Carroll is 'fired up' about new gig in Seattle
From ESPN.com:
RENTON, Wash. -- Saying he just walked into "almost dreamlike" control and opportunity, Pete Carroll smiled and rambled through his first day as coach and executive vice president of the Seattle Seahawks.
"I am so fired up to be here today. Right from the beginning, they undersold. This is a tremendous place to come to work," Carroll said Tuesday. "It's really almost dreamlike for me."
Back in the NFL for the first time since the New England Patriots fired him in 1999, the coach who restored the dynasty at Southern California from 2001 until Monday put on a dark blue suit and paisley tie patterned in Seahawks green and blue.
Carroll then proclaimed his wonder and excitement at having snared the exact opportunity he's always wanted in the NFL -- but never thought he'd get after the Patriots fired him. He said what he's getting in Seattle mirrors the latitude USC gave him.
"They have embraced my approach ... in a manner in which to wipe the path clear and give me the clearest opportunity to bring everything that I have to offer. That's really what I was looking for, the trust and belief from the top of the organization," he said, a day after his public farewell from USC. "They don't have an agenda of how they want their football played. They want me to do that. That's exactly and precisely what I was looking for."
Specifically and most immediately, Seahawks chief executive officer Tod Leiweke confirmed Carroll is getting authority on who the Seahawks hire as their new general manager. Carroll and Leiweke were to conduct an afternoon interview with Omar Khan, a contract administrator with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
