The most remarkable thing about Pete Carroll is not that he got a third chance to become an NFL head coach without winning a Super Bowl. The most remarkable thing is hes the third-oldest head coach in the league.

Take one look at Carroll and you dont think 61. Take a second look and you think theres a misprint in his bio.

If one watches the way he bounds around the field like a gazelle on uppers, unflaggingly joyous, he seems like a wild-eyed college coach rather than the stoic, joyless statues normally patrolling NFL sidelines. Although easily lampooned, it is refreshing to watch.

Carrolls approach has always been different. Hes as competitive as anyone in the game but realizes its still a game, not a war. He believes a team belongs to its players. They need direction and correction, but in the end, they have to be responsible for themselves and to each other.

That approach didnt seem to work with either the Jets or the Patriots. He was fired after one season in New York because the Jets did what no Jet can survive: starting fast (6-5) and ending badly (0-5).

He was fired after three mostly successful seasons in New England (27-21, two playoff appearances) because he made the mistake of following a legend, Bill Parcells. As Carroll would learn, it is better to be the man who follows the man who followed The Man than to be next in line behind a folk hero.

Parcells was all about East Coast edges. Carroll had rock music blaring from his office. The contrast was simply too much once the winning stopped.

Certainly the team declined on Carrolls watch. Things trended in the wrong direction not only year by year but season by season, as those teams started off fast (4-0, 4-1, 4-0) but finished slow (6-6, 5-6 and 4-8). Carroll had inherited a Super Bowl team, it was said, and coached it to mediocrity, but that is not totally accurate. Through no fault of his own, he lost Hall of Fame RB Curtis Martin to stubbornness on upper managements part after Carrolls first season. After that, the Patriots were not a Super Bowl team any more. They were a team in decline.

By the final game of his final season, he was starting only three of 27 players drafted by general manager Bobby Grier, a result not only of poor drafting but also selecting players who did not fit Carrolls approach.

One thing a coach must have is talent that fits him, both stylistically and strategically. If he likes tall corners, dont draft Chris Canty (a miniature cornerback the Patriots took No. 1 in 1997 who started only 12 games in four years before moving on to his lifes work).

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Carroll's new NFL coaching legacy in Seattle