Pete Carroll was on the phone. We had been talking almost daily for weeks, as the Vikings searched for a coach to replace Jerry Burns, who retired at the end of the 1991 season.
To the Vikings' old guard, Carroll was Burns' obvious replacement, although Burns himself was thought to favor longtime NFL assistant Tom Moore, who would later become famous as Peyton Manning's mentor in Indianapolis.
Carroll was a former Vikings assistant and a favorite of Bud Grant's. Carroll would later become a head coach with the Jets, Patriots and Seahawks, and become the third coach to ever win a college national championship (USC) and a Super Bowl (Seattle).