Pete Carroll isn’t the type to shy away from his mistakes. And the Seattle Seahawks’ head coach was part of arguably the biggest blunder in Super Bowl history.
In the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX in February, despite trailing the New England Patriots 28-24, the Seahawks actually had the momentum. They drove to the 1-yard line and seemingly just needed a simple touchdown run from Marshawn Lynch to clinch the title.
But that’s not what happened.
With 26 seconds remaining, Russell Wilson’s pass, designated for Ricardo Lockette, was intercepted by rookie Malcolm Butler. There went the Patriots, escaping with the win, and the Seahawks, in Carroll’s words, “giving the game away.”
Some think it was the worst call in Super Bowl history. But Carroll won’t hide from it.
“Well, it’s real, you know, it happened,” Carroll told CNN’s Rachel Nichols. “So it’s there, you know, somewhere. So when the time is right and when it fits, you kind of call that up. I’ve been doing that for years.
“I’ve got a lot of games in my history that stay with me. But we have to put it in the right place because we have a lot of work to do. And our guys have turned their focus forward. You know, we were disappointed in the way it ended, of course, and we’re anxious to get back at it. They’re going to persevere and hang through anything. That’s the kind of people they are.”
Still, losing a Super Bowl that way could shatter most locker rooms. Wilson had a plan to try to keep that from happening.
In the off-season, according to Sports Illustrated, Wilson arranged for a trip to Hawaii to bond with 30 of his teammates after the Super Bowl loss. As part of the trip, Wilson had a bus take them to a spot near the edge of a cliff. There, Wilson and his teammates had what Wilson called a “heart-to-heart” talk.
The players aired their grievances from that game. The play call. The interception. The second-guessing. Some players said they believed that when Seattle opted to pass instead of handing off to Lynch, it was to make Wilson the Super Bowl hero. Wilson said he would throw to Lockette again. The talks also focused on their responsibility as teammates.
They got the lingering feelings off their chest. Then they threw that emotional baggage off the cliff.
Entering this season, Seattle once again is seen as an early Super Bowl contender. Wilson, who recently signed a four-year contract extension worth $87.6 million, is a reason for optimism for Seahawks fans. But Wilson has been fodder for Twitter as well. He started dating pop star Ciara. Rolling Stone reported — mocked? — that Wilson insisted that a “recovery water” helped him feel better after banging his head during the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers.
But does Carroll sound concerned? Nope. On the contrary, he has no desire to ask his quarterback to tone things down.
“No; I do want our guys to be who they are,” Carroll said. “Who do I want them to be like, somebody else? I want them to be exactly like they are.
“As we go through the challenges and the trials, there’s learning and teaching going on, and we’re trying to grow through it. But I think to make somebody something other than they are is the real mistake. Sometimes they have got to learn and we’ve got to learn as we go. We’ve been through a lot together, and our guys do have a lot of examples. They have a lot of strong people in this locker room that they can learn from and draw from, and Russell is one of those guys.”
The Seahawks play the Rams Sunday at noon (1 p.m. ET) in St. Louis.
