Seattle general manager signed up for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby before the Seahawks’ Super Bowl XLVIII clash with the Broncos at MetLife Stadium.
Q: Is there a difference between a John Schneider football player and a Pete Carroll football player?
A: Not a lot, no, that was the cool thing. Our philosophies matched very well.
Q: Define what your ideal football player is.
A: Our ideal football player is a smart, tough, reliable guy that’s gonna show up every day and be a pro. And that’s three quarters of the battle right there.
Q: Give me the one intangible trait that enabled Carroll to get through to the modern-day player.
A: That he knows who he is, and he has confidence in his philosophy on competition and thinking outside the box.
Q: In what way?
A: He never subscribes to the law of the land that this is the way it is, and this is what history tells you, and this is the way it’s gonna be.
Q: Ever shoot hoops with him?
A: Yeah, but he’s a much better basketball player than I am (smile). He doesn’t miss. He’s a great guy. His spirit’s like just so young and positive and enthusiastic. I could see him being one of those guys that would be a phenomenal motivational speaker for people once he’s done. Whether that’s in any industry. He’s one of those guys that has strong beliefs. He’s a very charismatic guy. I think the one thing that stands our too, the reason I think we work very well in those two different worlds of coaching and football operations is that he’s extremely humble.
Q: Do you guys ever disagree on players?
A: Sure. Absolutely. We both can put our egos aside and just say … “Let’s turn some music on and just sit and watch together and discuss the player,” and try to be open-minded with each other. And that started right away, and I give him credit for that, because he was like … “I want to make this relationship outstanding, like the best it’s ever been in the NFL.” He made it work the way he envisioned it.
Q: Is it safe to say you guys are basically kids at heart?
A: Absolutely. But I think we’re both extremely competitive though. We always tell people like in our building, “It’s gonna be open culture. It’s gonna be positive culture. There’s gonna be a lot of positive reinforcement, but just know that you can’t take this granted, and we always have to do what’s best for the organization first and foremost.”
Q: Who are executives in other sports you admire?
A: I’ve always really admired Phil Jackson, read his book this summer, thought that was really interesting. Obviously I admired Theo Epstein because it was such a random, new-wave way of thinking when he went to the Boston Red Sox and they started winning championships. John Maxwell, his leadership bible. I read that a lot, it’s outstanding. Pat Williams, I had the opportunity to meet him the last two years at this sports management summit. Just because he just seemed like a really good person who was true to himself and wasn’t trying to be anybody else and had really cool core leadership values that I could identify with.
Q: What drives you?
A: Right when we arrived in Seattle, [owner] Paul Allen was just starting to feel better. He just lost his father. Went to Husky games together, and watched the Seahawks together. I think to be able to win a world championship for Paul I think would be outstanding. To be able to partner up with Pete, in being one of those coaches that’s had so much success in college football, and then coming back to the National Football League and hopefully winning another one, I think that would be extremely cool to be a part of. And personally, just pushing the limits every day with the talents that God’s given me to make my family proud. … If we can do whatever we possibly can to have the families and the 12s [Seattle fans, known as The 12th Man] and Mr. Allen just extremely proud of what we have going on, and to be excited about the team and give the city hope or give the fans hope about what’s going on, I think that’s really what drives me. We are in an entertainment industry. It’s a bottom-line business, and so you gotta try to be working harder than the next guy and trying to be thinking about what’s coming next as much as you possibly can because there’s people out there every single day that are after you. And I especially have to do that. I’ve always been that way as a shorter player, smaller player and everything else. I’ve always had to be that guy that had to work harder than other people to get to where I wanted to be. I wasn’t the kid that could get off the couch and go outside and play a pickup game of basketball and drill like five 3-pointers or anything. I need to work on my 3-point shot.
Q: You picked Russell Wilson in the third round in 2012.
A: The Big Ten championship [Wilson’s Wisconsin team vs. Nebraska in 2011] was big for me because I was able to spend time with his brother after the game, too, in his hotel lobby where they had like this big reception. His brother said something very interesting to me that I haven’t heard from any other prospect do far in the years that I’ve been doing this. I don’t know many older brothers that would tell you that their younger brother is their role model.
Q: Did you have any idea how much Jets exec Terry Bradway liked him?
A: Not at the time. After the draft, yeah.
Q: What did he tell you when he called?
A: I think he was just more along the lines of, “Congratulations, he was one of my favorite players in the draft,” that sort of thing.
Q: Describe the 2010 trade for Marshawn Lynch.
A: At the time, we were really trying to improve the overall toughness of our team, because we knew we were gonna have to compete with the lines of the San Francisco 49ers. … We felt like we knew him well, Pete having recruited him in high school, and myself, we had spent a lot of time with him in Green Bay, we thought there might be a chance if he made it to us, that he’d be a cool pick for us.
Q: Richard Sherman in the fifth round.
A: We had him higher than the fifth round.
Q: The 2013 trade for Percy Harvin.
A: He’s too unique of a player to pass on.
Q: When Carroll coached the Jets, you were a Packers scout.
A: Ron Wolf had just taken over [as GM for] the Packers [in the early ’90s] and I was doing the internship with him. I was blessed enough that he gave me a shot.
Q: What were some of your duties?
A: It was just learning how to write, express your thoughts about players, and a lot of filing, and typing in other scouts’ reports because we didn’t have laptops, so they would send the reports in and I would type the reports into the computer system. Then he hired me on as a pro scout working for Ted Thompson full time after that.
Q: You grew up in DePere, Wis., so how far from Packers offices were you?
A: I was probably 10 miles.
Q: You were living at home at the time?
A: No, I had a little one-bedroom apartment (smile).
Q: How often as a kid did you go to Lambeau?
A: My dad took me all the time. And then in training camp, you get out there as much as you possibly could.
Q: Who were some of your favorite players?
A: Terdell Middleton — I was a running back — so Harlan Huckleby, Eddie Lee Ivery, Paul Coffman, Lynn Dickey …
Q: So was your dream as a kid growing up was to play for the Packers?
A: Yeah, absolutely! That, and I used to pretend I was Walter Payton, he was like my idol so … when I played in high school and all that — even grade school and all that — I tried dressing just like Walter Payton, like with a towel and the spatter shoes, and all that kind of stuff.
Q: But that’s where the resemblance ended.
A: That’s where it stopped, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
Q: Nobody ever called you “Sweetness”?
A: No. … My dad was smart enough, it was like, “Hey, you need to concentrate on school a little bit ’cause you’re not professional football [material],” and I was like, “We’ll see about that.”
Q: Biggest lesson you learned from Ron Wolf?
A: I think the biggest lesson I learned from Ron was just that it never stops. The research and the avenues for acquiring talent are endless, and it’s not a 9-5 job by any stretch of the imagination.
Q: Your next stop was with the Chiefs in 1997 as director of pro personnel.
A: Terry Bradway had just been promoted director of player personnel, and he brought me down for an interview with himself and [coach] Marty Schottenheimer and [GM] Carl Peterson.
Q: What did you learn from Ted Thompson in Seattle in 2000?
A: With Ted, really it’s all about patience and being extremely thoughtful in your decisions, and covering all your bases … being very cognizant of the continuity in the locker room, and how to treat people. He’s a really good man, strong man of faith. So he’s a great person to emulate.
Q: You were in Green Bay with Thompson when QB Brett Favre and the Packers split up before the 2008 season.
A: Mike Tannenbaum and I negotiated that trade [to the Jets], yeah (laugh).
Q: What was that like in Green Bay?
A: I remember when Ted came back to Green Bay, he knew that he was gonna be the guy that probably would have to at some point have that tough conversation with Brett that it was time to retire and/or the Packers were gonna have to move on. So that was one thing I think he had a lot of angst about. Felt bad for everybody involved — Ted, [team president] Mark Murphy, Mike McCarthy, obviously Brett and [wife] Deanna, all the Packer fans. It wasn’t a real fun summer.
Q: You completed the deal late at night.
A: Mike is a very good communicator, and is a very fair person to do a deal with. We were just able to work through a lot of things. Really Ted and Coach McCarty were handling Brett and his family, and then Mike and I were handling the negotiation itself.
Q: So you didn’t have to call Brett and tell him, “You’ve just been traded to New York.”
A: No, thank God. That was Ted’s (chuckle). Poor guy was taking a ton of shots at the time, so yeah.
Q: How would you describe Jets GM John Idzik.
A: I’ve known John for a long time. We were both advance scouts as pro scouts in the early ’90s. We just always had a very good relationship. He’s very similar to Ted, actually. Very even-keeled guy, very thoughtful decision maker. When we started working together we ended up developing a strong bond.
Q: Your 12-year-old son Ben has autism.
A: We found out when he was 3 years old. It’s been an incredibly challenging experience for my wife and I and our youngest son Jack. But once we got through that initial stage of feeling sorry for yourself or the self-pity that goes along with, “Yeah, maybe I won’t have a Hall of Fame quarterback (chuckle), you know what I mean, as a son.” Once you get past that, he’s an awesome, awesome kid. He loves Legos, loves video games, very smart, great personality. He’s making progress, we see a doctor down in Austin, Texas. That’s helped out a lot.
Q: How would you compare the teamwork you and your wife have had, Ben’s Fund foundation helps families with autism, to the teamwork you have with Pete?
A: Very similar. Obviously, I would drop this in a heartbeat to take care of my son, and the needs that he has. This relationship and everything Pete and I do, all these lives that are affected by decisions we make on a daily basis, you truly have to have respect for each other, and you have to be a good listener. I view Pete now as a family member, like an older brother. I’m probably more stubborn than he is, but I’m learning to be more open-minded like he is.
Q: You met your wife Traci in college at the University of St. Thomas.
A: She actually helped me study. I knew that Ron Wolf was a big statistical guy, like numbers, where guys went to school, what positions they played. And I had researched that about him and I knew I was gonna have this interview with him, so we went right to this store and bought all the Topps trading cards, and she would just flash card quiz me after we got done studying and stuff. She would quiz me on like “Harry Galbreath,” I’d be like, “OK, he’s 76, Miami Dolphins, University of Tennessee,” that sorta stuff. If I was sitting in a room with a bunch of older scouts, I could say, “Hey, I know who these guys are.” At a young age, I had football cards all the time and I would make teams. If I wasn’t doing well in school, my mom would take away my football cards, instead of turning off the TV. Every card I had of Walter Payton, I cut up, just took the picture, just like I did with any magazine that he was in or anything, kinda [tacked] ’em up all around my room. I’m thinking, “How much are those cards worth now that I cut up?”
Q: You were a high school halfback. No offers?
A: No, I was 5-foot-6, 165 pounds running like 4.73, you know? I loved Jamie Morris, and I was like, “Man, if Jamie could play there [Michigan], I could play there. So I was a huge Michigan fan. So I was able to meet Bo Schembechler, his son Glenn was on our staff in Kansas City, and I said to him, “So what’s the deal? You don’t recruit 5-foot-6, 165-pound, 4.73 running backs from Green Bay, Wis.?” And he goes, “Nah, I don’t get to Green Bay very often (laugh).”
Q: Describe Broncos QB Peyton Manning.
A: I don’t know if we’ll ever see a player like this again at that position in terms of the way he runs a game. I was never around Johnny Unitas, but people tell me in terms of calling game’s and doing his own thing, that this is the closest thing they’ve seen.
Q: Your wife and boys will be at the game.
A: Jack has a ton of favorite players he loves. He’s just at that stage right now where if we win a game, I get that hug that’s like … it’s like the best hug in the world. … If we lose a game, he’s sobbing, and he’s extremely sad. He was leaving to go to Minnesota with my wife, when he came back it was that lockout year [2011], and [QB] Matt Hasselbeck was not gonna be here. So I told him that before he left, ’cause I knew he was gonna hear it when we were apart. And he hauled off, and punched me in the gut, and ran in his bed and pulled the covers over his head and started crying … ’cause Matt was so nice to him.
Q: Describe your wife.
A: There’s no way you can’t take your work home, I don’t care what anybody says, because my phone’s always ringing, and I’m never not gonna pick up my phone, or not try to take care of a player or fix a situation or maybe acquire a player. … She’s been with me the whole time. She knows what my goals were as a young man. She’s just been extremely supportive the whole way. Besides being extremely beautiful, she’s very strong, extremely organized … one of those girls that’s just like completely on top of her game.
Q: Describe Super Sunday.
A: I go around to every player before every game and just tell ’em, “Enjoy this. Have fun doing it.” They know they’re gonna compete their tails off. … I’m fine during free agency, negotiations, the draft … the draft’s when the coaches, they all have that wide-eyed look in their eyes at me, right? And so, they always give me crud on gameday’ cause that’s what I look like (smile).
Q: You won a Super Bowl as a scout with the ’96 Packers.
A: I was on the field when all the confetti fell and everything at the Super Bowl, and it was a very special thing. I’m not stressed out about it, does that make sense?
Q: Did you get anywhere near the Lombardi Trophy?
A: At the post-party, yeah. Got a picture taken with it. No, I didn’t run around the stadium with the Vince Lombardi Trophy as a pro scout, no (smile).
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Jesus, Mother Teresa, Patton.
Q: Favorite movies?
A: “Platoon,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” and “Step Brothers.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Mark Wahlberg.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Reese Witherspoon.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Zack Brown Band.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Salmon.
Q: Best microbrew place?
A: Georgetown Brewing Company.
Q: Super Bowl XLVIII.
A: I think it’s gonna be a great Super Bowl, because you have two highly competitive teams, different teams, constructed differently. And I think it’s gonna be entertaining for fans. I think it’s excruciating for everybody involved in the game to watch it (smile), but if you’re just a fan of football, I think it’s gonna be a great game.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: I think I’d like to say that if there’s one gift that my father gave me, it was work ethic at a very young age. Being the son of an orthopedic surgeon, you would be raised with a silver spoon, and I’m not saying that we were ever hurting for anything, but that he raised me in a manner that was not country clubs, and working outside in the yard on the weekends, and I will never ever be able to repay him for that work ethic he instilled me on the weekends — whether it was cutting wood, or cutting the grass, or anything we did together on the weekends.