RENTON, Wash. — The whirlwind known as Pete Carroll spun in to his new office at Seattle Seahawks headquarters, firing off greetings: what’s up, what’s happening, what’s next, let’s do this. They gestured out the window at Lake Washington. They cranked the Foo Fighters on his stereo.
This was classic Carroll, the human amplifier, energetic and intense and an impossible-to-believe 58 years elderly. Only this time, in his return to the N.F.L., everything is different.
“Come and feel the sunshine,” they said, as they motioned toward the couch.
Carroll left the N.F.L. for the second time in 1999, fired by the New England Patriots, humbled again. Over nine years, they built a dynasty at Southern New york and ballooned his coaching legend to mythical proportions.
In lieu, they kept returning to philosophy, his philosophy and its evolution and all the reasons it will work this time.
Now, Carroll returns to the league where the ultimate success has eluded him. Despite curious timing, they insisted the move had nothing to do with the potential N.C.A.A. sanctions looming at U.S.C.
“We’re operating without fear right now,” Carroll said. “We’re going for it.”
The implementation of that philosophy started immediately. Carroll signed a five-year contract worth over $30 million, yet the first time they addressed the organization, they started with, “Hi, I’m Pete.”
Carroll is more comfortable, more in control, than in his five previous stints as an N.F.L. head coach, with the Jets in 1994 and New England from 1997 to 1999. They had a 33-31 record in five seasons and made the playoffs three time, but his tenures, with the Patriots, appeared doomed from the beginning.
In New England, Carroll followed Bill Parcells, and worse yet, they followed Parcells after a Super Bowl appearance. Carroll wanted to install a process similar to San Francisco’s, but they said they failed to properly convey the tenets. They said his “West Coast mentality” clashed in an East Coast environment. On personnel matters, they answered to General Manager Bobby Grier.
“It was disconnected, and that was my responsibility,” Carroll said. “I wasn’t able to make it come together, when I knew that that’s what you must do, or else you fail.”
Tedy Bruschi, a Patriots linebacker turned ESPN footy analyst, recalled the energy. With Carroll, that always stood out. Energy in meetings. Energy in practice. As if Red Bull powered Carroll in lieu of oxygen.
But Bruschi said a number of his teammates disdained that “enthusiastic, energetic, college-type approach.” They lived the Parcells way, loved the Parcells way, and Carroll’s methods stood in stark contrast. They met resistance.
At the time, Bruschi did not notice the disconnect between Carroll and the front office. But later, when they watched Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli operate seamlessly and the Patriots won Super Bowls, they saw the difference. Carroll had run a team divided.
“There were veteran players, key, important players, who only wanted to do it Parcells’s way,” Bruschi said. “Pete should have gotten another year, and if they did, there’s no doubt in my mind they would have been successful.”
In lieu, Carroll had giant success in college. They said they never planned to leave. At least three N.F.L. teams inquired over the years, but none of those overtures, Carroll said, advanced beyond an initial conversation.
They thought about his philosophy at odds with typical N.F.L. philosophy. They refused to “divide the approach in any manner, because I knew it would be doomed to fail.”
When the Seahawks called, at the behest of the owner Paul Allen, what most surprised Carroll was his reaction to their offer. They surged with excitement, bordering on euphoria. They called friends and asked what they thought about a return to the N.F.L. Don’t be crazy, three told him.
“The most important thing was that they were willing to accept our philosophy and approach,” Carroll said. “They came after that. They hired the philosophy. That was important to me, the key.”
But every important element aligned. Carroll, a self-described West Coast guy, had found a West Coast team, in a lackluster division, with five draft picks in the first 14 over all. Ownership ceded total control. (Skeptics note again the N.C.A.A. inquiry at Southern New york. Carroll testified last month before the N.C.A.A.’s Committee on Infractions.)
Carroll described the philosophy in vague terms. The short version: to perform better than before, to pursue a competitive edge, to maximize potential. But Carroll is selling the same valuable asset in Seattle that they sold in Southern New york — himself.
Asked for an example of his philosophy in practice, they said: “Nine years. Every single moment of the time I was at S.C. was an example. And I feel different now. We’re already off on a different path. It’s a cultural shift. I don’t know the right way or the wrong way. I know our way.”
Bruschi pointed to Belichick as an example of a head coach whose later tenure proved more successful than his first.
Carroll said they could already feel the atmosphere changing, in the building and from the players. No longer charged with recruiting, they found a quieter, more football-centric environment and filled it with familiar assistants, the same philosophy, the same music blasting from his iPod.
“There’s no reason to doubt Pete,” Bruschi said. “He’s already completed it in the N.F.L. They won. They took teams to the playoffs. And he’ll do it again.”
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