I want to do something here to make sure I'm remaining objective. I want to examine my own contradiction, and will do so in view of all.
In the past, I've said that I am generally in favor of keeping absolutely everything in-house, as much as possible, outside of praise and non-divisive forms of accountability (self-reflection, etc.) This, of course, is in direct conflict with my own feelings of refreshment at an angry Pete Carroll.
I suppose my fandom is a bit backed into a corner here. I love Pete, man. I do. I know he's worn out most of his goodwill among the crowd, but I enjoy Pete's personal philosophy and the way it's paid dividends for not just himself, but his organizations. His energy is something I aspire to.
Man, I get up in the morning and head to work. I do my job through gritted teeth half the time, from my own perspective. But I'm generally described as chipper, team-oriented, etc. Maybe it's just that I grew up with Pete (I was 14 when he was hired) but I think he's been a big influence on shaping the better attributes of my nature. I try to be energetic, uplift others, and move us all towards a goal. I think I derive elevated enjoyment out of those things in no small part because the Seahawks are a huge part of my life and they had a different energy because of that guy.
It gets harder each year to defend the results, though. That hurts me, because I don't want to have to acknowledge that this isn't working as well as it used to.
When Pete came into the league, he wasn't necessarily angry, but he was a determined son of a bitch. He turned over every stone to make this team in his image. The front office ripped apart the world looking for their guys, and they got them. Success seems to have tempered that specific sense of "I'm going to grab the world by the horns and hump it into submission," but it never hampered his energy which puts most of my fellow twenty-somethings to shame, let alone his fellow septuagenarians.
The anger we saw from him, which is just about as uncharacteristic as it gets for the Pete we know today, is analogous to that determination. He's backed into a corner, and he's showing some signs of trying to punch out of it. Those signs of life, after years of these slips and slides, give me something to chew on other than "What the hell does the future hold from here?"
Yes, in an ideal world, I don't like this specific manner of messaging. But backs against the wall, feeling the sand slip through our fingers yet again... I'm game for anything as long as it isn't some Baghdad Bob "everything is fine" stuff.
The core attribute of Pete's entire ethos, his life force, is competition. He's gotta compete harder than ever.
TL;DR: My thoughts in this thread are directly contradictory to the things I've said in the past. I think it important to own up to that and explain.