Pete Carroll may be the oldest head coach in NFL history, but it sounds like he has as much energy as he did when he led the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl win more than a decade ago.
The Raiders began their season with a 20-13 win over the New England Patriots last week at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The night before the game, Carroll reportedly went ballistic during a meeting in an attempt to fire up his players.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Carroll kicked through a whiteboard while leading a meeting the night before the Raiders beat the Patriots. Those who were in the room said the 73-year-old coach entered like a WWE superstar and allowed the tension to build before delivering a speech about competing hard against New England. He focused additional attention on the former Patriots players who were in the room.
Carroll then kicked a whiteboard and destroyed it while urging his team to go into Gillette Stadium and kick the door in.
“He just knows how to reach guys. This is why he’s who he is,” one person in the room told Rapoport.
Carroll was the head coach of the Seahawks from 2010-2023. Many were stunned when the team pushed him out given the success he had, having won a Super Bowl and led the team to another. The Seahawks clearly wanted to get younger, as they replaced Carroll with 37-year-old Mike Macdonald.
Every head coach in the NFL is younger than Carroll, but there was probably only one who kicked through a whiteboard to send a message to his players at the start of the season.
The Raiders will host the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday, which happens to be Carroll’s 74th birthday.
