When Pete Carroll was, for all intents and purposes, fired as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, the organization had to do something with him. He had a year left on his contract, and he was getting a guaranteed salary of at least $10 million. Plus, he had been with the team so long that pushing Carroll completely to the side publicly would have been a bad look.
Seattle named Carroll as an "advisor" but he holds that role in name only. He does not have anything to do with the running of the team, putting the roster together, or making on-field decisions. In fact, to help first-year head coach Mike Macdonald, the team hired veteran coach Leslie Frazier even though Carroll was still in-house.
Macdonald started well enough by winning his first three games, but the defense has been atrocious recently and Seattle has lost three straight games. Some 12s on social media are wishing Carroll was back as head coach. Let's be real, though. The same problems the Seahawks have defensively now are the same ones they had under Carroll. The team would be no better with the former coach.
To be clear, though. Carroll is not advising Macdonald. The issue is that some fans might be misreading a video posted on X/Twitter of Carroll and Macdonald chatting the day after Seattle lost to the San Francisco 49ers last week.
The meeting between the two appears to likely have been by accident. Both were attending an NBA exhibition game at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena. In the video, both are seen talking along with general manager John Schneider and then taking some photos together. Very likely, that is all the meeting was.
If Macdonald was a year or two into his Seahawks coaching career, or if the team was not on a losing streak, then few would take notice of the video. Instead, Macdonald appears to need some help in correcting the direction of the team, and Carroll might help with that. He isn't, though. Leslie Frazier and others would be.
Still, the viral video, at least, is a happy one. Everyone is smiling and Carroll does not have so big of an ego that he would turn away a chance to chat with Macdonald. The same can be said of Macdonald toward Carroll.
