Pete Carroll implies that Sauce Gardner is a liar
Perhaps the most unexpected "next level" rivalry in the NFL is brewing across conferences and generations, 3/7/2023
Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award over Tariq Woolen in part because of sticky coverage as one of the league’s top cornerbacks last season. Apparently, Pete “People Know Me for Gum Now” Carroll is too sticky even for Gardner…but the Sauce isn’t too hot for Pete.
I don’t if anyone else besides Seaside Jay and I are watching Next Level Chef on Fox, but in the words of Richard Blais, Pete cooked up something “next level” on Twitter this week and I’m ready to put him in the top kitchen for this one. The cliffnotes recipe to explain this tweet by Pete: He’s calling Sauce Gardner a liar.
The background, in case you missed it is that at least week’s combine Sauce told the NFL Network that his most awkward interview in the pre-draft process last year was with Pete Carroll because he got “too close” to him.
In short, h/t Field Gulls, Gardner says Pete made him uncomfortable by being a close talker.
“I remember my Seahawks interview/meeting, that was probably the most uncomfortable one,” Gardner said.
Gardner indicated Pete Carroll sat “so close” and asked him what he looked for in a receiver, multiple times without letting him finish.
Because they had not picked a cornerback in the first or second round in Pete’s entire history with the Seahawks, the meeting with Sauce was quite notable given that it would have cost Seattle the ninth overall pick. That was never close to becoming a reality because the Jets chose Gardner with the fourth pick—one of the highest-drafted at his position in history.
Gardner led the NFL with 20 passes defensed and held opposing players to a passer rating of 62.7 and yards per target of 5.3 on 46-of-86 attempts. Not bad.
I refuse to care about awards but yes, Woolen allowed a rating of 48.7, 6.3 yards per target, 34-of-66 passing, and he had six interceptions to Sauce’s two.
I don’t know that Pete Carroll cares about awards or rivalries either, but is he coming to the defense of Woolen? Gardner had no idea what he was stepping to when he made the comments about Pete last week though, because Seahawks Twitter is about as petty (not an insult) and ready for action as any fanbase on the Internet.
But Gardner might be petty and ready too. He instantly responded to Pete’s video evidence with a reply of his own, going the denial route instead of explaining himself. “Imma just assume it’s y’all media team who picked 3 pictures when we weren’t by eachother” said Gardner, which actually is not a full denial that he lied.
Technically this exact statement could read the same and it could still be true that Pete was never close to Sauce. They could have been “not close to each other” the entire time and the media team or Pete could have still picked three pictures.,
The two teams rarely meet, but Sauce did have a season-high four pass deflections in Week 16. Pete Carroll got the win and set Seattle up for a trip to the playoffs that the Jets wouldn’t get in the AFC because they lost.
The Seahawks and Jets are set to face off again in 2024 at MetLife Stadium. We should expect that the game could be.…Close.
This whole thing has been and continues to be incredibly dumb but the Next Gen Stats joke was actually good.
This one of the sadder aspects of social media. Stupid question, followed by stupider answer, leading to even stupider argument. All of which somehow became news. The only bright spot- Kenneth’s commentary that puts the tempest into the perspective teapot.