Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll met with the media Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press briefing and discussed the passing of Seahawks owner Paul Allen and the status of the team during its one and only bye week.
On what the passing of Paul Allen
“We’ve all been deeply moved by the sudden passing of our owner, Paul Allen. We’re still in the midst of dealing with all of the emotions and the concerns and all that come to you immediately at a time like this. Around here, we’re all hanging together and staying really close and just making sure that we’re doing all of the things that we need to do to carry on and really maintain the effort and the spirit that Paul always stood for, which is extraordinary achievement, extraordinary idealist, keep pushing always to do great things. I feel fortunate that we’re the ones that get to carry on the message in that regard.
We have this extraordinary way to connect with the people in our area through our play and sometimes sports just serves a (purpose) perfectly when you need it and this is a good time for this. This was a great man and an extraordinary guy to work with and compete with and a good friend and all of that. The families and everybody, our hearts go out to everyone and we’ll miss every aspect of our relationship. With that, we miss a good friend.”
On What it was about Paul Allen that motivated him to leave USC for Seattle
“He was able to pass along the spirit that now we know, of wanting to go for it and kind of no-holes-barred and he was going to clear it for us to have a great chance to do great things. He wanted to win championships and that’s what he was all about. He wasn’t going to let anything get in the way and he was really clear about that.
The message that came through was really one that I hadn’t heard in that fashion with that commitment and that spirit of it. That’s what made it even possible to even be in the conversation about it. Tod Leiweke was really the one that passed along the messaging at the time and reassured in a way that I trusted. I found trust early in that conversation, that relationship that became one that was so well-founded as I learned later on as we got together and really started going about it and battling together and doing the things that we needed to do to put the program together.”
On Paul Allen’s belief in people doing different embodying the Seattle Seahawks
“Well, we’ve been a little bit different around here. I couldn’t have loved the way that he embraced his liberal thinking, his openness, his zeal for the arts and fun and game and what was different and he didn’t want to be the same as everybody else. He wanted to do special, unique, extraordinary things and he appreciated – whenever we were going through whatever the phases that we’ve been through and the stuff that we’ve encountered over our years together, he was always supportive.
He was never embarrassed by something that a player would say or how they acted. He knew that there was a time and a place if we could deal with it properly. He always felt that there was ways that we could work our way through things if we were really resourceful. He was always helpful when necessary, so he was just a good dude and it was fun to do things with him. For me, I knew that I could free-wheel and figure out stuff and go for it and throw the ideas by him and almost always, he would have suggestions but always be in support of not trying to be like everybody else but trying to do things in a unique fashion and we fit very well together in that sense.”
On the team’s performance during week 6 in London against the Raiders
“It’s fun that we have a bye in this regard because we had so much fun there and it was such a good game for us. We get to kind of have some fun with it for a little bit longer. We’re just starting to move, and we can feel that happening. To have a nice game like that and go into a break, we kick into the last 10 games of the regular season as we start this thing up. This is a good time for us. We have very high hopes that we can keep getting better. We are just getting rolling. I’ll never not be frustrated by the way we started this season, but we’re moving. This is kind of how we’ve done it over the years and we got a chance to be a really nice team. Guys in this room know that, and their energy coming out of that game, they had a great time, it was a great locker room. We had a blast.”
On if he likes the way the pieces are falling into place with the roster changes from previous years.
“Very much so. I’m very familiar with feeling the focus that has been generated by the stuff that the coaches have been doing, turning our football and getting it together. Playing good defense and moving the ball on offense on the ground, kicking the ball well and playing good, solid football. That gets you a lot of success in any level of the game of football. There’s a real style about it where we can sense now. It’s one week at a time, we just need to keep riding that and see how far it takes us.”
