Shortly after the NFL and players’ union announced that the Seahawks would lose two days of Organized Team Activities, coach Pete Carroll acknowledged that his team broke the rules about contact at practices. But he put a positive spin on that acknowledgment, saying his players are such good competitors that it’s tough for them to know how hard they can go.
In a video posted at the team’s website, Carroll said the Seahawks only violated the contact rules on a few plays, and did so because they wanted to give a solid effort.
“It’s always about one play here, one play there,” Carroll said. “It wasn’t, you know, play after play after play. It was a few plays that stood out where guys made mistakes trying too hard and competing too much.”
It’s Carroll’s job, however, to make sure that his guys don’t make those mistakes: He oversees the OTAs and is supposed to ensure that the rules about contact at practices aren’t violated. Carroll suggested that the league should do a better job of giving coaches specific examples of what is allowed and what is not allowed at OTAs.
“We haven’t had any film to look at,” Carroll said. “We haven’t had the opportunity to see how it’s supposed to be done.”
Carroll seems to think that going too hard in practice is a good sign about what kind of team he has.
“We’ve had great practices. Our guys have met every expectation. They have worked like crazy to get the job done,” Carroll said. “We probably have stretched this limit, obviously, by this indication, and I’m not surprised by that.”
Carroll’s attitude seems to be that he wants intense OTAs, and if his OTAs get too intense and his team loses a couple of practices over it, he won’t lose any sleep about that.