The Ringer NFL Show - Nick Saban Retired During Our 'Pete Carroll Got Fired' Emergency Podcast

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Heifetz and DK discuss Pete Carroll’s surprise firing in Seattle, and Carroll’s impact on DK’s life (02:08). Then, they find out during the show that Nick Saban is retiring (21:09). Email us at [e-mail]! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Pete Carroll, coach of the Sealk says, fired, retired. He's not the coach anymore. He got fired. He got fired. For all intents and purposes. They said, oh, you could be a special advisor. It was like a very polite way to retire, you know, make...

It was so he could say it was mutually agreed upon, essentially. like if you look at, if you watch his presser, he says, I competed really hard to remain the coach. So he did not win that competition, unfortunately. We had to do this because Pete Carroll, I mean, the most successful coaches in the last like 15 years

of the NFL after Bill Belichick are like Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, Tomlin, like, it's just incredible. DK or Sirix fan. And then literally 35 seconds ago, whatever the number is on the podcast, plus one minute. Are you telling me, Nick Saban just retired? That literally happened. We were literally about to hit record. Is this

confirmed or was that fake? I mean, it's out there. It looks real. Okay, how about this? I don't know what's going on. This is like actually really wild. Why don't we just have the Pete Carroll conversation and then give it 15 minutes and see if the Nick Saban thing's real? Because that would Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. Okay, compartmentalize.

Also, this is not a bit. Like, we actually were hitting recorded, like, Nick Saban. Nick Saban is retiring. That's, so ESPN. Compartmentalize. Pete Carroll, D.K. I want to just I mean, quick, you know, one of us only Super Bowl in Seahawks history.

One of the, Jimmy Johnson, DeVoszschevary, Peterer, one of three coaches to win both the college national championship in the Super Bowl. Resumé, we could talk, but his press conference he just had was so inspiring.

I was like, I want to hire this guy. But you said, we were texting, you know, when we decided we want to do this. And you said, I wrote it down, you said, Pete Carroll changed your life. Yeah, what do you mean by that? Yeah, legitimately. You know, obviously, from a professional

point of view, it was very beneficial for me to be covering the Seahawks during the Pete Carroll L.O.B. era because it was an extremely popular, extremely interesting hot button team with a very interesting players and coaches. So from that point of view, he helped me. But like philosophically more is what I meant in the sense that, I mean, you watch the presser. Like, don't you want to run through a wall for this guy? Like, he is incredibly inspiring to me. Yeah. I somehow underrated how inspirational Pete Carroll was. I watched this. And this is,

first of all, coaches don't usually get this kind of like going away presser. Like Bill was crying. Have you ever seen a head coach? I don't know if I've ever seen a head coach. I don't know if I've ever seen a head coach cry during a press comment's like i mean i'm sure it's happened but but p carroll was just i mean i literally wrote down six i don't have ever run down for the show i'd short done six things p carroll said i literally like he was like he talked about getting the job and he was like called one of his buddies at u sc was like we got a chance go to seattle get to take two maybe three years till they kick us out you want to do our thing and i was like that's so sick yeah so the backstory for carol which for people that don't really know like the carroll story is

um he got fired left the nfl and And he decided he wanted to, like, write everything down that matter to him and what was important. And he came up with his whole philosophy, which he then, and it's a very specific, you know, it's centered around like the win for everything. I read his book, Win Forever. I think it talks about a lot of great ways. So, like, it's basically just compete in everything that you can do, strain. You know, like, you have to be willing to, like, go through the hard times and make it work. But like, if you, if you really try and if you work really hard and you do it, right way and you treat people the right way, like, success is the byproduct kind of deal. Like, that's me really just doing it down.

I think I've heard all this stuff from him, but I never really like internalized it now till he's gone. Like the definition of like, you know, not appreciate what you have till it's over. When he said, if everyone in the building isn't having fun, I'm not doing my job. That's what we say about like our podcast, not like a foot in an NFL team. And he clarified it and he was like,

people would criticize us and say that if you have, you're having fun, you're not taking it seriously. And he was like, I'm sorry those people don't understand. I was like, I love this guy. Yeah. And he, so like, so, yeah, there's, there's a lot of different parts of the philosophy that I really, like, admire. And actually, in what I said, he changed my life. Like, I actually, like, adhere to some of these tenants of his, of his philosophy,

which, of course, isn't necessarily all his original ideas. But I think it just distilled it down. I was covering this guy every day. And it was, like, inspirational to me. And so, yeah, I would say, like, you know, having fun, taking care of the people. around you. You know, there's just a million different things. And if you listen to this guy every time...

He was so crying about all the people he was leaving behind. Yeah. And I mean, it's like this is a, this, that, that pressure to me was a good reminder of like why so many of the guys that were on those championship teams have come back, been in the building, you know, come through our big part of the Seahawks program and in multiple different ways. Like, you hear about all the other, like the players that still love him. And it's because, you know, he kind of decided he wanted to take a different approach to

coaching. He has this thing called learn your learners where it's like he recognizes everybody is different. Everyone learns in different ways. Everyone has different motivations. If you're like a total fucking dick to somebody, sometimes that's the way to motivate them. But you know what? That doesn't work with everybody. And so he had to like, he went about coaching and like trying to learn who he was coaching. What what ways to motivate them. And, you know, apart from that, like, apart from like his focus on like self-actualization of everything. everyone on his team. I really do like it adhere and appreciate like the stuff he talks about with like

grit, straining, working hard. And then success is a byproduct of all that stuff. If you'd like really willing to like persevere and stuff like that, like all that stuff I think is just kind of inspirational. So, you know,

it's like I feel like if you watch that press conference, you kind of got to see like the Pete Carroll that, the people that have covered him over the years. I could have recommended enough. It's on the Seahawks YouTube channel. And if you want, it's a live stream. the first 30 minutes were just the blank Searx logo,

maybe cut. And if you have to go halfway through his speech, whatever, but like the first half, especially the Q&A, was unbelievable. But you know what he reminds me of? I feel like,

you know, if you were fortunate enough, I feel like, I hope most people have this, but if you're fortunate enough to have, like, one amazing teacher in, like, middle school or high school

who, like, infected you with, like, oh my God, I actually do, like, learning about whatever this thing is. Like, you know what I mean? That, like, he really is, like,

closer to that than anything else where, right? He has this infection energy about teaching. And we don't talk about that on with coaching, but he was saying how he wanted every day to be different, even for the pros. Like they always say you can't bring the, you can't bring college experience, the NFL. And he was like, I wanted every day to be different so that nobody would stuck in routine.

He's like, I wanted everyone to always. Yeah, he said, I always wanted everyone to be looking around at a new environment, gathering in new stimuli and always be at like their peak awareness because I didn't want people to already know what was about to happen. Because that's not how you learned. It was an experiment. It was an experiment. he said in the scene of pressure, which I love.

He talked barely about football. The one thing he said about, not one thing, but the only technically he said about football was he was like, they asked about why the season ended and he was like, we couldn't get it done. We couldn't run the ball. We couldn't, like, you know, our will to compete in the trenches was not good enough down the stretch. That's why we lost games. And he was like, I know that you guys think my head's in the clouds and I'm just like

three yards in a cloud of dust running guy. And he said, I'm sorry that you guys don't get it, which was awesome about like people who don't want him to row. I mean, look, so like, I don't think that it's kind of hard because it's like, obviously, Pete Carroll's not infallible. And, you know, it's not like he did everything right the whole freaking time that he was a Seahawks coach. But I would join his cult though. I know. That's the thing. It's the thing that I appreciate about him. And, you know, I, like, I don't think this is super common. And it's going to be hard to replicate for the Seahawks is he has an extremely specific, written out philosophy and methodology for getting the most out of all of his players,

competing all the time. He wants to create what he calls a competitive cauldron where you're getting guys to compete against each other every single day that you come in. You're competing and you're trying to make each other better. And like, I think that's going to be the hard thing to replicate for the Seahawks. And, you know, like we've talked about this. There's two kinds of coaches, I think, in the NFL right now. There's culture guys and there's scheme guys. And at least for a while, Carol was both. He was a culture guy through and through. That was what he brought from USC. This is what helped make the USC teams great for so many years was that kind of culture that he had built there. He brought that culture to the Seahawks. But he also,

for, you know, 2012 to 2015, 2016, their scheme was like that what everyone was trying to replicate for like half the league was like trying to get these tall, long corners, replicate the Seahawks, what they were doing, you know, schematically. Even though, by the way, their scheme was really nothing new. It was just that the way, like, the way they were teaching it and the guys that they got to run it almost to perfection. And they ran a counterintuitive thing. It's like the entire NFL, the game was less physical and all the offenses geared towards

speed. And then the Seahawks were like, we actually don't care for defenders are fast. We're going to have the biggest ones and beat the crap out of you and run stuff that you already know what's going to, we're running. And it's going to be perfect, which is like, does it sound at all like it would make sense on paper as everything's gearing towards spirit and the rules, the speed and the speed and the rules are moving against you to have people who are slower and also predictable. Like that isn't something that sounds like it would necessarily work.

Right. So to me, I think the whole thing, the whole Pete Carroll thing is a little bit, I don't know, there's like a cognitive dissonance or something. There's a dichotomy there where for the longest time, he drove me crazy because he, he was like, going back every single game, there was a point where they were either within seven points or they won for 98 straight games. So they didn't lose by more than seven, by more than one touchdown. Or maybe it was 10 points. I can't remember.

What it was like, they never got blew out. They never got blown out for almost 100 straight games, which is completely unheard of. Completely unheard of. In other words, they were competitive to the fourth quarter, to the last part of the game, almost to the last drive. For more than half a decade. For like four seasons straight. And the byproduct of that is like, that's frustrating at times to watch from a Seahawks point of, fan point of view, because it's like every game is close.

Every game is like stressful. Every game comes down to the last drive. It's like, God, like save me from having this stress kind of deal. I actually do think it took years off your life. I'm not even kidding. Like the amount of times your body was in stress mode has to you lost years to this man. But at the same time, there's a very famous, I don't know exactly what I said. So I'll paraphrase.

But he basically went on the radio and someone asked him about that and he was like, toughen up. Like he's like basically told. Seahawks fans to toughen up. And I remember being like, you dog, you slide dog you. This guy's awesome. I kind of love that. I kind of love that he just told us to toughen up. You know what's crazy? He's the oldest coach in the league.

He's like not even a fully. I think he's like a month's older than Belichick. They're both the same age, like 71 or something. And it's funny that Belichick like looks old and like already was kind of an elderly person even when he was young. Pete Carroll is the oldest coach in the league or not anymore. But like, I'm like watching it. I'm like, this guy should get any job he wants. He should get Washington, you should get Carolina, like, just hand this guy the keys.

Like, the energy is so infectious, but I, it's, it's weird to think, like, watching that press conference, I was like, this guy's going to, what, retire? He has to take another time. There's no way. He even said he's like, I'm not tired. I'm not worn out. I want to keep doing this. That press conference was like, you know, it felt like he was, you know, obviously saying

goodbye and saying his thank you's and doing all that. But he's also making a statement in a way that, like, I'm not done. Like, I'm not ready to leave. I'm not ready to be done. on that, I just want to give Pete Carroll Slauers for one thing, which I, you know, obviously, if something happened, that did not happen, whatever. But like, if the Seahawks had won the Super Bowl with the Patriots,

Marshall Lynch, obviously part of the coaching blunder, like the, but let's just say for a second, give the ball the freaking Marshall Lynch or the ball falls down. It's like, you know, the Seahs win the freaking game. Yeah, it's like, if the Seahawks win the game, I know they did, but let's just say they did. The Seahawks, that is the, that goes down as the greatest defense in NFL history. Because it's immediately in the conversation,

with the 2000 raven because they would have beaten Peyton Manning and Tom Brady back to back Super Bowls and they would have statistically bid on course with the 2000 Ravens, the 85 Bears, the steel curtain steelers, the purple peep leader Vikings, anything you want to pick in history

and you could have made it recency bias but the argument that, but they did it literally as the NFL changed all of the rules to make that impossible and they did it and they did it in a way that was actually we're not running any like secrecy this, we're lining up in front of you,

get to kick your butt. And it's like, it's worth noting that while he's not considered like near Belichick, the difference in perception would have been hard to explain how differently that Seahawks and Pete Carroll as good as they are would be. Like, literally, they would have been the 85 bears. They would have been talked

about forever, the back-to-back Super Bowls. Do you want to, can I read you just a few these quotes and just riff and address whether it's say it'd actually left or not? He said it's, to me, the key to being the best you can be is to figure out who you are. Yeah, that's what I was talking about with, you know, I think it was he got fired by the Jets,

or the Patriots. I can't remember the timeline. He was a coach of the Jets and the Patriots for a hot minute, got fired out of the Lashed out of the NFL. And he looked inward. This is all in his book, went forever. He basically looked inward, spent like a year of self-discovery and figuring out what he wanted to be.

And this is what I was going to say before. I kind of just got off track. He is so specific of who he wants to be. and he has this philosophy, the circle of toughness. It's running the football, stopping the run, hitting hard. No turnovers. Yeah, like protecting the football. He has this very specific, like, philosophy and way,

and he calls it the most proven consistent championship formula of all time. And he believes in it, like, unrepentantly, unwaveringly believes in this. And for the longest time, me included, tried to get him to change. change. Like I, like, I, I, I wanted Russ to cook, like, all that stuff. He resisted for a really long time. There are stretches there where, like, he did go out and, like, quote, unquote, let Russ cook. And then it ended in spectacular failure. And, um, you know, I, at least, even though, like, I didn't always agree with him, at least I do very much respect that he, like, had a philosophy and stuck to it and, like, really believed in it and never really

wavered from that. And I think, you know, he's, he's talked about, like, um, just like the old coaches, the coaches of old school days, talking to him about like ignoring the noise, believing what you believe. And that's like the whole thing of like knowing who you are and adhering to that and sticking with it. Despite all the noise,

like change. I know people are probably listening to this thinking that some people have probably inspired the class and some of people are like, we are total saps and naive. I don't care. I just like watch the press conference because he also. Well, that's the question.

That was exactly what people said when he came into the NFL. When he got hired by the Seahawks, the reaction in Seattle, by and large, according to what I heard, was negative. People were not excited about. You can't talk to pros like this the way you talk to 18-year-old. They're not going to listen to you. They are grown men who have a lot of money. They're millionaires. It's just not going to work.

But the people that are around him, it's very infectious. Like that attitude, it's 100% contagious. And that's exactly what he's trying to do. And he respects the player. It's, I think it's like, he comes off as hokey, but in my mind, in my experience, he's extremely genuine. You know what I mean? Like, that's who he is. I'm also bummed Craig's not here because he had an amazing answer.

He has, that's about winning and with regret. And his regret was in, win enough. And they were like, anybody won a lot. He was like, he was talking about being at USC and he's like, we went three years undefeated in a row. He was like, like, and he was like, it ruins you. And I replayed it because I thought he misheard him. I was like, it really is like, it ruins you. He was like, oh, you won, you won undefeated for a year?

You win 12 in a row. 12 and 0, we'll go 13 and 0. Go 13 o, we got 14. I didn't say it. He was like, Jim Harbaugh won 15 and O. And Craig was literally like, why would Jim Harbaugh want to do more? And it's like, you go 15 and O, you want to go 16 and O. He's like, and he said, there's never enough wins.

You never have enough wins in life. And I just, it was literally like he had heard what Craig's question was yesterday on the previous show. Craig was talking about why would Harbaal leave his game. Well, he listens to our pod for sure, yeah. It would be amazing. Because Craig helped him do flying coach. you know, so they're big buds.

Yeah, honestly, if he's available, we'll get him on the ringer network. Hell yeah. Yeah, we'll just get Pete Carolina. I would just totally have Carol on to just tell us about life. I mean, honestly, like, yeah, I am very fascinated because Carol, he's done a whole bunch of work. He's, he's, like, been compared to Jackson, the Bulls coach from back in the day. Phil Jackson? Yeah, Phil Jackson.

He was like the guru. Does he drop acid and just, like, chill in Montana like Phil Jackson does? I would not surprise me. Just drop an acid to be like triangles the strongest shape in the natural. world. But like a big part of, a big part of Pete Carroll's program and people that have played other sports, people that have played tennis in particular

might know about this, but he's really big on this book called the Inner Game of Tennis. And, coach is a little, yeah. It's like quieting your mind and playing in the absence of fear, which I think is really, really useful, not just in sports, but like in all aspects

of life. Quieting your mind, not thinking, just playing, having no fear, going out there, and giving at your best. Like all this stuff is super fucking hokey. I totally acknowledge that and realize that. But like, I actually think it's really... But so is everyone is good. Tom, you know who's hokey? Tom Brady. Tom Brady.

Totally. Totally. Totally. Like, you know what's hokey? Remembering the names of the people drafted ahead of you. Totally. But at the end of the day, like, in my mind, his track record is unassailable. He's one of three, like one of three coaches all time. Two have won

a national championship and a Super Bowl. He's brought in, he ushered in the most successful era of Seahawks football. He's missed the playoffs like four years and 14. That's that you had that they didn't lose by more than seven or ten points or whatever. That's basically six years. Let me pull it up because I want to get it right. Sheel tweeted it earlier and I just want to make sure I have it right.

So it was Pete Carroll Seahawks had 98 straight games where they had a lead or within one score in the fourth quarter. 98 divided by 16. 98 games. 17. It's like five seasons. It's almost six seasons. I'm divided by 17.

Think about how many times your team got blown out this year alone. The dable giants have lost by 20 points like six times. I mean, it's the NFL. And it's especially true because so many games get out of hand in the fourth quarter and then you like have like some team score a touchdown and a game gets out of hand. 98 straight games where that never happened to them. You know what I mean? Like that's wild.

And it's all it's all about his like philosophy. belief system like straining, competing till the end. You know, he's big on like if you work hard enough and long enough, good things are going to happen. And so that's why there's so many fourth quarter comebacks. And honestly, like, again, it's like, I know it's hokey, but these are a lot of like principles that I have always like tried to apply to my life and my job and things like that. So, you know, I really appreciate it. It was like I was getting emotional watching him do his press conference because,

um, honestly, he's like, he's a leader. He's an excellent leader. and I think it's going to be a huge, massive, gigantic void is going to be created within the Seahawks. So it's going to be very interesting to see where they go from here. We'll pick this up on Friday. You know, obviously, well, D.K. is going to write a column for The Ringer,

and you're listening to this, I don't know, Wednesday, Thursday. At some point that column will be up on Thursday, probably. And please give that a read at the old ringer. At the ringer.com for old DK. And, you know, we'll pick up more. I don't know what's going to happen if P. Curl wants to go somewhere. We'll talk about that. The Seahawks, whatever. But like, you know, but this is weird. It's a weird situation.

Yeah. Now, with that said, I'm going to refresh USBIN.com right now. We'll see. What happened? Oh my God. Nick Saban is retiring. That's real. What the fuck?

This is like such a wild day. How many, yeah. Okay. So one, remember. Is Belichick? Dude, is Belichick going to retire today, too? Here are my takes. I have so much.

Here are my, literally like, we just found this out. Here are my thoughts. in order. Bill Belichick and Nick Sabin have a blood pact and there's some kind of like demonic tie that ties them

through the afterlife in the fourth dimension that one of them cannot exist without the other and so I think this is actually not Sabin retiring it's that Bill Belichick leaving football means that Nick Sabin's like

whatever deal with the devil and Satan he's made. It's like they're together must go out and crumble together. That's number one. Two, you said earlier in this show something about Now there's like, it used to be like CEO coaches, coaches that like manage the sideline,

looked at the clock. And now the coaches that are being made are essentially, it's almost like buying a company to get the IP. It's like you're hiring Ben Johnson for the Lions, not because you think he can run an organization, but because he can build an offense that will make your quarterback good and you hope he can run an organization. And like you look, Pete Carroll is out and his whole thing's running the organization. And he obviously is defensive coach.

Bill Belichick. There's so many things that those guys do. Yeah. And so Bill Belichick, obviously incredible defensive coordinator, but like, the CEO aspect is what he became amazing at. And then now we're losing Nick Saban. It's like, these guys are architects. These guys are essentially CEOs of massive companies that were running them for unprecedented. Like Nick Saban's resume is hard to even capture, but like, can I just read?

Like, I was just looking when Michigan won. Do the recap. Because I honestly like. Okay. So I'm just going to start with my favorite thing. Which is just the fucking, sorry to curse, the fucking list of the goddamn college football championships. Let me just start with like, like Nick Saban, this is where I like to start with Saban. So Saban takes over, the dolphins thing goes poorly in the tail between the lake, goes to Alabama.

Starting in 2009, here are the people who won the national championship of college football. Nick Saban, Auburn, Nick Saban, Nick Saban, Florida State, Ohio State, Nick Saban, Clemson. Nick Saban, Clemson, LSU. Nick Saban, Georgia, Georgia, who beat Nick Saban. Nick Saban, the Alabama made the national championship game. Let's see here. This season they made the college football football they made the championship game in what?

Not only did they win six titles, they lost three of them. So he made nine title games. In, sorry, my math's wrong and people are probably screaming, but you made nine title games in 13 years. It's just wild. Like that's dominant. Yeah. What the hell?

That's crazy. It's, it's truly like a Belichickian, Belichickian run for Alabama. It's like, if you look back at like the AFC championship, um, winners over the last like 20 years, it's like either Peyton or Brady. And then there's like three others. It's like, it's like really, really wild. you know, just that kind of dominance over that long stretch of time. So yeah, man, I don't even like know what to say about Belichick because I've been thinking so hard about Carol for the last like three hours.

I don't know either because it's like the Belichick Sabin stuff. It's like there was a point because also I think the reason we're bringing at Belichick too is like Belichick hired Sabin. Like you go back to the Cleveland Browns, which again are the Baltimore Ravens, which no one talks about. But the team that was the Ravens. Belichick and Sabin worked at the Browns together. That team became the Ravens.

That's a whole other story that I want to do one time. But like Bill Belichick, it just. And Saban just worked together in Cleveland. And they split. And he went to New England. And then Sabin went to, where is it, Michigan State first and then LSU. And it's like the, I guess if you just cut it off, you know, Belichick wins that first trilogy of championships.

And then from the 2007, they don't win the Super Bowl. Giants, huh? But like, Patriots go 60 to know it's the best team I've ever seen. And then Nick Saban wins the championship at Bama. And then that sets off this whole decade where what the Patriots do. They won three Super Bowls. And they also lost two of them. them. So Belichick made five of the 10, he made half the Super Bowls in one three in one in the

NFL. And then Nick Sabin was in college football making what, sorry, at top of my head, but seven and winning six or winning five. They both won. They both made half the title games and won collectively almost half of them in college, in the college and the pros. And it's just these two guys who were like friends 40 years ago and mumble. Yeah, it's wild. Now I'm like truly wondering what, what's going to happen with Belichick. Like, is the, is he just going to announce right now. Might as well do it now. Everyone else is doing it.

It's just something Nick Saban did him a favor of sparing him the attention. I can't actually can't believe. Or was he jealous? Yeah, he's like he wants to like overshadow. Stealing it. The one thing I'll say that Nick Saban, I'm sorry that this is totally like weird and we're just doing it off the top of the dome and it probably said

scattered. But did you ever hear Nick Saban give his recruiting pitch? In 2020, COVID, one of the process, I don't even know who it was, but some recruits dad or something. recorded Nick Saban doing the pitch over Zoom and it was in it was like

I was like yeah I get why he gets whoever he wants it was basically like I'm going to make you millions of dollars and I might get the names wrong and I apologize and he was like well here's the reason you should come to Alabama he's like number one they're probably going to tell you oh you won't play there but you'll play here and two that's not true

one if I didn't think you could start at University of Alabama I wouldn't be here two by telling you that they're kind of saying, they're not, they're not as good as us, aren't they? So they're kind of applying you don't want to win championships.

He's like, two, you want to be a pro playing time. They're saying you go there. He's like, Omar Cooper, first receiver taken in 2015, went up every day,

gets Micka Fitzpatrick first quarterback taken in 2015, practicing every day. And he's like, I forget to tackle versus the defensive end practice, first one taken in the draft

versus the first defensive end taking the draft every day. And he's like, the talent that you practice against Alabama will be five times a week better than the people you face on Saturdays, that the people get better

Monday to Saturday, Monday to Friday, not on Saturday. And I just like, and it was just like, I don't know, I see how this guy built an empire. Good salesman. Iron sharpens iron. I like that. Yeah, I'm honestly like at a kind of a loss for words. This is a weird day. What the fuck is going on?

Because, honestly, because we were on a ringer meeting when the Pete Carroll news dropped. And I was like stunned. I was honestly kind of speechless because everything that we'd been hearing was that there wasn't going to be like any major shift until the Siosk gets sold, which is a totally different wrinkle that we haven't even talked about. Oh my God, yeah.

The Paul Allen will has some stipulation that he wants the team to be sold by some date. Yeah, this is a whole other subplot that like Paul Allen who, you know, obviously Microsoft and stuff, and Paul Allen owned the CX and died. And Paul Allen's estate, you can look into it. It's Paul Allen's estate is essentially like one of the largest estate. that's ever had to be sorted by in like American history. And so the process of it is like obscenely complex where it's like, imagine like having an estate so large that selling the NFL team is just like on the

to-do list. I know, right? Like there's just, but the May 2nd or May 3rd is the day where if the Search is going to be sold, that's when it might first happen. So like we don't know what's happening, but like, you know, Jeff Bezos is there in Seattle. So it's like Jeff Bezos might buy the Seahawks like $7 billion. We have no idea.

But that's like totally right there with all this. So, but bottom line, like, I don't think anyone really knew this was coming. There was a lot. There was questions being asked if Carol was done. But for the most part, it was like, nah, he's probably going to be around for a while. There might be changes to the rest of his staff. You know, he might fire the defensive coordinator and kind of like start different. But, yeah, it sounds like Jody Allen, Paul Allen's sister, fired him, essentially.

We, yeah. And now John Schneider. And the answer that we got in the press conference was that John Schneider, the GM, is sticking around and he gets to choose the next head coach and stay on as GM. So this is kind of one of those weird. The coach gets fired even though he was John Schneider's boss. Like Pete Carroll was in charge of everything. He was the president or I don't know exactly, executive title. But he was the buck stopped with him.

He was John Schneider's boss. And now John Schneider gets to choose the next coach. So it's going to be, yeah, going to be very interesting. see what happens here. To try to just button this all up and, well, not button it up, but more just set the table for, like, this is pretty tick, like, this is a Game of Thrones level, um, musical chairs that's just happening right now. Because you're talking about the defining football programs of the 21st century are the New

England Patriots in Alabama. And then to a lesser degree, the Seattle Seahawks. And then to a lesser degree, but still like one of the best jobs out there is the University of Michigan. And there's a world where Jim Harbaal leaves Michigan and the Michigan job, I don't know if it opens so much. I think they know who they're going to give it to. But regardless, there's change there. Alabama, maybe this has already come out by now, but like, I mean, that's the most coveted job in the entire college football world.

Yeah, but can you imagine taking that job? Yeah, that's like the dream. It's like going on after the Beatles. I didn't use that expression. For Belichick going on after the Beatles, yeah. It's like, well, the difference is the college, it's easier because you have the brand name that you're just, you know, your job is to sell Coca-Cola. Patriots, it's like, you have to do, I think what Belichick did is harder. Like, the Belichick, the entire system is designed.

Like, college football is, for sure. Oh, yeah. College football is designed for an oligopoly of dominance and exceivated. Yeah, there's momentum because of recruiting in college. Yeah, and Belichetian. The Patriots, it's the opposite. The NFL is designed for nobody to be that good for that long. John Schneider, Ciox, Ciox GM once said, and I love this, I love this expression.

This has no longer replied since there's 17 games now, but he said, the league pushes everyone to eight and eight. Yeah, and it's true. The rules of the league, the way the draft is set up, the way the rules of free agency and waivers and everything is set up to elevate the bad teams and push down the good teams, the way the schedule is set up. So I think that, I guess overall, maybe this is an aggressive take, but I'm just going to say it and maybe I just sound stupid.

But there's, I think historians, maybe it's Howard Zinn. Someone basically argues that like the 20th century, the 21st century began at 9-11. And that for intents and purposes, like, that was the event. And like the, the 20th century was actually like, World War I, like France,

Ferdin and assassinated. And it ended with the Berlin Wall. And the 90s are like this weird stopgap. And then the 21st century and the modern world basically began in 9-11. And I feel like if you look at history, I almost feel like, loki,

like the aughts kind of ended today. I feel like the, or maybe the pandemic was this weird thing. But I feel like an era of football literally officially ended with Nick Sabin, Pete Carroll, and at some point probably Bill Belichick in the same week

all leaving. And then maybe if Jim Harbaugh, if Jim Harbaugh, Sabin and Belichick all leave at the same times, I feel like at some point like this is some major, major shifts. Like this is some major, major stuff.

Yeah, this is like the Berlin Wall. It's like a neat bookend, like all right, that era of history is done and we're in a new one now. Like, you know what I mean? Maybe that sounds hyperbolic and insane, but. No, I know. I get what you're saying, though.

Like, it's the way that we look back on eras, right? Yeah. And we're going to look back on this era. Um, and those guys are the like protagonist. Those are the main characters. Yeah, the protagonists left. That's like crazy. Um, it reminds me of like Game of Thrones and like they, you know, these guys are not dead. But when they kill off one of the major players and then like the other kingdoms, you know, take in those guys. Take it, take in everyone else.

Like what is it going to happen with this, uh, the power structure in college football, the power structure in the NFL? Um, yeah, it's, it's very, it's very fascinating. I truly, again, like to wrap it all up, like, I'm still just kind of in shock. I don't know what to think of this whole situation. It's wild to me that the Seahawks actually fired Pete Carroll. Even though, like, at the end of the day, from a like 100% football specific point of view,

like he hadn't really been doing all that great lately. They'd been overachieving, I think. But like their defense, one of the worst defenses in the NFL. So like I can see from a football point of view, but it's truly shocking from like a cultural and, you know, in that building, impact that he brings point of view like it's really weird really really weird to see him up there

you know crying because he really wanted to keep this job and they wouldn't let him you know what I mean like that's kind of tough enough tough enough yeah I guess but no I love and appreciate that about Carol it's like one of those things it's like really funny because like he drove me crazy but also when I was watching that I was like get mad I was like why the fuck did they fire this guy you know what I mean like um so it yeah kind of a weird dichotomy of emotion all right well we're going to bounce thank you for sticking with us to set it up we thought this would be a nice little piquaryl uh emergency pod riff and then suddenly nick sabin retired in the middle of it so hope you guys enjoyed i don't even i haven't even like begin to think about that's crazy all right thank you dk thank you jesse for just hopping on this emergency pod that was way longer than we told them it would be uh thank you everyone for listening and we'll have our preview show on

Friday and then we're going to have like, yeah, Sunday recaps, and then we'll have previewing the playoff rounds, and the NFL draft show is going to be on Wednesdays for the rest of the season, and then after the season ends, we're going to go twice a week with the NFL draft show, so please check that out. Thank you, everyone, and yeah, subscribe, follow, all that jazz, and thank you. And yeah, just remember the key to consistent success. Know who you are. Boom. Thank you,

Lauren. Thank you, the Beatles. It is like, dude, the Belichick job is like going out of the Beatles. It's like, you can't get the, I'm serious. Mike Rable is the only person. that like is going to people are going to be like oh yeah this will let's stay for this yeah like going home all right goodbye must be 21 plus and present in select states fandwell is offering online sports wagering in kansas under an agreement with kansas star casino llc gambling problem call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul dot com slash rg in colorado iowa kentucky michigan

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