Bay Area Native Carroll Basking In Super Bowl Win, Expecting Repeat
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - Lost amid the escalating rivalry between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers is the fact that the man who guided the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl crown was born right here in the city by the bay. If his postgame comments are any indication, he doesn't plan on taking it easy on the hometown team in the near future.
"Our guys will be surprised if we didn't [repeat as Super Bowl champions]. We have an eye on what's coming. We won't dwell on what's happened," Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said at a press conference Monday.
Carroll hasn't been getting a lot of love from Bay Area crowds in recent years while heading the Seahawks and USC Trojans coaching staffs. He was once cheered as a 3-sport star at Redwood High School in Larkspur before playing football at College of Marin from 1969-70.
Carroll was born in San Francisco and, according to Redwood High School's Hall of Fame, he spent time selling roofing materials in the area after graduating from UOP. He soon took to coaching only to return as a 49ers assistant in the 1990s. Carroll first gained the ire of Bay Area fans as the head coach of USC, where he and then Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh faced off in some high-profile contests.
Now Carroll and cornerback Richard Sherman – a Stanford alum – have become the faces of a franchise largely despised by Niner Nation. Their trademark swagger doesn't appear to be going anywhere.
"This is exactly what we envisioned. We'd have deserved it, we'd have earned it. This is exactly what we prepared for and expected. It might sound cocky and arrogant. But it's a mindset," said Carroll.
That winning attitude, first put to use in the Bay Area, could be haunting the 49ers for years to come.