Arguably no NFL head coach has done a better job in the past couple of decades of creating a culture, a vibe, an attitude in and round his team than what Pete Carroll created during his 14 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.

Now Carroll, a Marin County native, Redwood High-Larkspur graduate and a defensive coordinator for two seasons with the 49ers under George Seifert, has signed up to try to fix one of the most broken cultures in all of the NFL: the Las Vegas Raiders.

Yes, Carroll, at 73, will be the oldest coach in NFL history when he coaches his first game. But he never seemed to age in Seattle. Maybe it was that fresh northwest air. Maybe it was his magic chewing gum, keeping his jawline taut and his face muscles trim. We’ll see how he survives in Vegas, a town that seems to age everyone quickly. Will Pete end up chain smoking at a slot machine?

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Carroll’s age isn’t the most relevant number in this new equation. The important figure is 14. With the hiring of Carroll, that is how many coaches the Raiders have had since Jon Gruden was traded to Tampa Bay 24 years ago. Carroll will be the 14th Raiders head coach in that span, and the fifth since the team moved to Las Vegas in 2020. Gruden resigned midway through the team’s second year there, in the wake of his email scandal.

Since Gruden’s departure, Raiders owner Mark Davis has been out of ideas, floundering along, without a leader, a quarterback or any semblance of a plan.

But now, Davis can tap into the combined forces of proven winners in part-owner Tom Brady and Carroll. And Davis is suddenly hearing something he has rarely received: the sound of the NFL world applauding his moves.

“I think this is great,” former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman said on his podcast, about the hiring of his former Seahawks coach. “It gives them stability, legitimacy, a chance in the division. Players want to come play for him.”

The AFC West just became the heavyweight group of coaching legends. The Chiefs’ Andy Reid, Broncos’ Sean Payton and Carroll have all won Super Bowls – they have five rings between them – and the Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh is desperate to join that group.

And that’s the delicious side plot of the Carroll hire: we get Harbaugh vs. Carroll, Part III, the most heated coaching rivalry the NFL has seen in years. Their friction started back in the Pac- 10 when Carroll was at USC and Harbaugh was at Stanford with the infamous “What’s your deal?” question from Carroll at the midfield handshake. It soon continued on into the NFL when the two men battled it out for NFC West supremacy – Harbaugh with the 49ers and Carroll with the Seahawks.

The regular-season series was evenly split, four wins and four losses in the four seasons they went head-to-head. But Carroll won the most important game: the NFC Championship Game after the 2013 season, earning a trip to the Super Bowl, which the Seahawks then won. A year later, in the Thanksgiving game that put a definite end to Harbaugh’s 49ers tenure, it was Carroll’s team that was gnawing on turkey legs on the field of a brand-new Levi’s stadium while the 49ers team imploded around them.

So, yes, Part III is going to be fun.

“The rivalry between Pete and Jim continues,” Sherman said.

There’s a lot of work to be done. Will the Raiders bring in QB Russell Wilson, reuniting him with his old coach? Though there was reportedly tension between them in the waning days in Seattle, that is said to be in the past. And the Raiders could do worse with a stop-gap quarterback than one who knows how to win, knows how the head coach operates, and would very much like to prove to the AFC West that he is better than what he showed in his disastrous stint in Denver in 2022-23.

The Raiders have a new general manager in John Spytek, another Michigan man whose relationship with Brady dates to their time together with Tampa Bay. There appear to be smart men with winning track records involved with the Raiders decisions, which is a first.

Leading the way will be Carroll, bringing his wealth of league connections and winning knowledge, chomping his gum, firing up his guys, getting everyone to buy in. The important part of the hire isn’t his age; it’s putting a stop to the spinning turnstile of Raiders head coaching hires.

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