That Time Pete Carroll Called Me

If you follow Motherhood and More on Facebook or Twitter, you’re probably already aware of this, but I thought I’d share some more details and try to get my non-social-media readers caught up.

In short, it’s been the most exciting week of my life outside of my marriage and the birth of my children.

Last week, I wrote this post about how the Seattle Seahawks—and specifically head coach Pete Carroll’s coaching philosophies—are making me a better parent. It was a fun and inspiring post to write, and I figured the timing was good with the Seahawks preparing for their first playoff game.

I shared the post on Facebook and Twitter, and I tagged Pete Carroll just for funsies. I figured people who follow Coach Carroll might enjoy it.

Then, a couple of hours later, I got an e-mail from the Seahawks Special Assistant to the Head Coach. It said that Coach Carroll had read my post and greatly enjoyed it, and that he would like to speak with me on the phone. Was it was possible to set up a time for him to call?

I was totally cool as a cucumber and said, “Yes, that would be nice. Thank you.”

Except not really. What really happened is that I freaked out, scared my kids with my hyperventilation, tried to call my husband who was out for pizza with his brother and frustratingly not answering his phone, fat-fingered a series of totally incoherent text messages to him, and then wondered if this wasn’t some kind of elaborate joke.

When Havarti and his brother (two of the biggest Seahawks fans on planet Earth, FYI) finally got my messages, they freaked out themselves and told me to respond immediately. So I did.

Five minutes after I sent my phone number to the coach, my phone rang. It was a west coast number. Holy crap. Was this really happening?

So, yeah. Pete Carroll called me. Little old Annie. The day before the Seahawks’ first playoff game. To chat about parenting philosophy.

It was as surreal as it sounds.

The conversation was awesome, though. He was exactly like he is in every interview you see of him. Upbeat and genuine. I could practically feel the cool, positive energy oozing through the phone.

He thanked me for my post and told me that I totally nailed the connection between parenting and the Win Forever philosophy. He asked me about myself and my family. He asked if he could share my post on his Twitter, saying, “We’ll just put it out there and see what happens.” (Um, yes please.) He thought the post might be a great foundation for a book or a short parenting handbook or something. Then he said he wanted to put me in touch with someone at his Win Forever training program. They’ve been trying to get their message out beyond the sports and corporate worlds, and he liked the way I kept it clear and simple.

So this week I’ve been chatting with them about some collaborative possibilities. WAHHH! Can you believe it?

To make it even more exciting, a friend of mine who works at a news station in Spokane (the closest large-ish city to us) saw my Facebook post about it and pitched the story to his producers. That’s how this TV interview with KREM-2 news came about. (Click here to see it on mobile.)

That was all kinds of fun. Then I got an e-mail from KOMO News Radio in Seattle, asking if I had time for an interview. Oh heck, why not?

This is the audio file KOMO sent of the interview after it aired. (The host that sent it to me said that if it seems choppy content-wise, it’s because in the live radio segments, the anchors inserted all kinds of commentary throughout that we don’t hear here. The cheesy background music wasn’t part of the actual radio segments, either. So unfortunately, this isn’t nearly as cool as it was when it aired, but it’s still cool.)

(By the way, I’m totally aware that a lot of you have no idea who Pete Carroll is, much less Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, or Marshawn Lynch, nor do you care. Football isn’t everyone’s thing. Just imagine getting a surprise phone call from your favorite actor or author or musician. This is that. And as you can imagine, my husband and Seahawk-fanatic in-laws are totally beside themselves about all of this.)

At this point, the blog post has been shared on the Win Forever blog and the Seattle Times Sports blog, and Yahoo! Sports picked up the story as well.

CRAZY. FUN. LIFE.

But you know the best thing about all of this (besides the actual phone call)? The more I’m delving in, the more truly jazzed I am about using Pete Carroll’s philosophies to help parents bring out the best in their kids and themselves. Even the concepts of “competition” and “winning,” which I thought weren’t really applicable to parenting, are actually perfectly fitting when you look at the origins of those words. (The Latin roots of the word “compete” essentially mean “to seek/aim/strive together” and the Germanic root winnan means “to strive, toil, struggle.”) It’s already made a difference in my own parenting attitude. I’m totally psyched for this.

One thing at the heart of Pete Carroll’s positive approach was that his mother told him to always believe that something good is about to happen. (See? It all comes back to parenting, even for the most inspiring coach in football.)

So if I do end up writing a book, awesome. If I end up collaborating with the Win Forever people in some other capacity, that will be awesome, too.

We’ll see where it all goes. Whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be something good. 🙂

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