Good Afternoon, 12s.
Here's a look at what's out there for today – Tuesday, April 28 – about your Seattle Seahawks.
Pete Carroll, Steve Kerr & Special Guest Brené Brown In Episode 3 Of The Flying Coach Podcast
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr are back with their third episode of the Talking Coach podcast, which is not only an entertaining and informative listen, but also one that is helping raise money for COVID-19 relief. If you missed either of the first two episodes, you can find them here.
This week, the two championship-winning coaches were joined by Brené Brown, a research professor, best-selling author and speaker who studies courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy.
Carroll and Kerr discussed the just-completed NFL draft, how teams handle the highs and loses of winning and falling short of championships, and with Brown, they dive into the topic of vulnerability.
Carroll on the draft: "We made it through it. What a unique experience. Such a unique experience in coordination, a challenge to figure something out that you've never done before. It was really rewarding to get through it. Our guys were incredible, they were so poised throughout the process. We had the tech backup people, and everything was really smooth."
Carroll joked he made "a classic error" by attempting to switch over to a new laptop on the day of the draft rather than stick to the one he had been preparing with, but said other than that "real screwup" things went well.
One of the more interesting parts of the discussion was when the two talked about some of the extreme highs and lows both coaches' teams have experienced in back-to-back seasons. The Warriors, if you'll recall, won a championship in Kerr's first season, then came back the next year and set an NBA record with 73 regular-season wins, only two lose a heartbreaking seven-games series to Cleveland in the NBA Finals. The Seahawks, of course, won the first Super Bowl title in franchise history, then came up just short of a repeat in the following Super Bowl.
"Those two years were classic examples that we have to deal with the experiences that come to us and put them in proper perspective so that you can move ahead and not let that change who you are any more than you want to," Carroll said. "The positive was a huge challenge, and the negative was a huge challenge. They both become distractions you have to deal with… We've seen the top of it and we've seen the bottom of it—if the bottom can ever be that you're in the Super Bowl and you lose—but that's what it came off like because we lost in such dramatic fashion… Both of those were so important to deal directly with everybody's mentality, and get us right, get back to what the next step we always take during the season—the game we just played has nothing to do with the next game, unless you let it."
Kerr noted that, "We had a very similar experience. We won the title in '15, came back in '16 and we were a better team. Because of the championship in '15, we had a level of confidence that was just sky high, set a record winning 73 games, then lose in seven games to Cleveland in the final. Just running the gamut of this young team winning the championship in '15, to all of a sudden this team that's better, losing in the seventh game, and these are my first two years coaching. Like, my God, I've seen it all in these first two years coaching… This is the whole point of competing; you're vulnerable. You put yourself in this position where you're going to be judged by millions of people watching. All of your athletes are out there laying it on the line, and there's so much at stake, so even as coaches we feel that."
Brown, who has spoken to the Seahawks in the past, dove deeper into the topic of vulnerability. Be sure to check it out wherever you listen to podcasts.
Social Post Of The Day
Today's social post of the day comes from our Twitter account, sharing video of the moment when John Schneider called seventh-round pick Stephen Sullivan to tell him he was about to become a Seahawk.
More From Around The Web
The Seahawks parted ways with a pair of veteran offensive linemen on Monday, releasing center Justin Britt and guard D.J. Fluker.
Gregg Bell of The News Tribune writes about the Seahawks opening their offseason workout program virtually, with comments on that topic from Carroll and Schneider's post-draft press conference.
710 ESPN Seattle looks at which draft picks might have the best chance at making an immediate impact.
