loafoftatupu":3ei5xo3y said:
Giedi":3ei5xo3y said:
I think Pete is pretty smart not to comment on things like that. He has better things to do. Anyway, most likely anything he says - be it good or bad - will be twisted anyway to suite whoever's point of view is repeating it. As for Harbaugh, he's a totally different personality than Pete. Totally different. He's going to say what he's going to say and I don't think he cares very much how people take it. Pete's more circumspect and chooses his words more carefully. Bottom line though is both fan bases are blessed with great coaches - no matter what kind of personality baggage's they bring to the table.
Harbs was responding to a very leading question and I am positive that he would have done it differently if he had the chance to do it over again. He gets a lot of crap for the response he gives to the Seattle media for taking a long time to respond then answering with one word answers after being tempted to elaborate. He has only been a NFL head coach for 4 years, so he is still working on that part of it.
Carroll has been doing it for a long time, I get the feeling that he knows what he is going to say long before the question is even asked. Very consistent and he never, ever has anything to say about others that could be taken out of context or used for fuel.
Harbs just responded with terminology that he likely regrets. Instead of saying something like "its unfortunate that players take those kind of chances and I hope that our players can learn from other's mistakes", he went ahead and made a very direct claim that didn't stand a chance of holding up for any length of time.
"Above reproach"... oops. That is what sparks the comments from Seahawks fans.
Now THAT I don't have an issue with. That's fairly accurate.
The point he was making all along was not that his team is perfect and Seattle is a bunch of cheaters.
His point was that he didn't like that the NFL doesn't say exactly what someone tests positive for and more importantly that teams strive to be above reproach...IE, you don't want people to ever say you only won because of X. You don't ant people to say you cheated.
He wasn't saying his team was perfect. He was saying that's what you STRIVE for.
More importantly, his entire quote was about PEDs and cheating. It had nothing to do with breaking the law. That of course doesn't make it ok....only that he wasn't addressing that when he was speaking.
I get it here. He's a hated rival. It's all in good fun when peeps drag out the "Above Reproach" line. I'd probably use it too.
However, if peeps want to have serious conversations on the topic you need to discuss the reality of what he said, not the hyperbolic version.
Should he have said it differently? Probably. I don't think he was ever trying to point a finger. I think he was simply answering a question. If you look at his mood in the questions just before and just after, it's clear he never thought that quote would become a big deal.
