Britt: Every new player that comes there goes: “Don’t go somewhere else. This is the best place.” And it truly was.
Malcolmson: For the New York Super Bowl, that was the first year our free-throw shooting contest really took off. We started to do it during almost every team meeting, and there was an in-season tournament. It really became part of the culture.
Kearse: We had a whole NCAA-style bracket with defense on one side and offense on the other side.
Malcolmson: That was Pete’s request when we went out to New York for the week before the Super Bowl: “Make sure there is a basketball hoop.” We landed on a Sunday night the week before the Super Bowl. By the time we got to the hotel, it was probably 9 or 10 at night. I was like, “I’ve got to go figure out this basketball hoop because we have a team meeting first thing in the morning at the Giants’ facility.”
Brown: There was always a genuine team-building purpose with everything.
Malcolmson: I borrowed a car, went to Walmart in a suburban New Jersey town, got a full-scale basketball hoop, one of those ones where you pour sand or water in the base, then drove to the Giants’ facility. By this point, it’s probably midnight, and I ended up finishing building the hoop at 3 a.m.
Chris Carlisle (strength coach): Tom Coughlin was the coach at the time, and all the Giants people were like: “What are you doing? No, you can’t bring that in. This is a meeting room. This is like church.”
Willson: I was nervous. I’m a rookie. We’re eight days out from the f—ing Super Bowl. Pete comes in, wheels in a f—ing basketball goal and is like: “I don’t give a sh– that it’s the Super Bowl, we’re doing the same thing we’ve always done, boys. In fact, we’re going to have an All-Star tournament with the best shooters of the year, and we’re doing Round 1 today.
Malcolmson: Just one of those crazy Pete things.
Willson: All the stress, everything — it just disappeared. It was like: “Alright, f— it, who gives a sh–? We’re in New York. It’s the same thing as home.”
Malcolmson: One camp, we did full introductions before the basketball shoot-off. Tyler Lockett came out in the dark to the Chicago Bulls’ intro music, with lasers and a fog machine in the team meeting room. We had a confetti machine and a trophy presentation. It was so dumb but so fun.
Kearse: Yeah, it was fun, but subliminally it was building a competitive edge. Even the rebounders took it serious.
Smith: That program has consistently been competitive because he knows how to get the most out of his players from an emotional standpoint.
DeeJay Dallas (running back): The night-before meetings are his favorite…
Malcolmson: He would want the worst conference room at the hotel on Saturday night. We had about 100 people, and he would try to find the dingiest, smallest room at the hotel.
Bellore: There’s literally no room for any extra person. That’s unique to here.
Malcolmson: Every time the hotel would be like: “We have this nice big ballroom.” And every time he’d be like: “No, no, I want this side conference room.”
Smith: He pays so much attention to the energy of rooms.
Carlisle: On the road, he’d come down to the weight room and go: “I just need to be around the players. I need to get that energy. I need to feel the team again.” (...)
Jason Peters (offensive line): He gives you himself. He’s speaking from the heart. That’s different from anywhere else I’ve been.
Drew Lock (quarterback): The way he tells stories, commands the room, my mouth was open the whole time, like, “I can’t believe I’m here listening to him give a pregame speech about a game we’re about to play tomorrow.”
Willson: We were playing a big game, and there was a bunch of media hype. He calls up Tyler Lockett and he has a chair. He’s like: “Do me a favor. Just stand on this.” He’s like: “Do you think you can just lift one leg up?” Lockett looks at him and lifts the leg up. He has him do all this stuff: “Do a spin, do a counter spin.” I’m like, “What the f— is going on?” Then he’s like: “OK, serious question. Was any of that hard?” Lockett’s like, “No, not at all.”
Malcolmson: Then he’s like: “What if I put this on the Empire State Building? Would you be able to do it then?” Of course, the answer is no way. He’s like: “But nothing’s different, nothing’s changed. It’s all just your surroundings.”
Willson: You’ve got to picture this is Pete Carroll’s voice, so it’s way more animated, and he’s like, “Tomorrow, we’re just playing f—ing football. Field’s the same size, football’s the same size, plays are the same. F— all this nonsense about what happens if the Seahawks lose. Go out and rip it.”
Britt: The motivational person he is, it’s unmatched.
Shead: Pete got the most juice of any coach, anybody in America.
by Michael-Shawn Dugar and Jayson Jenks, The Athletic | Read more:
[ed. See also: Pete Carroll’s vindication: How Seahawks’ 71-year-old coach proved he’s still got it (The Athletic)
