Pete Carroll botches the Super Bowl

— -- GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Pete Carroll was going to be the happy face of the NFL, the guy who put the fun back in the No Fun League. He was one Marshawn Lynch yard away from talking up his back-to-back championships with Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon or David Letterman -- or all of the above -- and showing the world you can create a pro football dynasty while acting like a child loose in a candy store.

All Carroll had to do was apply a little common sense to the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, and no, it wasn't too much to ask. Carroll had already won it all with the Seattle Seahawks and the USC Trojans. He had earned the unconditional respect of his opponent, Bill Belichick, who knew Carroll as a closer who had inspired Seattle to "compete relentlessly as well as any team and any organization I've ever observed."

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