About 48 hours ago I reported in a video at ProFootballWeekly.com that Seattle Seahawks executive vice president of football operations and head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider could be headed for shaky ground because of Carroll's concern over a number of recent personnel moves. I was wrong. Carroll and Schneider are the best of friends, closest confidants and soul mates. I know because Pete told me so.
Roughly 18 hours after the report was released, I received a call from the Seahawks' communications department requesting a retraction. I explained I couldn't retract the report as it had been confirmed by multiple, highly respected sources and I had nothing to dispute its accuracy. When asked how my sources could know more about their relationship than Carroll and Schneider, I agreed that was unlikely, but short of them showing me the error of my ways, my hands were tied. About 20 minutes later, Pete, John and I were on the phone together.
The conversation was private, but I think it's fair to report that Carroll wanted me to know exactly how upset he was about my report, what he thought of me and his opinion of the ethics of my reporting. It seemed reasonable to me to allow him to vent a bit, although there was a spirited exchange when he brought up the subject of ethics. I'll leave the obvious punch line there for anyone who enjoys T-ball more than I do. In the end, the point of the conversation, as I understood it, was for Carroll to make it absolutely clear that he and his GM are in lockstep in everything they do, they've been in complete agreement on every personnel move they've made, that Carroll likes the moves and that, in the end, all credit and all blame will be shared equally.
About half an hour after we got off the phone, I decided to take down the video report. It is important to note here neither Carroll nor Schneider asked me to take the video down or brought that up at all. I will also say again that there will be no retraction and I offer no apology for the report, as it was the product of textbook reporting. But after nearly 45 years of practicing journalism here at PFW, we still care about people first, and having heard the strenuous denials, I saw no point in rubbing salt in the wound or continuing to run something that I'd been assured by the subjects was untrue.
What I have yet to get my arms around, though, is why the galactic overreaction from Carroll and Schneider to a report of the kind of normal friction and questions that exist every day between the front office and the field on almost every team in the league? I reported the coach was unhappy with some personnel decisions. I have no idea what their personal relationship is, and I couldn't care less if they're BFFs. The only thing I can surmise is that, based on the way the relationship between the last "Football Grand Poo-bah" (Mike Holmgren) and the then-general manager (Tim Ruskell) in Seattle ended, perhaps their boss has told them to play nice or they'll be playing somewhere else. I'm not reporting that, guys, just asking.
Regardless, in the end we are all winners. I say again that Pete Carroll and John Schneider are the best of friends and in complete lockstep in every football move the Seahawks make. I've been assured by Pete that anytime I have a question about what's going on with the Seahawks, all I have to do is call and he'll get me a straight answer right away. Best of all for Seahawks fans everywhere, I can guarantee you that if it continues to appear that trading high picks for Charlie Whitehurst, telling Matt Hasselbeck to hit the road to clear the decks for Tarvaris Jackson, signing big-money free-agent deals with Sidney Rice and Robert Gallery, drafting James Carpenter in the first round and the literally hundreds of other moves Seattle has made during the Carroll-Schneider regime may not be working out, Carroll won't even think of throwing his GM under the bus. Now you know that every single move bears Carroll's personal stamp of approval and, if in the end things don't work out, he shares full responsibility. At least that's what he told me. Kind of refreshing in today's NFL, isn't it?
Source: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/09/24/carrolls-name-on-every-seahawks-move
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