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As the Seattle Seahawks prepare to take on the Arizona Cardinals today in the regular season finale, Fox NFL’s Jay Glazer mentioned on air that it could be Pete Carroll’s final game at the helm for the Seahawks.
@JayGlazer saying that #Seahawks HC Pete Carroll *may* retire at the end of the season. Says decision is up to him.
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) December 31, 2017
Obviously Seattle fans would hate to see Carroll retire, as he has brought an era of unsurpassed success with him to the team, but the challenges of managing the locker room and handling the egos in the locker room may have worn Pete down. If Carroll is indeed tiring of the grueling slog of being an NFL football coach and if he has pondering retirement for some time, it could help explain some of the moves the team made this season in terms of building the roster for one final run at the Lombardi.
While John Schneider has been proactive in attempting to improve the roster through trades in the past, making trades to acquire Pro Bowl players like Percy Harvin and Jimmy Graham, he took his activities to a new level this season. In less than nine weeks in September and October Schneider went out and got a Pro Bowl defensive tackle in Sheldon Richardson and a Pro Bowl left tackle in Duane Brown. While Pete was not shy to point out during a radio interview that the acquisitions have not worked out exactly as the team had hoped, that does not change the fact that the team definitely appeared to many to be going all in for the 2017 season.
Is the report premature or misleading? Here is the full quote from Glazer:
Before anyone jumps the gun on a headline, this was Glazer's actual quote on Carroll while running through a segment on all coaches:
— Stacy Jo Rost (@StacyRost) December 31, 2017
"It's gonna be Pete's decision whether or not he moves on, they could be in a rebuilding year here, but Pete may or may not actually retire."
UPDATE:
With speculation whirling, Carroll himself weighed in.
People talking about retirement... I ain’t old enough to think about retiring!
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) December 31, 2017
In any case, whenever Carroll does retire it will mark the end of an era for the Seahawks, with the torch being passed to whoever Paul Allen names as Carroll’s successor. Regardless of what Pete decides in the future, the Seahawks still have a game Sunday against the Cardinals, and pending the outcome of the game between the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons, could have more football left to play this season.