Pete Carroll absolutely nailed what it takes to win in his press conference

It's a bit ironic that Pete Carroll gave the definitive answer to winning as he announced he's stepping down as the Seattle Seahawks head coach. The issue was never the message. For the past few years, the delivery and the reception have become the problem. And so, here we are.

Pete Carroll is no longer the head coach of the Seahawks. I'm guessing you heard about that by now, along with every other 12 on the planet, right? Even though we've been discussing the possibility of a departure off and on all season long, it was still something of a shock. You can listen to Carroll's press conference in its entirety below. The presser begins at 31:34. Be warned if you haven't seen it yet: get a couple of boxes of tissues. The family size.

You've probably already heard the whole thing, or at least two of the most heartwarming and/or gut-wrenching parts of his remarks. Indeed, you get a true sense of Carroll's humanity at the very beginning of the presser. But his most interesting comments, at least to me, came during the Q&A. Overall, the Seattle press did a great job and gave Carroll several thoughtful questions. I probably would have asked something brilliant like, what's going to happen to the guy who has the Seahawks bubble gum contract?

The Seattle Seahawks were lucky to have a deep thinker like Carroll

This is a long quote, but I think it's important for you to read it in its entirety. I'm sure Google Analytics, SEO algorithms, and all the rest of the alphabet soup of internet protocols don't like it. To me, it's fascinating to see the stream of consciousness of this man. To hear this response from the man himself, it starts at about the 51:10 mark:

"The essence of being as good as you can be is you gotta figure out who you are. You gotta figure out in that relentless effort to get clear about what's important to you, what uncompromising principles do you stand by, what makes you who you are, so if you don't go through that process, if you don't do the self-discovery, then you don't have an opportunity to be your best because you don't know who you are yet.

"And so it's really hard for our young guys because they're just figuring it out. But as they come through their time here, by the time they get 25, 26, we see the development. But for anybody, you have to understand what kind of player you are, you have to understand what kind of coach you are, you have to understand what kind of person you are, what kind of dad you are, and all the way down the line, to maximize your authenticity and be connected to that true essence of who you are. That's what's crucial.

"Without that, you're gonna be sometimes and you're gonna be sometimes [pointing in two different directions]. That's why, you know, people don't - it's hard to be consistently successful, 'cause people don't even know how they got there a lot of times. It just happens kinda along the way, circumstances come together and all, you know. So that's, to me, the essence of it. That's how I understand it."

My first thought was, "Why has this man only been coaching football all this time?" I'm not knocking the profession or the game, but does this sound like the statement of a typical football coach? Usually, it's the typical coachspeak about giving 110 percent, playing every game like it's your last, stuff like that. It's remarkable to hear something so relatable to everyday life. Pete was talking about winning in life, not just in football. The Xs and Os may have gotten out of hand, but the philosophy never did.

I certainly hope that Carroll accepts the Seahawks' offer to stay on. I think he will if give him something meaningful. They'll have to. He won't be interested in just showing up and looking good. He's all about building connections and moving forward. In the correct role, I expect he'll be just as successful as he was for his first 14 years in Seattle.

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