Pete Carroll talks Seahawks’ viral visit with mentalist Oz Pearlman
Nov 4, 2022, 12:04 PM | Updated: 12:18 pm
Oz Pearlman speaks onstage during Michael Muller's HEAVEN, presented by The Art of Elysium, on January 5, 2019. (Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for The Art of Elysium)
(Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for The Art of Elysium)
The Seahawks’ play on the field has captured the attention of the football world, but something the team did off the field made waves across the internet as well.
During training camp, the Seahawks had Oz Pearlman, a famous magician and “mentalist,” visit the team. Parts of his visit were released on video this week and quickly went viral, including Pearlman being able to unlock DK Metcalf’s phone. You can watch the video in the tweet below.
DK's reaction when Oz Pearlman guessed his passcode 😂 @OzTheMentalist had the @Seahawks on one with his mindreading. pic.twitter.com/GV0cM6cow7
— ESPN (@espn) October 30, 2022
During this week’s Pete Carroll Preview on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM, the Seahawks head coach talked to Steve Raible about Pearlman’s now famous visit to team headquarters.
“Well, firstly, it was just an event that we did during camp that worked out famously,” Carroll said Friday morning. “I had never heard of Oz and didn’t know anything about him, and when he came to our attention, I jumped at it because we were looking for whatever we could do to spark up the camp time.”
In addition to the parts shown in the viral video, Carroll said Pearlman did probably seven or more “things that were crazy” that were “way more (crazy) than what they showed in those clips.”
“But the thing I’m amazed by is that he didn’t miss on one of them. Every single thing that he said he could do and come up with, he blew us away,” Carroll said. “I mean, whoever’s listening to this, you need to go check this guy out because I’m telling you, it was real.”
One of the funnier moments from the video was when Pearlman was able to accurately guess the name of who receiver Penny Hart was thinking of. The two locked hands and when they broke from the other’s grip, Hart’s hand had the name “Steve” on it. Hart was in shock and went to his seat, grabbed his bag and walked out of the room.
“You watch Penny Hart. He pulled out a name for Penny Hart and Penny Hart had to pick up his stuff and walk out because he was so blown away,” Carroll said. “He was scared to death in what happened. And that was just the start of it.”
“It was amazing. It was really fun. We’ve referred back to it. There’s some crazy stuff that was done. And he’s got a lot of stuff to show everybody,” Carroll later added. “… But he was worth every second of it.”
One moment that wasn’t shown on the video involved Carroll himself. In the “finale,” Carroll was one of a few people involved and he asked Carroll where he’d take the Seahawks if they win this season’s Super Bowl.
“I had a place in mind, and so when it came to it, he asked … ‘Where’s the place that you want to take the team?’ I said South Africa. I mean, there’s no way anybody knew that I would say South Africa,” Carroll said.
Sure enough, Pearlman was on it.
“He pulls out of a sealed box two to three boxes deep … and he pulls (a paper) out, and he reads the thing to us … and at the bottom of it, it said, ‘To celebrate the victory, Coach Carroll is taking the entire team to South Africa,'” Carroll said. “I mean, there’s no way he could have known that. It was written, sealed, and it was amazing. So I’m glad we had a chance to talk about the guy, because I hope somebody else gets to see him.”
Listen to the full Pete Carroll Preview at this link or in the player below.
Pete Carroll Preview: The challenge of Seahawks facing Cardinals again
