Pete Carroll got down to business early on Tuesday.
This wasn’t sitting in on another free-agent visit for the Seahawks’ new coach, or even the latest in a seemingly endless gantlet of pre-draft meetings. Those necessary tasks would come later in the day. On this Tuesday morning, Carroll’s already jam-packed agenda started with a Q&A session over breakfast as part of the Business Journal Live series.
Before taking the stage to answer questions – first from Puget Sound Business Journal publisher Emory Thomas Jr. and then the audience of some 350 people – Carroll worked the banquet room at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. He shook hands. He posed for pictures. He was on the receiving end of a few shots because he coached the past nine seasons at the University of Southern California. But he also returned fire, good-naturedly and with a disarming smile.
This went on table after table, from end of the room to the other.
The charismatic Carroll is so adept at handling this type of appearance that he could give up his day job. But without it, he would not have attracted a crowd that large – or left the room to a standing ovation.
These weren’t college kids Carroll was cajoling; they were business leaders – many as successful in their chosen fields as Carroll is in his.
That’s why the line of questioning started with why he chose this time and this team to return to the NFL and meandered through his philosophy for success, how he handles not winning and his involvement in the community before finally getting to his priorities for turning a team that has won nine games the past two seasons into a consistent winner.
“All right, let’s get down to some football,” Carroll said, rubbing his hands together. “Enough of this philosophy crap.”
The room erupted with laughter, but Carroll is serious about this latest challenge in his career – one that has taken him from unfulfilled experiences in the NFL, to unprecedented success at USC, to the Seahawks.
Carroll explained that he and his mostly new staff have been evaluating the talent on the roster – first by watching video of the players from last season and then meeting with the players.
“It’s a process of just putting the mystery together of each kid, and how he fits into the program,” as Carroll put it.
“In doing so, we’ve got some issues,” he added.
Carroll then triggered more laughter when he offered, “If you look at our strengths, we have good kickers.”
Funny, perhaps, but definitely true. If punter 
Carroll also likes his linebacking crew and the work ethic of the players, which he credited to a carryover from Mike Holmgren’s successful 10-season tenure as coach.
“But we need to build on that,” Carroll said. “We need to bring in some firepower. We need to get some players who will score touchdowns for us and help us get the football in the end zone.
“But our overall approach is to play great defense and run the football.”
That was Carroll’s it’s-no-great-secret tactic for winning two national championships, seven consecutive Pac-10 titles and posting a 97-19 record at USC.
But it’s the foundation of his philosophy for – and approach to – being successful that transcends the sport where winning is the way you are judged.
As for Carroll’s answers, and retorts, to some of the other questions he fielded, it was understandable why Thomas referred to him as “A Man of All Seasons.”
On being known for his success, but how he handles losing: “Where’s this going?” Carroll cracked before the question could be completed. Once it was, he added, “This is my first time speaking in Seattle and this is where it’s going?”
Carroll then pointed out that he has been fired “a number of times” and moved 13 times in a career.
“With that, came all kinds of experiences and challenges,” he said.
On how discovering that John Wooden coached 16 years before the legendary UCLA basketball coach won his first national title – the first of what would be 10 in 11 seasons: “It was like getting slugged in the nose – again,” said Carroll, whose beak has been described as having as many zigs and zags as one of the more intricate pass routes in his playbook.
“Once he figured it out, he knew exactly what it took to put it all together in a way that best represented and illustrated what his approach and his philosophy is,” Carroll added of the man who was known as the “Wizard of Westwood.”
From losing, came winning. Not overnight, but after many, many nights of frustration. Of finally coming to that conclusion about his own career, Carroll said, “It was just a cathartic kind of experience.”
On living your philosophy, not just preaching it: “The central theme in our program is competition,” he said. “So you have to spread the word and get the mindset going in the right direction.
“To me, that’s not like a one-time session. It’s not like a speech that you give. It’s the way that you live. You illustrate it. The best example I can set is by living it.”
On whom his heroes are – a group that includes former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant and his high school coach, Bob Troppmann; but is topped by a former baseball player: “My earliest and all-time hero was Willie Mays,” said Carroll, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Carroll then told a story about playing in the Emerald Bowl last season, a game played at the Giants’ home stadium. Not the same stadium where Mays roamed centerfield, but close enough for Carroll.
“In the locker room, there are a lot of tributes to Willie Mays,” he said. “I felt like a little kid looking at the pictures and the stuff.
“After the game was over, the clubhouse manager from the Giants came in and said, ‘Here, Willie wants to talk to you.’ He handed me the telephone and I’m sitting there talking to Willie Mays. I felt like I was 10 years old – ‘Hey Willie, remember that time you beat the Dodgers?’ ”
On why now and why here, as far as getting back into the NFL: “I have no idea,” Carroll said. “It’s all Tod’s fault.”
That would be Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke.
After that round of laughter subsided, Carroll offered, “This is a thrilling opportunity, and I never lost my love for the challenge that is coaching in the NFL.”
