Pete Carroll shows solidarity with Seahawks players and Black Lives Matters, again
As he has since he became their coach 10 years ago, Pete Carroll is showing he has his players’ backs.
Specifically, his black players’ backs.
The Seahawks’ 68-year-old coach from affluent Marin County, California, in the Bay Area posted on his Twitter account Tuesday a message of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement that is surging with renewed energy across the country in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis.
Carroll posted a black screen under his typed words: “Black Lives Matter. We stand together. #blackouttuesday”
Carroll’s posting was cognizant of organizers of the Black Lives Matters movement saying earlier Tuesday that using that as a hashtag for the blackout Tuesday push defeats the purpose of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag: to share information about peaceful protests and messaging for racial equality.
On Monday, Carroll turned the Seahawks’ daily offseason virtual training session into an extended online Zoom call of his players airing their frustrations with Floyd’s death and sharing their ideas for how to better their cause and society.
Seventy of the 90 players on the Seahawks’ offseason roster, 78 percent, are black. Across the NFL, about 70 percent of the league’s players are black.
“We did not speak about football. We focused on what was going on in the world,” All-Pro linebacker and team captain Bobby Wagner said of the Seahawks’ online meeting Monday.
“We gave everybody the opportunity to express their feelings, to express their emotions—and express their anger—and whatever it was that they were feeling. At the end of the day, you know, life is bigger than football. There are things that are happening that are bigger than football. So we provided the opportunity for guys to speak about the things they saw, the things that they are dealing with, and what it’s like in the city that they are in.”
The Seahawks, like all NFL teams, are scattered to their offseason homes while team facilities remain closed to players and coaches indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wagner said Carroll’s team call Monday was a chance for teammates to discuss what they could possibly do to help the situation and improve the changes for racial equality and an end to police brutality particularly against minorities in our country.
“To have a platform and to have a situation like that, we felt, was great,” Wagner said of Monday’s team call. “Like I said, it’s bigger than football, you know what I mean? I don’t know how you guys feel, but it’s kind of hard for me to focus on football or focus on anything other than what’s going on, because if you looked up from whatever you were doing all you saw what was happening. That made it tough.
“So being able to speak about it was definitely helpful.
“I’m grateful that we have an organization that understands it.”
This is the way Carroll has always run his Seahawks.
Carroll has since he came from college football at USC in January 2010 to lead the franchise encouraged his Seahawks players to speak their minds about what’s important to them.
Last weekend Carroll hailed on Twitter the statement of Joe Biden. The presumptive Democratic nominee for president condemned racial inequality in our country.
“The original sin of our country still stains our nation today,” Biden said during a 5 1/2-minute statement.
Carroll shared Biden’s message to his 2.2 million followers on Twitter.
“This is truth! Thanks Joe,” Seattle’s coach wrote.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 2:13 PM.
