Bill, Nick and Pete.
Three solid names. Three names synonymous with football, as they belong to Bill Belichick, Nick Saban and Pete Carroll. Three leaders. Three winners. Three men gone from football - at least for now - in a 24-hour period earlier this week.
Most if not all of you now know the story--the resignation of Nick Saban at Alabama, he of seven college football national championships; Bill Belichick's "moving on" resignation, leaving New England after winning six Super Bowls for that franchise; and Pete Carroll, "evolved" from head coach to the front office at Seattle and the only coach to have won both a college football national championship (twice at USC) and an NFL Super Bowl (with the Seahawks.)
The symmetry here is eerie, not only given their success but because of the connections between the three. Saban and Belichick are very close friends (see The Art of Coaching documentary by HBO), Saban took over for Carroll as assistant coach at Ohio State (1980), Saban and Belichick coached together with the Cleveland Browns, Belichick became head coach at New England after that team had fired...(wait for it)...Pete Carroll. All three are descendants of Croatian immigrants. Saban and Carroll are 72 and Belichick is 71.
Football, and thus coaching football, is a very black-and-white. You win, you lose. (Ties are rarely an option given overtime rules in both the NFL and the college game.) And these three men won a lot of titles and a lot of games. They won with different styles of leadership and coaching, and with different personalities.
Three coaches intertwined throughout their careers but, most of all, through their on-field success.
Football, and sports, lost three men who made an indelible impact on their craft. And, while the timing is eerie, it seems very fitting that they all did it together.
