Selling success after some bad results
Thank heaven that Pete Carroll isn’t a crooked TV evangelist.
He’d be a gazillionaire.
Last Sunday night, after the Seahawks had been properly drilled by Arizona and lost their top two running backs in the process, I gave up on the 2019 season — and that’s probably what you’d be reading today.
Except ...
On Monday, I listened to Pete’s weekly radio show, and reality turned on its head.
Thoughts of catastrophe were summarily dismissed.
Instead ...
I wanted to show up for practice myself, smash down the door, eat some wooden furniture, flatten a few innocent staff members and suit up to wreak havoc on Sunday night.
What’s more, I was already positive that the 49ers — gaudy record and all — are facing doomsday at The Clink.
If Carroll were an international diplomat, I swear he could achieve peace in our time.
No question.
IF YOU listen to Pete, there is no adversity, no difficulty, no problem that can’t be overcome.
The secret ...
Forget any negative results with one good night’s sleep, then start planning to kick the world’s ass at 8:30 the next morning.
Spending time on fear of failure?
Nah, that’s the media’s gig.
Pete’s job is to get busy making sure it doesn’t happen.
Period.
Of course, the coach had been handed another massive dose of optimism on Monday, all ready to spring loose and carry the Seahawks to success.
It turns out Carroll and GM John Schneider had been chatting occasionally with Beast Mode himself, Marshawn Lynch, for some time — most likely since the Hawks lost No. 2 running back Rashaad Penny.
Apparently, even before Chris Carson and C.J. Prosise went down for good against the Cardinals, Schneider had been floating some conversations with Lynch that carried the hint ...
“What if ...?”
Maybe the idea was taking root, or maybe it was a coincidence, but Lynch showed up at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Dec. 11, more than a week before the Arizona calamity — bringing food for all and chatting up everyone on the premises.
Lynch might be a guy who plays and lives his own way, but he’s always been a fantastic teammate who would, well ...
Bring a ton of food just to visit with a team that isn’t even his most recent employer.
Now fast forward 10 days ...
Lynch had not yet even officially re-signed with the Hawks when Carroll — gushing on his radio show — carried on about how much fun it would be to have some serious Beast Mode on the field for this year’s playoff run.
NO ONE truly knows whether Lynch, who got hurt more than a year ago while playing for Oakland, has any ferocity left in the tank.
Carroll suggested hopefully that Lynch was in good enough condition to play angry and effectively for a few games.
Being in shape and being in game-time football shape, however, are not quite the same thing.
One thing we do know, whatever the Beast’s physical condition, is that no one who has ever worn a Seahawks uniform matches Pete Carroll’s violent view of football quite like Marshawn Lynch.
Grab the rock and run over people.
Carroll loves it, and he’s based an entire philosophy on it.
Yes, we’ll pass the ball — but only when we’ve proven we can run over you and make it hurt.
Lynch shares that belief as gospel, and the Seahawks no doubt got a massive confidence boost just seeing him prepared to play.
When the Beast explained his presence back on the roster, he made it simple: “We got unfinished business.”
Feel free to think of the 2014 season, when Lynch did not get the ball at the New England 1-yard line in the Super Bowl.
If they can get that far again ...
He will.
Even if he’s playing on crutches.
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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker”
package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday. Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports — “Moments, Memories and Madness” — will run on Sundays.