Would Pete Carroll be our coach if...

[RiverDog]

...he knew that USC was going to be sanctioned a few short months after his departure? Pete says he wouldn't have left had he known.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... r-seattle/

It's a water-under-the-bridge topic, but since the story is making its rounds on the national circuit and there's nothing else worth debating, I felt it might be worth a revisit.

Personally, I do not know how anyone that close to a program, especially a head coach that was as close to his players and assistants as Pete is known to have been, could have not anticipated that something bad would result when an investigation had been going on for two years. Pete may not have realized that the sanctions would include a two year bowl ban, severe scholarship restrictions, and result in a revocation of Bush's Heisman and USC's National Championship, but he had to have known that the NCAA wasn't going to spend all that time and money on an investigation then issue a report that, as Rosanne Rosanna Danna would say, said "never mind."

[NorthHawk]

I have no idea what he really knew, but like you said the investigation had been going on for 2 years and suddenly this opportunity to have full control at the NFL level came along.
I think with him being the positive person he is, he might have thought everything would work out fine or be of minimal consequence and he couldn't turn down the opportunity he always wanted.

As it is, it worked out great for us.

[FolkCrusader]

The investigation had been going on for 4 years.

[Eaglehawk]

Obviously PC knew everything. And may have been a little complicit.
That being said, he did not have responsibility of the timing and nature of the offer to coach the Seahawks with the power of determining who is hired as well.
So, yeah, good for him. And yeah, it worked out very well for us. EXTREMELY WELL.

You are not going to get much complaining outta me.

[RiverDog]

Oh, I'm not complaining, either. Not for one minute. My primary objection to Pete's hiring back then was that I thought it was for all the wrong reasons, and that he was using us simply as a means of getting out of Dodge while his stock was at its peak. That fear has long since been alleviated once I saw how much he poured his heart and soul into his work here.

Thanks for the correction, FC. The point is that the investigation had been going on for a very long time, and the thought that they would simply melt away without finding anything abnormal is ludicrous. As far as his complicity, I think it's possible that he didn't know the full extent of the amount of money Reggie Bush was receiving, but the man at the top always has to take the responsibility. Pete ran a very loose ship at USC, allowing almost unlimited access to star players on practice fields, locker rooms, even on the sidelines on Game Day. With that lack of discipline, it should surprise no one that some leaches looking to make a buck would take advantage of a star player like Bush, or that some poor black kid, or any other kid for that matter, might be susceptible to accepting large sums of money dangled in front of him.

North Hawk has a good point. People can talk themselves into believing, or disbelieving, common truths, especially someone that's the eternal optimist that Pete is. One thing I think Pete has done wrong in this is that I don't think he should have been answering questions like this. He can answer the questions in his next book, which is sure to come shortly after he retires.