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

That would be an interesting recap, Pete.

The 73-year-old Seahawks coach, who coached until 11 months ago, is considering becoming an NFL head coach again next season. He has “expressed interest” in coaching the Chicago Bears. This emerges from a report by NFL reporter Adam Schefter on espn.com on Wednesday.

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

Carroll coached the Seahawks for 14 years, achieving the most sustained excellence in franchise history. Seattle made the playoffs 10 times and won its only Super Bowl championship under Carroll’s leadership from 2010 to January 2024. At the time, team chairman Jody Allen and vice chairman Bert Kolde chose general manager John Schneider’s path over that by Carroll. The Seahawks fired Carroll, then the league’s oldest coach, at the end of last season. That was a week after they finished 9-8 in its third non-playoff season in 12 years.

The Seahawks replaced Carroll with Macdonald. The Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023 is the youngest NFL head coach at 37 years old.

Macdonald has the Seahawks a game plus tiebreaker behind the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC West title with two games left.

When the Seahawks fired him 11 months ago, Carroll hinted that he might not be done coaching yet. He said with certainty that he wouldn’t just be riding waves outside his home on Hawaii’s north shore with his wife, Glena, whom he spoke of fondly through tears on the day the Seahawks let him go after 15 years.

“I’m supposed to lie down on a cot somewhere,” Carroll said in January 2024. “That’s not happening.”

Schefter reported that “league sources” say that Carroll has become interested in coaching in the NFL again in recent weeks.

“Sources say he hasn’t spoken to any teams yet,” Schefter wrote on espn.com on Wednesday, “but he would welcome the chance.”

Pete Carroll last year

The Seahawks paid Carroll an estimated $15 million this year to terminate his contract.

He was in the Seattle area last year. He attended his grandchildren’s youth sports games on the east side of the city. He attended the University of Washington football team. His son, Brennan Carroll, is completing his first season as the Huskies’ offensive coordinator and offensive line coach under first-year UW coach Jedd Fisch.

In August, while 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 with the answer that I could practice tomorrow,” Carroll said four months ago. “Physically, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for a long time. I’m ready to do all the activities I do and feel really good about it.

“I could, but at this point I don’t wish I could.”

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

Not coaching a football season for the first time since 2000, the year between being fired by the New England Patriots and being hired by USC to revive its dynasty, has apparently made Carroll change his mind.

Last month, Carroll saw Bill Belichick, his contemporary at age 72, become the new head coach at the University of North Carolina.

Three NFL teams need 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 advanced past the wild-card round since the 2010 postseason, when Chicago defeated the Seahawks in the divisional playoffs, ending Carroll’s first season ahead of Seattle.

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

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