Mike Macdonald walks fine line stripping Seahawks facilities of Pete Carroll’s imprint

When the Seattle Seahawks hired USC coach Pete Carroll as their head coach in 2010, the team was in disarray. Carroll was the team's third head coach in three seasons, and the Seahawks hadn't won more than five games in the prior seasons.

Carroll came to Seattle with a youthful exuberance, the jaw of an energizer bunny, and a wealth of experience. The 59-year-old coach began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1973. By the time he arrived in Seattle, he had spent 10 years as either a defensive coordinator or head coach for four NFL teams. Carroll transformed the lowly Seahawks into annual contenders. Carroll's Seahawks made the playoffs in 10 of his 14 seasons with the team. He compiled a 137-89-1 record (.606) with 10 playoff wins, two Super Bowl appearances, and one Super Bowl championship.

In a move that few saw coming, Pete Carroll was fired and replaced by former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald this offseason.

Mike Macdonald removes all signs of Pete Carroll's Seahawks

Now, all of the rich history that Pete Carroll built with the team has been torn off the walls. The 36-year-old coach has removed most remaining remnants of Carroll's culture and legacy with the team, from a basketball hoop inside the auditorium at Seahawks headquarters to pictures in the hallways.

Throughout the team's facilities, the team's most memorable moments were immortalized on wall-sized murals. There was Richard Sherman's deflection against Crabtree, Marshawn Lynch's Beast Quake, Golden Tate's Fail Mary, Bobby Wagner's interception against Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLIX, and Carroll raising the Lombardi Trophy, among many others.

"[Macdonald's] serious about being something different and creating our own identity," Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams told ESPN's Brady Henderson.

Williams said the new regime is "obviously going to respect tradition and the history of the Seahawks, but I think it's given us a clean foundation to create whatever we want to be. We're not chasing to be like any other team that's been here before. We want to create our own identity."

It's hard to view tearing down any memory of Seattle's golden era as honoring the team's history, but every coach has their own way to motivate players and instill their culture. If the Seahawks are buying in and it leads to wins, then there won't be any problem with it. If that new identity ends up being a losing one, however, this decision will only look worse as time goes on.

Bill Belichick was perhaps the biggest advocate of wiping the slate clean each year. After each Super Bowl win, he would remind his team the following season that they hadn't accomplished anything, and the banner night at the start of the season was not for them. But even Belichick wouldn't tear down memory of past greats. In fact, he did the opposite: he kept those players on the walls, then quizzed his current players about those on the walls. It was a way to teach his players the history of the game and give them examples of great players they could learn from. He even gave his team a lesson about the Green Bay Packers when they played at Lambeau Field, and took his teams to Jim Brown's statue when they played the Cleveland Browns.

Carroll and general manager John Schneider established themselves as premier talent evaluators and transformed the Seahawks with an infusion of youth through the NFL Draft. During Carroll's first three years, the Seahawks drafted Earl Thomas, Russell Okung, Golden Tate, and Kam Chancellor in 2010. The following year, they added K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell, and Malcolm Smith. In 2012, they added Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, and Russell Wilson.

Those three draft classes combined for a total of 12 first-team All-Pro seasons and 38 Pro Bowl nods. They were all represented on those walls. In 2024, Macdonald will have to start filling those walls with his own legacy.