One of Pete Carroll's best qualities, both as a human being and a football coach, is his loyalty. He doesn't pretend to be positive and like people, either. He genuinely does. And even though he doesn't work for the Seattle Seahawks anymore, the coach has maintained a good relationship with former players.
Most, except for Earl Thomas, that is. Carroll doesn't want to not talk to Thomas, the coach told Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson on their Da Get Got podcast recently, but the former safety doesn't want to talk to the coach.
Fans remember the last thing Thomas did on the field in a Seahawks uniform, most likely. In Week 4 of the 2018 season, after a holdout during training camp, the free safety broke his leg and had to be carted off the field. While leaving the field, Thomas stuck out one of the middle fingers on his right hand toward Carroll. Everyone knew what the gesture meant.
Pete Carroll says former Seahawks safety Earl Thomas doesn't love him
Thomas felt Carroll had lied to him about a potential contract extension. That certainly does not seem to be the coach's normal way of doing business. If he lied often, he would not have inspired the loyalty he has from many former Seahawks. Thomas, of course, is not among that group.
The coach addressed keeping in touch with his former players on Lynch and Robinson's pod, but was clear to point out Thomas as the exception to the rule.
Carroll said, "I kind of keep track of everybody as best I can, and for those guys just to be available, if they’ve got questions, they’ve got thoughts, they’ve got whatevers, you know...and when we go through this thing together, there’s a connection that’s made. It doesn’t fall away. It doesn’t go apart unless you’re talking to Earl or something like that, you know. I still love Earl....He doesn’t love me."
The shame, of course, and despite Thomas's off-field issues since he left Seattle after 2018, is that the best era of Seahawks football was created in part by Carroll and Thomas. The defense doesn't take shape (and neither does the roster overall) unless Carroll is in charge, but Thomas's work deep in the secondary helped make everything in front of him work.
Any hopes of the safety and the coach making up seem remote. Six seasons have gone by since Thomas left the Seahawks, and 2025 will be Carroll's second since he left Seattle (he is now the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders). It seems that the coach would welcome a productive conversation, but the safety is resistant to doing so.