Monday, January 21, 2008

23 Reasons Why a Profile of Pete Carroll Does Not Appear in this Space | Table of Contents | LA Magazine

23 Reasons Why a Profile of Pete Carroll Does Not Appear in this Space | Table of Contents | LA Magazine: "23 Reasons Why A Profile of Pete Carroll Does Not Appear in this Space"
Wonderful profile. But, like the man, it is NOT really a profile.Some want to save the world -— Carroll wants to coach it. He’s launched a foundation, A Better LA, aimed at motivating on a large scale, at ending violence in the inner city, and he now takes time each week to think and talk about problems other than what to call on third and long. With any coach who’s still coaching, drawing conclusions can be hard. His legacy is always in flux; it hinges on what happens next Saturday. But when a coach is remaking himself into a social activist, when he’s just beginning the task for which he may one day be best remembered, firm statements feel that much more ridiculously premature.

Read #16. I've put it in the comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

16. I CAN’T CONCEIVE ANY EXPLANATION FOR WHY THIS BEAUTIFUL CARROLL ORCHESTRATED MOMENT WASN’T NATIONAL NEWS, WHICH MAKES ME QUESTION ALL MY JUDGMENTS ABOUT CARROLL

The first quarter of the first game of 2007. Carroll’s team is preoccupied, heavyhearted, mourning their beloved placekicker, Mario Danelo, who died in January after falling from a cliff in San Pedro. (Danelo was drunk, but police still don’t know why he fell.) The players have honored Danelo with an emotional pregame ceremony and with a moment of silence before kickoff , but it’s not enough. After USC scores its first touchdown, Carroll sends just ten men onto the field to kick the point after. One man is missing—Danelo.

Slowly the crowd realizes what’s happening. They see the holder kneeling in an empty backfield—a sort of missing man formation . Murmurs ripple through the crowd, then a cheer goes up. It grows louder. The play clock runs down, the refs whistle the play dead. USC is penalized for delay of game. The ball is moved back five yards. At last Danelo’s replacement trots onto the field and boots the ball through the uprights. The symbolic gesture, which perhaps has given some extra comfort to Danelo’s family, sends chills around the Coliseum and further cements the bond between coach and players.

Anonymous said...

another great quote:

“One thing I’ve learned, which I was taught a long time ago but didn’t grasp at the time, is the power of practice,” Carroll says. “The discipline that comes from practice, that allows you to transcend the early stages of learning and take you to a point where you’re freefl oating and totally improvising. Through the discipline, the repetition, you become free.”