Roy Exum: Pete Carroll’s Philosophy

  • Friday, October 24, 2014
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Pete Carroll, the head football coach of the Seattle Seahawks, has a deep belief that he can change people by simply listening to them and then making suggestions on how they can get what they really want. If the people Carroll who can influence win, Carroll wins, and remember his team won last year’s Super Bowl with his methods.
 
When asked for example, here is what he told reporters this week. “OK, let me give you an illustration.
Let’s say, after all the stuff that we heard about what was going on in Iraq, we sent 10,000 people to Iraq as peacefully as we could go. And we walked wherever they would let us go, and we just talked to people and listened to what their issues were. And then we tried to figure out the best way we could support them and change things, as opposed to bombing [expletive] thousands of people with shock and awe,” he told the Seattle news media.
 
“It might have taken us longer to influence change, but nobody would’ve died. And the power that we could’ve generated by just being willing to listen and see if there was a way we could answer their call and help them, whatever they wanted. Not tell them what to do, not change them. Just help them go where they wanted to go. What if we had done that? How much money would that have cost us?” said the Seahawks coach.
 
“Give me a thousand peace workers that would go over and do that. Just listen and talk. Think of what we could’ve done, as opposed to killing hundreds of thousands of people whatever we did. And leave the wrath of what we did.”
 
* * *
When Lane Kiffin was head football coach at Tennessee, you will recall his dad, Monte, was on his staff in Knoxville. Tomorrow Lane will return to Neyland Stadium for the first time since his hasty departure and Lane’s mother has told CBS Sports she is worried about his life after seeing one note Lane shared with her.
 
“Lane sent it (a sketch) to me on a family group text. It was awful. That language is horrible. ... They never leave him alone. I don't see them picking on anybody else like that. That guy at Texas Tech (Mike Leach), he locked a quarterback in a shed and he gets another job. Are they still talking about that? No. The Arkansas guy (Bobby Petrino) gets caught on a motorcycle wreck with another woman and he gets another job. Are they talking about him? No,” said Robin Kiffin.
 
"I'm scared to death for his safety," she was sincere. "Some people were visiting us last weekend from Tennessee, and they said they better not let him on the sideline (where Kiffin coaches at Alabama), they should put him in the press box. I want him to be in the press box."
 
* * *
With thousands of athletes implicated in a scathing report of academic scandal at the University of North Carolina, a funny headline appeared in the Birmingham newspaper yesterday, “After the NCAA threw the book at Alabama, they should drop the library on Carolina!”
 
* * *
Agents from Homeland Security busted Honig’s Birdies Panties Shop in Kansas City this week after owner Peregrine Honig displayed royal blue panties she had designed especially for the ongoing World Series.
 
The briefs said, “Take The Crown” and had a big “KC” on the back but the federal agents said her design infringed on the team’s copyright. “They came in and there were two guys,” Honig told the Kansas City Star. “I asked one of them what size he needed and he showed me a badge and took me outside. They told me they were from Homeland Security and we were violating copyright laws.”
After confiscating all the panties, the agents told Ms. Honig to never do it again. “We just thought it was something funny we could do,” she said. “But it was so scary.”
Boy, you feel safer now, don’t you?
 
* * *
In 2008 Anthony Warren was involved in a high-speed car chase in Birmingham, Ala., before he was apprehended. During the chase he ran over a police officer, hit a school bus, and struck a patrol car before he was ejected from the vehicle.
 
A well-publicized video showed him being beaten and kicked as he lay on the ground and you’ll be glad to know that this week justice was done when the Birmingham City Council approved a settlement of $460,000 on Warren’s behalf.
 
According to Reuters, under the terms of the agreement Warren will get $1,000 and his lawyers will get $459,000. Warren is currently serving a 20-year sentence for running over the police officer (attempted murder) and his three lawyers have no additional comment.
 
* * *
Tomorrow is Jim Carver’s big day. His son, who now owns Greenlawn Funeral Home in Springfield, Mo., will scatter Jim’s ashes in a huge fireworks display before a cookout and a memorial celebration.
The ashes have been packed “very respectfully” into firecracker shells and as the pyrotechnics carry the remains skyward, Jim’s ashes will be carried by the winds far and wide. As a matter of fact, the funeral home offers a similar blast for clients, ranging from a $300 “Sensational Celebration” to a “Ultimate Goodbye” between $8,000 to $10,000.
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