For Pete's sake, we'll talk about awards

There's just one problem with the three standard explanations for why Pete Carroll has never been named the NFL's Coach of the Year: None of the are actually true.

I don’t really have to make the case for Pete Carroll as the NFL’s coach of the year, do I? We’re all familiar with it around these parts.

Besides, the issue isn’t really about the fact he won’t win it this year. It isn’t even about the fact he wasn’t among the five finalists the league announced last week. The issue is that he’s never won it. Never even come close. Not in the 13 seasons in which he has been Seattle’s head coach.

It’s part of a larger trend. John Schneider has never been named the Executive of the Year, either. And no Seahawks player has won a major individual team award. In 2014, Bobby Wagner received what remains the only MVP vote cast for a Seahawk player during Carroll’s tenure. It’s kind of remarkable when you think about it. Over the past 13 years, the Seahawks have been one of the five most successful teams in the league by any measure you choose, and I honestly think I’m being conservative there. As they have done this, no member of the organization has been singled out for an individual award beyond All-Pro selections. It isn’t amazing so much as it defies credulity.

And at this point, I’m not nearly as interested in making the case for Carroll as I am in exploring the idea of why he — and the rest of the organization — have been so continually overlooked during his tenure, and I’ve got my own theory about that, but today, I’m going to show why the three most commonly cited explanations for why Carroll has never been named Coach of the Year are a bunch of poppycock.