The Super Bowl XLIX will be remembered. Of course, there's the worst call in the history of sports, made by Pete Carroll. Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, resembles a college professor in so many ways. He's got the eternal youthful quality of a guy who just refuses to get old. Call it Southern California hype, or whatever, but the college professor wants to stay young to keep up with his students and especially to appeal to the female students. The academic stud. The guy whose got it all going on. But he's not selfish. He shares that energy with his players. He is Cheerleader in Chief, jumping up and down, patting on the back and tossing a football on the field pre-game like an enthusiastic kid!
Bill Bellichick, the New England Patriots coach, actually a year younger than Pete Carroll at 62 years, has the look of a football gnome-- a rumpled hoodie compared to Pete Carroll in a dry-cleaned polo shirt.
The quarterbacks for each team are a study in contrast too. Tom Brady is the surgeon. Russell Wilson is an improviser, a speedster, a shape-shifter.
Brady moved his team down the field with a general's careful determination. And if Brady is General Brady than Belichick is the Commander-in-Chief, clomping around Command Central with a look of mild dissatisfaction plastered on his face.
Carroll has the perfect mentality for Russell Wilson. Carroll tolerates the unknown, the unknowable, way better than the Patriots coach ever could. In a pre-game special Russell Wilson proclaimed a turning point in his quarterbacking career when he pleaded with his coach, "Let me go." The game played several years ago was actually against this same New England Patriots team. Wilson found his rhythm when freed from the constraints of scientific football, to begin his career as a master of living in the moment, the improvisational magician with incredible speed moving out of the pocket and beyond the restraints of the planned play.
The question remains-- why did Pete Carroll make such an inane call at the end of the game? To turn a phrase... he got too cute. Yeah, the prof that tries to stay cute for the college girls and clever and creative, the gambling man-- just lost his cool.
"You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, " as Kenny Rogers instructs. Carroll held all the cards on the one yard line. Just hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch or let Russell Wilson improvise with his legs, but do not throw the ball under any circumstances.
The Grinch, Bill Belichick, was careful not to criticize Carroll. I liked that. He may be a cheater and a winning-obsessed, non-smiler but Belichick is not a braggart, didn't crow at a moment that would have tempted anybody... He was sitting on top of the world and still kept a straight face. Now that's a poker player.
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