RENTON, Wash. — Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made it clear Monday he would have preferred all-pro cornerback Richard Sherman deliver his message in a more delicate way than he did after Sunday’s NFC championship game win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“We did sit down and talk about it because I wanted him to present himself in his best light, because he’s an incredible kid,” Carroll said. “I think he is very understanding at this point that he caused a stir that took something away from the team.”
Carroll’s comments also make it clear he sees the edge and attitude in Sherman’s postgame comments as one reason the Seahawks got to where they are — headed to Super Bowl XLVIII to play the Broncos on Feb. 2 in East Rutherford, N.J.
Carroll reflected on the road Seattle has traveled since he took over in 2010 as he met with the media Monday after Sunday’s 23-17 win over the 49ers. The victory was preserved when Sherman batted a pass into the hands of teammate Malcolm Smith in the end zone with 22 seconds left.
Carroll insisted that from the day he arrived from USC, he believed the Seahawks could get to the Super Bowl quickly.
“It’s later than we wanted it to be,” Carroll said. “But we are still on track for something really special. We had to wait a little bit. It might be worth it.”
If there was a moment when Carroll began to see it come together, he recalled Monday, it was midway through his second season in 2011, when first- and second-year players such as Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor began to emerge.
Those players, along with the likes of wide receiver Doug Baldwin (an undrafted rookie in 2011) and running back Marshawn Lynch (acquired midway through the 2010 season) began to show the competitiveness Carroll knew it would take to get to the top.
“I think you can see that we have really chosen guys that have a feeling that they have something to prove,” Carroll said. “I feel like that, John (general manager John Schneider) feels like that. We all kind of feel like that. A little bit of a ‘chip on the shoulder’ mentality around here. And it’s something I recognized in the second year here. I think we had a bunch of guys that understood what that meant, and we have just kind of built on that somewhat.
“So I think we are a very, very competitive group and they understand the value of that and how that fuels us and gets us where we want to go. … It’s a powerful feeling that we have.”
A feeling that helped lead to Sherman’s decisive tip of Colin Kaepernick’s pass Sunday. Then came Sherman’s rant, boasting and deriding intended receiver Michael Crabtree, whom Sherman felt had slighted him at a charity softball game last year.
Carroll said he talked to Sherman on Monday, and that Sherman “didn’t feel right” about the way he presented himself.
Carroll said he also talked to the Seahawks about acknowledging and being grateful for what they’ve achieved. “I think we’re very fortunate to have come together at this time to make this happen,” he told the team.
