Seahawks coach Pete Carroll turned 69 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he explained that he currently plans to keep going for five more years, before reassessing.
Asked by New England media whether he or Patriots coach Bill Belichick will be the first one to stop coaching, Carroll said, “I don’t know. Ask him.”
Carroll then added this: “I’m feeling great. I’m kind of on a five-year plan. Five years from now I’ll figure it out and reassess. I actually owe that to David Brooks. And he taught me that a while back. Something he wrote, ‘Why are you looking year-to-year? Why don’t you just plan it out over a five-year period?’ So each year is five more years. So it was five years last [year] and it’s five years this year and we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
Several years ago, Patriots owner Robert Kraft expressed hope during a PFT Live interview at the league meetings that Belichick would work into his 80s, thriving at that age like Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett. I raised that observation with Carroll at the same time and he said, “Why stop there?”
Why stop there, indeed. Carroll continues to have a tremendous amount of energy, and he continues to be one of the most successful coaches in the NFL. The Seahawks instantly became contenders when he arrived, and they’ve had a winning record every year since 2012.