He said his greatest regret was allowing running back
Curtis Martin to depart as a restricted free agent in 1998 -- he had warned the team's top decision-makers that Martin was upset with his contract situation, but felt he didn't have the authority to rectify it -- and acknowledged that he didn't realize how powerfully the public perception of relaxed, chillin' "California Pete" would work against him.
"I followed the absolute coach of the decade," Pete Carroll says of taking over the Patriots from Bill Parcells. "I don't think I weighted the impact of that properly."
Carroll also explained that his experience in New England, when
his teams went 27-21 in the regular season, taught him one important lesson: If he was ever to come back to the NFL,
it would only be with the authority to make those crucial Martin-like decisions.