Meet the secret weapon behind the Seahawks’ head games

Doug Baldwin has come a long way both on and off the field since he joined the Seahawks. After entering the league as an undrafted free agent, he struggled with injuries and consistency, and recalls his first two seasons in the NFL as feeling like a “desperate time.”

Enter Seahawks sports psychologist Michael Gervais. Since then, Baldwin has emerged into one of the game’s elite receivers and a leading voice among players about social issues. Head coach Pete Carroll told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson about how important Gervais has been to not only Baldwin but the entire Seahawks team.

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Carroll said he had psychologists offering their services to the team for years but was never open to them – until he found the “right connection” with Gervais in around 2011.

“He just became one of our guys,” Carroll said. “We didn’t bring him in here to be the team psychologist. Somebody introduced him to me, we hung around for a while. … We just saw eye to eye on so many different issues. I thought we could carry on a great conversation as we were growing and let him just become part of the fabric of this team, and that’s what’s kind of happened. He’s a marvelous talent.”

Baldwin and Gervais spoke with ESPN’s Prim Siripipat about how he started working with Gervais at Carroll’s urging, learning to incorporate mental imagery and mindfulness techniques to bolster his physical training. The pair often meet several times a week to train his mind.

Carroll said he remembers Baldwin returning his second year after working out all offseason with former Seahawks WR Ricardo Lockette.

“They overtrained, over-tried, got over-psyched,” Carroll said. “They came into camp and they were tight as a drum. They were so over-ready that they really struggled. Both of those guys struggled. They struggled mentally and physically and they just tried too hard and worked too hard in the offseason and put too much pressure on themselves.

“I’ll never forget how far off he was. He was not even close to the athlete he was the year before and then during the course of the season he got back and kind of smoothed things out and he got going again.”

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Carroll said Baldwin is a prime example of a player finding personal growth over the years.

“When you’re 21 years old coming out of college and they don’t know about the NFL,” he said. “There’s a lot of things happening in their lives and they are still maturing, they’re still getting their world together, and they still are, but they’ve come so far and it’s been so fun to watch them grow and become second contract guys and hit it big and have championships behind them and challenges and working at the top of their game, the top of their craft and dealing with all of that. It’s been just a marvelous journey to watch those guys and be part of that. Doug has come an enormous way.”

Carroll is known for his willingness to try new things, reading books written by inspirational coaches and authors, such as John Wooden and Angela Duckworth, over the offseasons. The entire team also participates in yoga. But finding a Baldwin Whisperer, Carroll kind of lucked into that one.

“I was not out to find a psychologist,” he said. “I’ve not ever really wanted to do that, but he’s just too good.”

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