Pete Carroll doesn't think he made the worst call of all time

Pete Carroll has an interesting football legacy.

He has been on the losing side of perhaps the greatest college football game and the greatest NFL game ever (2006 Rose Bowl, Super Bowl XLIX), and in each he was criticized for a call near the end of the game.

In USC's loss to Texas, he gave the ball to LenDale White on fourth down, without even having Reggie Bush on the field. White was stuffed, Vince Young rallied the Longhorns to a win. And we know all about the decision to pass on second and goal at the 1-yard line in last Sunday's Super Bowl.

It has been such a topic of conversation that Carroll sat down for a way-too-grave interview with Matt Lauer of NBC's "Today," in which the normally affable coach was asked questions like he had let down the entire universe.

And no, he doesn't think it was the worst call ever.

"It was the worst result of a call ever," Carroll told Lauer. "The call would have been a great one if we catch it."

Carroll has explained the call, and basically it was that the Seahawks didn't want to let Tom Brady have too much time if they scored, they ran down the clock and then had enough time (with less than 30 seconds left and one timeout) for only two Marshawn Lynch runs. They figured to pass on second down and run with Lynch on third and fourth if they didn't score on the pass. Patriots' rookie Malcolm Butler made a great play to ruin the Seahawks' plans (the more removed we get from the game, the more Butler's play stands out as an unbelievable effort that is clearly overlooked because of all the noise of the play call).

I'm not sure that's worth shaming Carroll into apologies, but it appears that's what he'll have to deal with for a while.

"We knew we were going to throw the ball one time in the sequence, so we did," Carroll said. "It just didn't turn out right."

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab

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