Pete Carroll responds to SI report an anti-Russell Wilson rift broke up champion Seahawks: “No”

Pete Carroll says, no way, no how, he has not seen, dealt with or had to manage any anti-Russell Wilson rift inside the Seahawks’ locker room. At any time.

Not after coming within 1-yard and Wilson’s goal-line interception from winning a second consecutive Super Bowl in February 2015. Not when the team sent away outspoken starts Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett this offseason. Not now.

“No. No. No. I have...I don’t even know what that would mean,” Carroll said Friday.

That was hours after a Sports Illustrated published a story, titled The Dynasty that Never Was: Inside the Unraveling of the Seattle Seahawks. It anonymously quoted what its writers said were former and some current players who believe a locker room divided for and against Seattle’s franchise quarterback was a chief reason the champion Seahawks broke up in the past year.

“I’m going to sound like Kavanaugh: I don’t know.”

The coach was referring, in deadpan, to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his Senate confirmation hearings this week in Washington, D.C.

The coach again tried to put the Seahawks’ tumultuous past, particularly the infamous way Super Bowl 49 ended three years ago, behind them. Especially two days before this season’s opener, at Denver.

Carroll blamed himself for the past being, at least for Friday, a present again.

“I didn’t do a good job of teaching, you know. Because one of the main principles of our teaching is, we’re not going to worry about what’s happened. All our focus is going to right now,” Carroll said. “And so that’s the discipline that we learned, and I just haven’t taught it well enough. Whether you win or whether you lose, whatever happens, you know we need to move forward and leave stuff behind. And go.

“Other than that, I don’t care about it.”

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 3:22 PM.