FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- One of the obvious story lines in Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks is the matchup of head coaches Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll.
Belichick, of course, succeeded Carroll in New England in 2000, with Carroll saying the Super Bowl has an added twist because of a "little personal stuff."
Belichick was asked about Carroll on Monday.
"Pete is a great football coach, his record speaks for itself. I've always had a lot of respect for Pete," Belichick said on a conference call. "Pete believes what he believes in. I think they kind of have their way of doing things, but it works very well. Pete is consistent and he has a consistent message. I think he's coached pretty much the same, has the same kind of style, similar type of coaching personality and scheme for many years now. It's well over 20 years that I've coached against him [and] known him through our different competitions in the National Football League. In college, when he was at USC, you saw more of that. He had tremendous success there.
"Pete is a good friend. I sit down and talk to him on many different occasions and I really respect what he does, how he does it, how his players play hard, they play well, and he has a very resilient team with a lot of energy. I think he's done a tremendous job in Seattle as he did at SC. He's really a good football coach and they have a really good team.
"I like Pete. I like him a lot."