The news hit Pete Carroll hard last Saturday night. The Seahawks coach was preparing for his team’s game with the Falcons the next day when he heard Dennis Byrd had died.
Carroll had been the Jets’ defensive coordinator when Byrd suffered his career-ending neck injury. Carroll was at the hospital that night and watched Byrd fight to walk again.
“The whole process of watching Dennis handle this and go through it has really changed me,” Carroll said in a phone interview. “I was already optimistic. I was already a person that looked for good things to happen, but Dennis proved you don’t know how things are going to turn out.