Pete Carroll is weird

When Doug Pederson and Pete Carroll meet at midfield on Sunday, it’ll be a meeting of two outstanding, Super Bowl winning head coaches. And that’s about all they have in common. Their resumes contrast each other, Pederson is a comparatively young (Pederson played against Carroll when Carroll coached the Patriots) and offensive coach, Carroll is a hugely experienced defensive coach, one can even take note of their most famous plays in the Super Bowl. But the differences extend beyond the bios.

Doug Pederson treats his team to ice cream and beats other coaches in games of golf. He’s The Dad of the NFL.

Pete Carroll is... well, to put it charitably... a weird guy.

First and foremost, he is a 9/11 truther or at least just a guy asking questions.

In particular, Carroll wanted to know whether the attack on the Pentagon had really happened. Chiarelli—who was the top-ranking Army official inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into its western side—explained that it had. He said he had lost many colleagues. But Carroll didn’t stop there. He ran through the whole 9/11 truther litany.

”Every 9/11 conspiracy theory you can think of, Pete asked about,” said Riki Ellison, the former NFL linebacker who now runs the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance and introduced Carroll to Chiarelli.

When they show shots of Pete Carroll on the sideline, he looks like a crazy guy hanging around a bus stop.

Turns out he shares some of the same opinions too.

He once had Jordan Peterson speak to the Seahawks. If you don’t know who Jordan Peterson is (you’re better off not knowing), all you need to know is that Pete Carroll had to apologize for it.

And then there are his music tastes. To each his own, but he listens to the kind of stuff that a man half his age (or in one case, a girl a quarter his age) does. Such as Macklemore. On loop.

Haggerty, 30, has become friends with Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll, 62, who reached out to him last year after falling in love with Macklemore’s music. Carroll bought an album and spent much of last season playing it on an endless loop in his Seahawks office. Typically, the coach has his sound system cranked so loud his secretary has to turn it down when he steps out of his corner office.

“He immediately resonated with the music,” Haggerty said. “He’s somebody who’s 62 years old, but looks like he’s 45, and acts like he’s 30. He’s just a cool coach and down-to-earth person.”

Maybe they also bonded over their theories on 9/11.

Carroll’s musical tastes go further down the rabbit hole. He follows Tiesto and One Direction on Twitter. Why does a 68 year old man do this.

Speaking of his Twitter account, he has favorited just five tweets, one of which is his own. He follows “Pete Carrolls Gum” (which can’t even punctuate correctly) and the Bronx Zoo cobra, which is really lame. But worst of all, and I hope you’re sitting down for this:

He follows Bill Cosby.

And he’s done it for a while, he’s pretty far down on his list of follows.

More recently, at the 2019 combine he took his shirt off to meet DK Metcalf.

To be fair to Carroll, Metcalf caught 7 TDs and had a 15.5 yards per catch, and he was drafted seven picks after JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who has 10 catches.

Pete Carroll is a great coach. One who very well might be coaching next weekend while Doug Pederson refines his golf game. But he’s also one hell of a weird dude.