A re-Pete? Former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is reportedly looking to return to the NFL in a strange place

Pete Carroll returns to coaching? In the city the Seahawks arrived for Christmas?

It would be an exciting repeat of Pete.

The 73-year-old Seahawks coach until 11 months ago is exploring becoming an NFL head coach again next season. He has “expressed interest” in coaching the Chicago Bears. It is according to a story Wednesday on espn.com by NFL reporter Adam Schefter.

The Seahawks (8-7), with rookie head coach Mike Macdonald replacing Carroll, play the 4-11 Bears Thursday night at Soldier Field. Chicago’s coach is interim boss Thomas Brown. The Bears enter Thursday night on a nine-game losing streak.

Carroll coached the Seahawks for 14 years to and through the most sustained excellence in franchise history. Seattle reached the playoffs 10 times and won its only Super Bowl championship with Carroll at the helm from 2010 to January 2024. That’s when team president Jody Allen and vice president Bert Kolde chose general manager John Schneider’s path forward over Carroll’s. The The Seahawks fired Carrollthen the league’s oldest coach, at the end of last season. That was a week after they finished 9-8 in his third non-playoff season in 12 years.

The The Seahawks replaced Carroll with Macdonald. The Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022 and ’23 is the youngest NFL head coach at age 37.

Macdonald has the Seahawks one game plus tiebreakers behind the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC West title with two games remaining.

Carroll hinted at the time The Seahawks fired him 11 months ago he may not have finished training. He said for sure he won’t just be riding waves off his North Shore home in Hawaii with his wife Glena, whom he spoke fondly of through tears the day the Seahawks let him go after 15 years.

“I’m going to go lay on a cot somewhere,” Carroll said in January 2024. “It’s not happening.”

Schefter reported “league sources” say In recent weeks, Carroll has become interested in returning to coaching in the NFL.

“He hasn’t spoken to any teams yet, according to sources,” Schefter wrote on espn.com on Wednesday“but he would welcome that chance.”

Pete Carroll in the last year

The Seahawks have paid Carroll what is believed to be around $15 million this year to terminate his contract.

He has been around the Seattle area for the past year. He has attended his grandchildren’s youth sports games on the city’s east side. He has visited the University of Washington football team. His son Brennan Carroll is finishing his first season as a the Huskies’ offensive coordinator and offensive-line coachunder first-year UW coach Jedd Fisch.

In August, when NFL teams were in training camp, Carroll was asked on KJR-FM radio in Seattle if he wanted to coach again.

“I get asked a lot, so I’m pretty comfortable saying I could train tomorrow,” Carroll said four months ago. “I am physically in the best shape I have been in for a long time. I am ready to be ready to do all the activities that I do and feel really good about it.

“I could, but I don’t want to at this time.”

He said at the time on KJR that he was looking forward to returning to the University of Southern California…to be a teacher.

Sitting out and not coaching a football season for the first time since 2000, the year between the New England Patriots firing him and USC hiring him to revive its dynasty, has apparently caused Carroll to change his mind.

In the past month, Carroll has watched Bill Belichick, his contemporary at age 72, become the new head coach at the University of North Carolina.

There are three NFL teams in need of a head coach for the 2025 season: the Bears, the New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets. Carroll’s first head coaching job was with the Jets in 1994.

Why Chicago now? The Bears have had four head coaches in the last eight years. They have only made the playoffs twice in the last 14 seasons. They haven’t been past the wild-card round since the 2010 postseason, when Chicago beat the Seahawks in the divisional playoff to end Carroll’s first season leading Seattle.

Carroll is reportedly intrigued by coaching Caleb Williams. The Bears’ rookie franchise quarterback was the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Williams won the 2022 Heisman Trophy with USC.

Carroll coached two Heisman winners at USC: Carson Palmer in 2002 and Matt Leinart in 2004.