Pete Carroll, not just another football coach. Are you listening Nick Saban and Urban Meyer?
So okay, I’ve been a USC Trojan football fan since I was about 5-years old. Even before I escaped first grade at Western Avenue Elementary, my older brother Jay had me totally geared up in Cardinal and Gold.
And thanks to my parent’s sacrifices and support, I actually had the opportunity to attend, what was then, the top dental school in the country. And USC was only about 20-blocks away from the first home I’d ever known.
I have to tell ya, from the first time I met Coach Pete Carroll over at Brookside Park golf course back in 2001, I’ve been a fan.
Stuff like winning 34 straight on the way to national championships is fun stuff. There were times during Pete’s reign when traveling out to Notre Dame and living out my own dream, I could almost sense my late-brother tagging along for the glorious ride.
It was one thing living my favorite childhood obsession but it was off-the-charts inspiring to see the kind of leadership that could leap out of the box and into the community in the form of A Better LA.
And I’ll admit when Pete left to the NFL with double the money and just ahead of the NCAA posse, I typed out “Old Hypocrite” more than once.
Pete’s three basic rules were protect the team, be early, and no whining. I had a hard time accepting Carroll walking the talk regarding his own rule #1. LA crime Novelist Michael Connelly’s signature character, Detective Harry Bosch, doesn’t believe in coincidences…and neither did I.
But there was one credo that I knew Pete Carroll had followed; it was “…something great is always just around the corner.” And when you’re paid to coach sports, there’s always a corner; it’s not if you’re gonna be fired, it’s when.
And I’m not sayin’ that when Pete moved on to Seattle; I didn’t want to see the Seahawks go 0-16.
About a year after Carroll’s escape to the Northwest, I started thinking (and a year to start thinking isn’t that long for me.) And I thought: people who don’t use floss have a life span shortened by some seven years. Mostly because of Pete, I hadn’t missed a home game at the LA Coliseum in seven years…and I cheered the Trojans on to seven straight BCS Bowl games and seven straight conference championships…not to mention the seven years straight USC had been ranked in the Top Five at the end of the season. I’d traveled to South Bend four times and shared the time of my life with family and friends. Shucks, we even did our own little part in supporting A Better LA. I could almost see my big brother smiling.
So today, the Seahawks rallied late to miraculously win the NFC title and a spot in the Super Bowl. At the game’s end, I saw professional athletes crying and players and fans acting and feeling like kids again, emulating the 63-year old kid who had once again found something great waiting right around the corner.
He may have pissed me off and even, to some extent, broken my heart. I called him a hypocrite and thought he was, after all, maybe just another typical opportunist. But I floss every single day because I’d hate to miss another one of those special seven years. And one thing’s for sure; Coach Pete Carroll is what a leader looks like.
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