FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Pete Carroll swore he was not thinking about Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday night, you know, the one he handed to the New England Patriots as sure as Roger Goodell handed them the Vince Lombardi Trophy. He said he was not rewinding the past, only living for the moment, all that blah, blah, blah.And then the 65-year-old coach of the Seattle Seahawks left his postgame microphone inside Gillette Stadium and skipped toward his locker room hollering and whooping in a liberating way, betraying the words spoken to a roomful of reporters. Sometimes Carroll acts this way as the NFLs answer to the late, great Dick Clark -- the worlds oldest teenager. But this was different. Carroll wanted this one badly, even if its part of his job description to never, ever admit it.The NBC cameras caught him acting out on the sidelines, and these regular-season scenes in November reminded me of a regular-season NBA night in January in 1995, when Pat Riley, coach of the Knicks, downplayed his first game in Houston since his team blew a 3-2 Finals lead there the previous June. To punctuate a crucial made basket in that Knicks victory in January, Riley let out a primal scream the likes I hadnt heard from him before or since. This was the sound of a coach who had allowed his guard, John Starks, to shoot 2 for 18 in Game 7 the previous June and had been having a hard time forgiving himself for it.Two years ago in the Arizona desert, Carroll made a much bigger mistake on the goal line. He needed to give the ball to Marshawn Lynch in the closing seconds to win his second straight Super Bowl title, and instead he ordered his quarterback, Russell Wilson, to throw a slant pass to Ricardo Lockette. Lynch had run for 1,306 yards and 13 touchdowns that season, and Wilson had run for 849 yards and six touchdowns. Pressured by Belichicks stunning decision to let the clock bleed away precious seconds, Carroll decided he wanted to get the ball to Lockette, who managed 11 catches all year. An undrafted New England rookie out of West Alabama named Malcolm Butler beat the receiver to it.Theres really nobody to blame but me, Carroll said that night.He has had to live with it ever since, just like Riley had to live with leaving in Starks in 94, and Grady Little had to live with leaving in Pedro Martinez in 2003. Carroll has done a good job of it, at least publicly. It sure seems he has taken the hit like a man.Only this return match with the Patriots was a wonderful opportunity to vent, to flex his considerable coaching muscles, and to let loose a scream or three from his toes. Pete Carroll wasnt just the coach who made the worst call in Super Bowl history to gift wrap Bill Belichick his fourth championship ring. He was also the coach fired by Robert Kraft after the 1999 season so Kraft could steal Belichick from the Jets.In the leadup to this game, you could hear the hurt in Carrolls voice. He said hed planned on having control in New England but that it didnt really work out that way, the way I hoped, until I went back to USC and when I got a chance to be in charge again. He pointed out that he was a smash hit at USC -- except with NCAA investigators -- when he had the power over his program that Kraft didnt give him in Foxborough. He pointed out that Kraft did give Belichick the chance to take that thing over and run it and do it exactly the way a football guy sees it, and the rest has been a great history and a great success story.So Carroll had so much invested in his first game back since Kraft fired him all those years ago. It was a wonderful back-and-forth football game, too, not unlike the epic Super Bowl encounter between these two teams. Tom Brady opened with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that culminated in the first LeGarrette Blounts three scores, and the Seahawks started to work the problem from there.Wilson ended up outplaying his legendary counterpart, throwing three touchdown passes to Bradys none, but the night came down to -- what else? -- a questionable decision by Carroll and a goal-line stand. First, the questionable call. After his team took a 31-24 lead on a beautiful Wilson throw to Doug Baldwin with four minutes and change to play, Carroll decided to attempt a two-point conversion rather than the safer kick that wouldve forced the Patriots to score eight points to tie.Why would they go for two here? Belichick was caught asking into his headset.We wanted to see if we could put it out of reach, Carroll explained, and make it a two-score deal. It was an unnecessary gamble, and one that predictably failed. New England drove the ball down the field and to the Seattle 1 with only seconds to play. Everyone in the building had a flashback. Some 2,700 miles from University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the Patriots and the Seahawks and Belichick and Carroll would battle again over a very small piece of real estate.The most recognizable Pats fan in the house Sunday night, Mark Wahlberg, recalled before the game that he was in Krafts suite for the Super Bowl. He described the chaotic endgame scene of security officials entering the suite and preparing to escort the winning owner and family and friends down to the field for the coronation before Jermaine Kearse made his absurd catch in the same building where David Tyree made his to beat New England in Super Bowl XLII.It was sheer devastation, Wahlberg told ESPN.com as he was promoting Tuesdays debut of his USA Network show, Shooter, for which he serves as executive producer. We saw [Kearse] bobble it and we thought he dropped it and we were all cheering, and then we saw the replay on the Jumbotron. ... But we went from crying tears of sadness to tears of joy after the Butler interception. It was one of the craziest rides Ive ever been on.Wahlberg says he keeps a picture on his phone of Carroll working a drive-thru window and reaching out to deliver an order to a customer. Should I just hand this to you, the mocking Internet caption reads, or step back five yards and throw it for no reason.The Patriots didnt throw it until fourth down, after Blount and Brady failed to barrel it in. Brady threw a fade pass to Rob Gronkowski, who was tangled up with Kam Chancellor, and the presiding official made a good no-call. When it was over, Carroll said the Patriots had worked on that very play with Chancellor and a tall practice squad receiver, Marcus Lucas, in the weeks final practice. Just as Butler had worked on jumping the slant before the Super Bowl.It was a big moment in practice, Carroll said of Chancellors victory over Lucas.It was a much bigger moment in the game. Belichick gave a warm hug to Carroll on the field, and then raved about Seattles program the way he has done in the past. Carroll called Brady and Belichick the best of all time, and spoke of how much the Patriots had going for them entering this game: their relatively good health, the fact that they were coming off a bye week, the fact that they werent traveling across the country, the fact that they werent coming off a short week (Seattle played Monday night), and the fact that they never, ever lose at home.It cant get any better than that, Carroll said.In the winners locker room, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman fielded a question about the Super Bowl and decided the similar finish in Gillette Stadium was more ironic than anything. He said he thought the Seahawks might see the Patriots again this season, in February. He said that potential rematch would do far more for his coachs legacy than Sunday nights.Its not going to eliminate the criticism [of Carroll], Sherman said of the victory. This game is not even close to the significance of the Super Bowl. I think he gets that its a different year and hes kind of moved past it as much as you can.As far as making good on his worst night as an NFL coach, Pete Carroll still as a long way to go. But he did gain ground Sunday night.?He did pick up a good 10 or 15 yards on the ghost that will haunt him from here to his next championship parade. Wholesale Royals Jerseys . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Custom Kansas City Royals Jerseys . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay. Kansas City Royals Store .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Stitched Royals Jerseys . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. Four of sports biggest stars used the opening moments of Wednesday nights ESPYS broadcast as a call to promote social change.Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James took the stage together at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles and urged their fellow athletes to be active socially.Generations ago, legends like Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe and countless others, they set a model for what athletes should stand for, said Paul, the?Los Angeles Clippers star point guard. So we choose to follow in their footsteps.The message comes after high-profile shootings in Dallas, Orlando and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.The system is broken, the problems are not new, the violence is not new, and the racial divide definitely is not new, but the urgency for change is definitely at an all-time high, said Anthony, the New York Knicks star who has been outspoken in the wake of the high-profile shooting deaths last week of two African-American men and five Dallas police officers.Added Wade, who recently agreed to a deal with his hometown Bulls in Chicago, where violence has surged in recent years: The racial profilinng has to stop.dddddddddddd The shoot-to-kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop. But also the retaliation has to stop. The endless gun violence in places like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention Orlando, it has to stop. Enough. Enough is enough.James, who went on to win five ESPYS, including best male athlete and best NBA player,?closed the speech by calling out to all athletes.?Tonight were honoring Muhammad Ali, the GOAT, he said. But to do his legacy any justice, lets use this moment as a call to action to all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence and renounce all violence and, most importantly, go back to our communities, invest our time, our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them. We all have to do better.ABC will air a Town Hall meeting with President Obama on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET from Washington, D.C. The President and The People: A National Conversation will be shown commercial-free on ESPN and ABC, and streamed online at Watch ESPN and Watch ABC. ' ' '