Pete Carroll reiterates what you could have assumed: He’s not interested in Rams job
Dec 14, 2016, 3:51 PM | Updated: 3:52 pm
Pete Carroll on the Rams job: "I couldn’t have said it any more clearly, I’m not interested." (AP)
(AP)
RENTON – Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had some fun on Wednesday when asked about his reaction to a recent report that the Rams are interested in hiring him to replace the recently fired Jeff Fisher.
Is he amused by it? Annoyed? Indifferent?
“I’m really annoyed by it,” Carroll joked. “So why’d you bring it up? Nah, I don’t care. It’s kind of something I’ve been through before, and I couldn’t have said it any more clearly, I’m not interested.”
Carroll’s last line reiterated what he told Los Angeles-area reporters Tuesday during a conference call ahead of Thursday night’s Seahawks-Rams game. A Yahoo Sports report from a day earlier called Carroll “a monster name that intrigues the power brokers” inside the Rams franchise, which is in the early stages of a head-coaching search after firing Fisher. Asked if he’d like to rule out that possibility, Carroll laughed and said, “Yes.”
So case closed, not that it was ever all that open in the first place. The Rams’ reported interest in Carroll is understandable even with all the seemingly insurmountable roadblocks there would be to hiring him, which were laid out in Charles Robinson’s Yahoo column.
But the notion that it could actually happen – if there was such a notion – was somewhere between far fetched and absurd even with Carroll’s deep ties to Los Angeles. Consider both the logistics and his situation in Seattle compared to what he would inherit with the Rams.
Carroll has a ready-made Super Bowl contender with a franchise quarterback. He has, by every indication, an excellent working relationship with general manager John Schneider and he just signed a three-year extension over the summer that makes him one of the NFL’s highest-paid coaches.
The Rams have a new stadium and a talented defense but not much else. They’re bound to finish with a losing record for the 10th straight season, their offense is a disaster and the early returns have not been promising with rookie quarterback Jared Goff, the No. 1 overall pick. Why would Carroll, at 65 years old, leave an ideal situation in Seattle for that even if he could?
Maybe that’s why he had fun with the questions.
