I think we can connect deeper in that regard.”
Do you see how it applies to society at large? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we paused during tense moments, took an extra look at a person and simply saw a human being? What if we celebrated all the textures of our humanity instead of giving all the power to symbols, statues and rigid beliefs?
Would wearing a mask and avoiding large gatherings feel like such a hassle if we trusted that our leaders could juggle our personal best interests and the greater good?
The ability to persevere cannot be assumed or forced. It must be inspired. And it must be nurtured. For all of their individuality, the Seahawks have fought long and hard together — Bill Belichick once marveled at their knack for doing so — because their coach believes so much in human connection.
“It’s about being vulnerable to each other,” Baldwin, the retired wide receiver, once explained to me. “You have this team of alpha males with chips on their shoulders, and it’s easy to let pride, ego or whatever get in the way. But when you’re vulnerable to each other, it opens up the communication. You’re free to be honest. You have fun again. You appreciate that you can’t do this alone and that you wouldn’t want to do this with any other group of men. The enthusiasm takes you back to your strengths, and it all comes from recognizing that being vulnerable isn’t a weakness. It’s human.”
Carroll and Michael Gervais, a high-performance psychologist who works with the Seahawks, co-founded the business Compete to Create seven years ago, aiming to help people and organizations function at their best. Their latest venture is the Audible Original “Compete to Create: An Approach to Living and Leading Authentically,” which details a lot of Carroll’s approach.
“It’s a working laboratory,” Gervais said of the Seahawks’ work culture. “What would happen if a world-class coach was able to create an environment where people could do their very best work and it was a resource to help them train their mind toward that end?”
Make no mistake, Carroll is teaching football. And he loves simply coaching ball. But he is also the student who, at the University of Pacific, studied Abraham Maslow’s self-actualization theories for his master’s thesis. Through football, Carroll is applying a lifetime of loose thoughts and natural instincts. His relationship with Gervais gives shape to his intuitive methods.
Carroll’s philosophies are rooted in humanistic psychology. He considers competition the central theme of his program, but really, it’s humanness. He wins from the inside out: The players shape his strategy. By NFL standards, his tactics are simple, but the intricacies and layers come from the kind of talent he and General Manager John Schneider seek: often unconventional, with an eye toward outstanding, uber-specific traits over bodies of work.
Some moments can be nasty and confrontational, managing egos and keeping a strong-minded team united through turbulence. After a leg injury in his final game as a Seahawk, Thomas flipped the bird at Carroll as he was carted off the field. Sherman has had pointed words for his coach since leaving for San Francisco. Many of these endings are ugly, but Carroll doesn’t change. And he keeps winning.
Ask Carroll about a bizarre offseason of social distancing, and he keeps using “rich” to describe the experience. Like all NFL coaches, he had to teach an entire offseason program via Zoom video calls, but he looks at the rewards over the obstacles. He feels a deeper connection has been established with this team. He tells stories of heartfelt conversations about heavy topics such as racial inequality and Zoom moments that might have been more powerful than in-person interactions.
Carroll keeps thinking about his players’ faces on that computer screen and how clearly he could see them.
“You never would have thought that this medium would have done some good here, but there’s something about the fact that a guy is sitting in front of the screen, and his face is on the screen, and everybody’s looking at him, and he’s telling us what he thinks and feels,” Carroll said. “I’ve thought about this a number of times: It’s different than being in a room together when you’re sitting with guys behind you and you can’t see them. This is one on one, and you’re showing us exactly who you are. It’s just been an amazing time.”
Coaching ball is messy. But the same has been said about democracy. There is no painless way to operate. But there is a human way, a way Carroll and the Seahawks exemplify.
It has helped the franchise maintain a winning record for eight straight seasons. Wonder what it could do, at a higher level, for a nation desperate for vision and unity.
