Contrasting coaching styles yield Super results

Contrasting coaching styles yield Super results

PHOENIX - Seattle coach Pete Carroll's energetic style couldn't be more removed from the downbeat displays of New England's Bill Belichick, but each has a way of bringing out greatness in a team.

Coach Pete Carroll (L) of the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick attend a Super Bowl XLIX head coach joint press conference on January 30, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona

Carroll, in his fifth year with the Seahawks, is vying to become the first coach to win back-to-back Super Bowls since Belichick's 2003-04 Patriots in Sunday's 49th edition of the NFL's championship spectacle.

The two are connected through New England, where Carroll preceded Belichick as coach, lasting three seasons before he was sacked by owner Robert Kraft.

Although Kraft paid the heavy price of surrendering a first-round NFL Draft pick to bring in Belichick, he speaks of Carroll with respect, even affection.

"He's pretty special to be around," Kraft said of Carroll, whose touchy-feely style has turned out to be perfectly suited to the Pacific Northwest. "He's a lot of fun. He's not your typical head coach in the NFL."

Although he's 63, Carroll has a knack for connecting with young players, with his music-blasting practices and meeting-room basketball hoop.

Carroll's Seahawks are "structured around helping people be the best that they can be" and celebrate the "uniqueness" of each player.

Belichick, in the traditional mold of NFL, promotes the mantra "Do your job."

Carroll wields the microphone at a press conference with the aplomb of a chat-show host, with a nice line in self-deprecating humor, while Belichick more often looks as if he can't wait for it to be over.

"He trusts his players more than I think a lot of coaches do," Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said of Carroll, "and we appreciate him for that."

Belichick's players, meanwhile, talk about measuring up to their demanding coach's standards.

"Consistency," said defensive lineman Vince Wilfork. "Day in and day out, being consistent at what he does, the way he coaches, the way he runs his ship. You know what you're going to get from him each week. You're going to get his best and he expects our best. He's a hell of a coach."

Belichick, 62, is fourth in career NFL coaching victories with 232, a total that includes a record 21 playoff triumphs. He's one of four NFL coaches to win three Super Bowls, and could join Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll as the only one with four. And he's the only coach to take a team to six Super Bowls.

However, the achievements of both have been tainted by run-ins with the rule book.

Belichick was fined $500,000 and new England lost a first-round draft pick after the 2007 "Spygate" scandal, in which the team was found guilty of videotaping an opponent's signals on the sidelines.

And the Pats head into the Super Bowl under the cloud of "Deflategate" with the league probing whether they purposely used under-inflated footballs in their AFC Championship win over Indianapolis.

While Carroll coached the University of Southern California to back-to-back collegiate championships in 2003 and 2004, the 2004 title was vacated and USC penalized with a two-year bowl ban, loss of 30 scholarships and forfeiture of Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy over rules infractions during Carroll's tenure.

Carroll had fled back to the NFL and Seattle when the sanctions were handed down.

- All about Sunday -

For all their differences, the two sounded remarkably similar as the Super Bowl drew near, neither wanting to focus on past achievements.

Belichick shies away from discussing the significance of a fourth Super Bowl crown and where it would put him in the pantheon of NFL greats.

"What it's about for me is this week and our matchup with the Seattle Seahawks," Belichick said. "What did or didn't happen in any of other five, six Super Bowls I coached, five as a head coach, three that I was involved in as an assistant -- this is the one that is really important."

Carroll, for his part, credits the tenacity of his players in getting back to the Super Bowl after a stuttering start to the season.

"It's a real statement that we had a bunch of guys that were determined to get this done and they made the adjustments that we needed to make to stay on track so that we could put together a season that would put us in this position," he said. "So, we're real excited about that."

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