The hiring of Pete Carroll as Seahawks coach, officially announced on Jan. 11, 2010, was hardly greeted with unanimous raves.
A famous headline on an ESPN.com story at the time read “Carroll, NFL still a lousy fit’’ detailing his failures with the Jets (fired after one season in 1994) and Patriots (fired after three seasons from 1997-99) with the story stating “Give Pete Carroll about one year before he starts realizing the mistake he just made. By that time, he’ll be wondering why he resigned from USC to become head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.’’
In the interests of full disclosure, a column in the Seattle Times when the news was still just a rumor was no less harsh, stating “Picking Pete Carroll would make bad situation worse’’ noting the chaos that seemed to be enveloping the franchise at the time, with Jim Mora rather stunningly fired after just one season to make way for a coach many assumed was mostly just motivated to escape impending NCAA doom at USC.