It is an interesting story, but as usual the title really overplays what went down here. Even Chow indicates that it was ultimately his choice to leave and he left to make more money in a more prestigious position. However, it doesn't mean that Pete took the correct approach here either.
Pardon me while I wildly speculate for a moment how Pete's philosophy during his time at USC and currently with the Seahawks could be causing some unanticipated negative side-effects on the organization as a whole and on Wilson. I want to acknowledge there are extremely positive results that have come from Pete's approach, but in order to keep this shorter, I am going to focus on potential negatives.
Carroll's Philosophy
If anyone has ready Pete's book,
Win Forever, you will undoubtedly come away with the understanding that Pete's philosophy is derived in large part from the positive thinking movement which interestingly has its roots in mid-19th century "healing" experiments. At its core, it is the belief that one can literally will positive outcomes if one simply puts all their energy into positive thoughts. More recent subject matter on this topic include the book titled
The Secret (2006). On the surface it can sound crazy, it does have some actual benefits, but it also has some significant pitfalls. Namely, in-authenticity. If someone only focuses on the positive, they will, at worst, ignore problems, and at best, significantly downplay them, invariably stunting adaptation and problem solving.
Potential Signs of Negative Impacts
- Pete's tendency to hold onto his coordinators longer than some think reasonable given their performance.
The whole debacle over accountability for "the play" in LIX (maybe he just wanted to move past it?)
Seeming avoidance of even acknowledging locker room challenges
His apparent aggravation with press questions related to negative topics
His seemingly overly positive outlook on every significant injury when predicting return dates
Has this impacted Russel Wilson?
Continuous positive thinking breeds in-authenticity and where might we observe this in Wilson?
You know the term "dress for success"? Take a look at Wilson's wardrobe transformation from when he first boarded that plane with his teammates to Hawaii in docker pants and a Hawaiian shirt to what we see him don each press conference. Do you think the way he is dressing now is in accordance with his true self or how he dressed before?
His press conferences seem to have increasingly focus on the positive and downplayed the negative. He just doesn't come across as genuine in the majority of his public facing engagements. I think it is perhaps understandable, but it does give off a weird vibe and can rub people the wrong way.
The positive thinking movement calls for one to have a singular goal that you are striving for and intensely focus on that AND that it can be achieved through
thought. This point is key and I am not saying he is completely sold into this philosophy but it might explain some blind spots. Wilson has consistently said he wants to be the greatest player to have ever played, that is is a very clear goal. The problem with this positive thinking philosophy is it has a tendency for the person to begin relying more on their thoughts and less on their actions with the assumption that the thoughts are going to "magically" manifest the reality of the goal. Cray talk right? Some evidence of someone going down this path might be an erosion of once mastered skills, a lack of progression in problem areas as they spend less time in action, working on their craft, and more time visualizing their end goal.
If you made it this far, congratulations.
Again, I will repeat, this is wild speculation, but I enjoy philosophy what can I say? Some random thoughts this morning.
