Huard’s read on Pete Carroll catching up with Seahawks GM on flight

Stop me if you’re heard this one before: So a San Francisco 49ers reporter, the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, and the Seattle Seahawks head coach and general manager are all on the same flight…

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Grant Cohn, publisher of 49ers On SI, posted a fascinating video on social media Monday after flying to the NFL combine in Indianapolis. He flew out of Seattle (he explains why in the video), and it just so happened that former Seahawks and new Raiders head coach Pete Carroll was on the flight in coach. In first class, meanwhile, was Seahawks general manager/president of football operations John Schneider along with Seattle’s current coach, Mike Macdonald.

According to Cohn, Carroll ventured up to first class and spent an hour or so talking to Schneider and Macdonald during the flight. He even took a video of Carroll standing in the aisle chatting with the pair.

Not something you see every day.

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On Tuesday morning, Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard – longtime host of Brock and Salk, FOX Sports football analyst and a former NFL quarterback – shared his thoughts after watching Cohn’s video.

“I honestly believe there is no animus between John Schneider and Pete Carroll,” said Huard, who spent over a decade interviewing Carroll the day after every Seahawks game.

That may come off as a bit of a surprise considering the Seahawks let Carroll go after 14 seasons last year while keeping Schneider. And it probably should be a surprise, according to Huard.

“Do you know how rare that is to happen in the NFL?” Huard continued. “Or Major League Baseball, or any professional franchise, where you have a marriage for 13-14 years, separate (where) one gets to stay, one has to go? Usually those (relationships) are fractured. Usually those are not warm and friendly. Usually one burned a bridge, one undercut the other, one protected their own self-interest. I don’t feel (it’s) that way.”

Huard believes Carroll and Schneider, who both started with the Seahawks in 2010, remain good friends.

“You don’t have that unless there is just kind of real bonds and real friendship,” Huard said of their conversation on Monday’s flight. “I’m sure they were talking about higher-level NFL stuff. I’m sure there was some talk about ownership. … I would have loved to have been in (seats) 3D and 3E right behind that conversation. Just been a little fly on the wall and listen to all of that banter.”

I think that goes for all of us.

Hear Brock Huard answer three football questions in Blue 88, the final segment of the podcast from Tuesday’s Brock and Salk at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Blue 88 airs at 7:45 a.m. during each episode of Brock and Salk, which you can catch from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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