Carroll Flirting with Atlanta Falcons? Whatever
Pete Carroll will talk to the Atlanta Falcons' owner today about their vacant coaching job. Reportedly.
Had to wonder when the NFL would get around to Pete. Or at least the rumor millworkers would.
Here's the thing about Pete:
If he's dumb enough to go to the NFL, well, don't let the door on the dream college job slap you on the backside.
Let's give Pete the benefit of a doubt and say he talks with NFL guys Arthur Blank and (last year) Wayne Huizenga because he likes the ego stroke. He's not REALLY going to go. Just seeing what he's worth on the NFL market, these days.
The reality is ... the NFL is a coach-killer. You're gonna go out feet first. Just a question of when. You can win a Super Bowl, and a couple of 5-11s later you're on the street, like Brian Billick.
Even somebody like Bill Belichick, Super Genius of the Moment ... is going to get stupid some day and be fired.
Pete wants to go THERE? Especially after he's already been fired -- twice?
And he would be giving up USC, where he enters season after season KNOWING he has better talent than everybody else. Unlike the NFL, which distributes wealth with Marxist ruthlessness.
He would be giving up demi-god status, here in L.A. People fall all over themselves worshiping at his feet. (If you have the time, check this absolutely fawning piece on him by a non-sports guy. It's a link to a link, which is the best way I could find it.) Maybe once or twice a year a handful of people second-guess him, but the rest of the time he's untouchable, unquestioned.
And, at USC, football is king. It's not as if somebody is going to come in and de-emphasize the sport. It's not as if basketball ever will be bigger. It's not as if the alumni ever will get tired of going to football games. The football program will always get pretty much everything it wants.
If a guy is going to give up a Job for Life that pays him something like $2 million to go back to the NFL ... well, he's just stupid. I could understand if he'd never been, but he has, and it's the same league he knew back then.
I never have thought Pete Carroll is a stupid guy. That's why I expect him to stay at Troy.