Paul Allen hired Pete Carroll to coach the Seahawks nearly nine years ago. In the wake of Allen’s passing, Carroll wants to stay with the team.
“Absolutely,” Carroll said when asked that question by reporters on Tuesday.
Carroll also reflected on Allen’s effort to persuade Carroll to leave USC for a return to the NFL.
“He wanted to win championships and that’s what he was all about,” Carroll said. “He wasn’t going to let anything get in the way and he was really clear about that. The message that came through was really one that I hadn’t heard in that fashion with that commitment and that spirit of it. That’s what made it even possible to even be in the conversation about it.”
Carroll sensed that Allen’s health was failing, but Carroll was surprised that the end came so soon after Allen announced a return of the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma he’d previously beaten.
“Well, he was very hopeful,” Carroll said. “That’s the way his messaging was and he said it directly to me, he was ready for the battle. He had been through it before so he sent, like he would being a good leader, he communicated to us that there was hope and he was going for it. But he had become ill. He had become unable to do some of the things that he had normally been able to do in travel and going to the games and things like that because of his illness, so there were some signs in that regard. He was weakened. Yeah, he was weakened. Still, it happened very suddenly.”
What happens next won’t be sudden. Carroll steered the questions away from the future of the franchise, a future that will eventually feature a new owner of the team. Any time that kind of transition happens, other changes can also be made.