5 years later, pundits still eating crow for predicting Pete Carroll would fail with Seahawks

Five years ago this week, Seahawks owner Paul Allen took a shot on a head coach who had a stellar college career but a dismal track record that saw him fired by two different NFL teams.

Needless to say, it’s been a match made in heaven as Pete Carroll has the Seahawks one win away from a second-straight Super Bowl appearance.

That makes the anniversary of Carroll’s hiring in January of 2010 a joyous occasion for fans of the team, especially in light of the criticism heaped upon Carroll by some supposed insiders, who predicted he would crash and burn after leaving USC.

One commentary in particular gets passed around this time every year by fans relishing the opportunity to point out just how wrong ESPN.com writer Jeffri Chadiha was at the time.

In the widely circulated column, Chadiha called Carroll and the NFL a “lousy fit,” and said he would regret taking the Seattle job.

Chadiha was among a number of pundits who predicted Carroll’s unceasing enthusiasm would be rejected by jaded pro players who would quickly grow tired of his “rah, rah” “always compete” approach.

“Before you know it, that constant smile that has become Carroll’s trademark will be harder and harder to find,” Chadiha wrote in 2010.

The pundits compared Carroll to other successful college coaches who jumped to the NFL, struggled, and returned to the college ranks.

“He’s let his ego swell to the point that he can’t see his limitations anymore,” Chadiha wrote. “Being a mediocre head coach in the league (he was 34-33 in four seasons, including postseason play) only made him hunger for the best possible chance to return someday.”

But Chadiha and others completely misread Carroll’s capabilities. They failed to see how much he’d actually learned and grown from both his struggles with the New York Jets and New England Patriots, as well as his overwhelming success at USC, where he won two AP national championships and the 2005 BCS championship, finished in the top-four seven consecutive years, produced three Heisman Trophy winners and rang up a dominating 97-19 record.

The experts predicted he would fail because he didn’t understand pro players or organizations, and wouldn’t have the power he had at USC to completely shape a program. What they didn’t see was how Carroll’s demand for near-dictatorial control over the Seahawks would allow him to build a team unlike his previous NFL stints.

“Now that he’s back in the NFL, Carroll will eventually discover that plenty has changed since he left more than a decade ago,” Chadiha wrote. “The players have gotten bigger, faster, stronger and, yes, smarter. They’re probably better at recognizing a coach who isn’t ready to deal with all the challenges that come with leading grown men who make tons of money. And what Carroll hasn’t realized yet is that he’s still the type of guy who falls into that category.”

So all Carroll has done since his supposedly ill-fated hiring is completely remake what was a faltering franchise in his image. He and GM John Schneider made several hundred transactions in their first season alone. They traded for Marshawn Lynch and saw the Seahawks win the NFC West and upset the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs. They drafted the likes of Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner and a number of perennial All-Pros who’ve emerged as some of the best young players in the game. They’ve been to the playoffs three straight seasons. Oh, and they’ve won one Super Bowl championship and stand on the verge of a second.

Not bad for a guy who was such a “lousy fit.”

You can read Chadiha’s entire column predicting Carroll would quickly regret taking the Seattle job here.