Why Pete Carroll returned to the NFL with the Raiders: 'That pursuit of the passion'

At one point during Monday’s introductory news conference, new Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek looked to his left at Pete Carroll.

“He’s crushing this press conference,” Spytek said, smiling.

Carroll’s reputation precedes him, and everyone figured the new Raiders coach was going to bring energy and enthusiasm along with know-how from winning championships with USC and the Seattle Seahawks.

But Carroll cranked up the dial on Monday.

“He’s got people excited,” Spytek said. “I’ve just been a fan for so long, and to get a chance to sit up here alongside him today and now work alongside him is an honor. I’m just fired up.”

Carroll, 73, is still a kid at heart and is excited about returning to coaching after a year off. Heck, he is giddy about just returning to the practice field and grabbing a football.

“To me, it’s always been about playing catch,” Carroll said. “I’ve loved the game since I was a little kid. If I get a chance to go out and throw the ball around, I’m doing it. That’s what I’ll do first time out on the practice field as we get going.”

Carroll will lay out a vision and a plan for players built on years of experience — and success. He is the Raiders’ third head coach in three years, but Josh McDaniels never won in his two stints as a head coach and Antonio Pierce would say himself that he was learning on the job. Both men had a lot of confidence but no proven track record as a head coach like Carroll does.

Carroll has a formula that has worked — former players like Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner have called him a “culture builder” — and it starts with competition and having fun.

And that frenetic fervor of his.

“His energy was amazing,” owner Mark Davis said of the job interview with Carroll.

He is an original, a San Francisco 49ers fan growing up as a kid in Marin County who “was captured” by the Raiders when they arrived in 1960. And he has a unique coaching style as well.

“I don’t do stuff like everybody else,” Carroll said. “Really that’s not my goal; to try to match up how other people have run this thing. … You’re either competing or you’re not, and I’m always competing. That’s how we’ll get it done in every way possible.”

And trying to win as soon as possible should be an enjoyable grind. It’s something that Carroll told Raiders players who were on hand Monday, like Maxx Crosby and Kolton Miller.

Pete Carroll wants his players, like defensive end Maxx Crosby, to always compete but also have fun. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

“To me, this game should be fun,” Carroll said. “If we’re not having fun, I’m screwing it up, and we’re going to have fun in this room right here with our team.”

Carroll and Spytek are putting together a coaching staff and then will turn their attention to the roster. Carroll, who said he and Spytek will split the decision-making, knows what kind of players he is looking for.

“(In) Seattle, we went through a lot of transitions and transactions, and it was to find the right people,” Carroll said. “John and I are in total concert of the kinds of people that we’re going to build this program around. There’s a way to get to that, and we’ve been through this, and it’s really exciting to have the opportunity to do it again.”

Carroll didn’t eschew retirement just to chase another Super Bowl title — he is back because of how much he enjoys trying to compete for one.

“Why would I want to do it again? It’s because it’s that chase and that pursuit of the passion that we want to find,” Carroll said.

When Carroll was fired by the New England Patriots as coach in 2000, he took a year off and honed his philosophy and reminded himself why he coaches. He just did that again last year when the Seahawks moved on from him, in between watching his grandsons play high school football and his sons coach in college and the NFL.

“It’s never been about accomplishments,” Carroll said. “It’s never been about that. It is about the game and loving it and playing. I really have realized, again, in this year, when you get a year to take a step away from it, it’s incredibly valuable.

“It hasn’t been about trying to win the championship games so that I can put that banner or that ring in my drawer. It’s not about that. It’s about competing. It’s about being the best you can possibly be with what you have to work with. … It’s building the mentality that everybody that comes to our program has a unique quality that makes them them, and giving everybody the chance to be as good as they can possibly be.”

Players will buy in. Not just current Raiders, but free agents. So says Richard Sherman, one of Carroll’s biggest stars back on the Seahawks.

“He gives the Raiders stability and legitimacy,” Sherman said on his podcast. “They have a huge budget for free agents and when you bring Pete Carroll in, players want to come play for him. Players understand, players know him, players’ parents know him. I think guys will look at that as more of a destination.”

Carroll and Spytek have hit the ground running, and Spytek feels like a young player getting a taste of what Carroll’s uptempo practices feel like.

“Well, I can’t wait to see what ‘compete for Pete’ looks like every day,” he said. “I think I’ve got a pretty good feel for it so far. But just the energy and the passion that he presents with every day … it feels like we were talking (for) 10 days, but I think it’s only been three since we first started talking.”

Remember, Spytek was a big admirer of Carroll’s USC teams two decades ago.

“Just the way he leads a program,” Spytek said. “Everywhere he’s been, he’s won. I go back, I can remember vividly watching those USC teams. They were some of the most fun football teams I’ve ever watched, and I think I admired him a lot because yes, they were full of talent, and our job is to find a lot of talent here, but they were full of competitors and guys that love football.”

Carroll knows it all starts and ends with the players.

“The culture is the players, and you’ll see that, but we’ll show them the way. It all starts with competition,” he said. “You’re either competing or you’re not. … If there’s one thing that I want them to understand — and I’ll start the message right now — if you want to be on a great team, you need to be a great teammate.”

Work hard, push yourself and your teammates, have a little fun and get better.

“If you don’t want to compete, you’re in the wrong place,” Carroll said.

(Top photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)