Super Bowl Shows Value of Losing

The Seahawks' dominance last night put Pete Carroll "in an elite circle of the all-time greatest football coaches," but he wasn't always held in such high esteem, writes John Tamny at Forbes. "Failure made Pete Carroll." Carroll, you'll recall, was fired after just one season as head coach of the Jets, and was unceremoniously canned in New England as well. From these experiences, he learned "that the organization and the owner one coaches for matters."

Instead of jumping into another coordinator role, Carroll left the league and reinvented himself at USC. When he returned to the NFL, he insisted on organizational control, using his newly honed team-construction chops to draft such unheralded stars as Richard Sherman (a 5th round pick) and Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith (7th round). Carroll's story "speaks to the wondrous, life enhancing value of failure as a driver of future success," Tamny argues. "When we shield individuals and businesses (think the bailed out banks and carmakers) from their errors, we perpetuate what makes them mediocre." Click for Tamny's full column. (More Pete Carroll stories.)