McManaman: What is Pete Carroll really saying?

It's impossible to climb into the mind of someone you don't really know.

But we wanted to try anyway.

That's why The Heat Index made a beeline to Pete Carroll's table about 45 minutes before the start of Wednesday's NFC coaches' breakfast with the media at the Arizona Biltmore.

Other NFC coaches drew bigger crowds like Jason Garrett of the Cowboys, Mike McCarthy off the Packers and especially the Eagles' Chip Kelly, whose table was packed four-deep with cameras and microphones. But we decided to focus on Carroll because of something the Seahawks coach recently told Andrea Kremer of the NFL Network.

She asked him about that fateful play at the end of Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale last month when, instead of letting Marshawn Lynch pound it in from the 1-yard line, the Seahawks chose to pass the ball and Russell Wilson's throw was intercepted at the goal line to preserve a dramatic win for the Patriots.

It may go down as the most controversial play call in the history of sports.

"Those kind of occurrences, they don't go away," Carroll told Kremer. "And I'm fueled by it. I always have been. There's a big part of me that doesn't want to let it go. I want to make sure I'm always with it, I always know what happened, so I can learn from it and do the right thing next time. That's one of those plays that will never go away."

Carroll has told friends that the play still keeps him up at night. If he's purposely trying to hold on to the memory, though, he shouldn't expect to get any decent sleep, right?

Well, Carroll tried his best to explain those comments to us on Wednesday and we came away more confused than anything. In one breath, he said the play was something he could use as a motivational tool. In the next, he implied it was meaningless.

To wit:

"Yeah, it's just another one of these games over the years that you hang on to and you hang on to them on both ends of the spectrum – the good things that happened, the bad things that happened," Carroll said. "They're just memories. You recall them hopefully when they best suit you."

Asked how he could use it as a positive, he said, "Just about the reality that the game goes to the very last second and you have to be on, you have to execute things the way you want to do it, and think clearly and utilize your preparation properly. And also how special it is to win."

OK, but then a few minutes later he tried to make it sound as if he's completely moved on from the play and erased it from his memory banks.

"Yeah, I did that within the instant of looking at the ground and standing up at the game," Carroll said. "In that instant, I was already working toward what's coming up. I recall that very clearly. I think that's again, that's discipline, it's being prepared and knowing you're going to have to deal with things at both ends of the spectrum."

Huh?

Carroll compared the botched play to what it was like trying to motivate his team to repeat as Super Bowl champions a year earlier. Honestly, it started to make some sense, but then somewhere he lost me when he said "it's all about language, the things you say, the way we answer questions."

"Words are very powerful," Carroll said.

Yeah, but his weren't exactly making any sense.

"Like last year, when we dealt with all the questions that dealt with having to repeat and do all of these other things," he went on. "They'll be the same battery of questions – and you guys are doing it right now – (but) our focus, our direction, our mentality is already moving forward."

The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like he was once again falling on the sword for Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who swore to us after Super Bowl XLIX it was his decision, not Carroll's, to call the pass play.

My theory is Carroll took the blame as the leader of the team and ever since, he's not really sure what to say about the "The Play" anymore.

"I know you guys want to make this like it's different than something. It's not," Carroll went on. "It's the same. What's happened has already happened. What's coming up is what you deal with."

Wait, what just happened? Is Carroll saying he's holding on to the play or letting it go? Nobody asked him about Bevell. We just wanted to know if what he told Andrea Kremer still stands.

Here's what he said when someone asked him if the play, then, is still in the back of his mind:

"No. It'll be like other examples I've had from 40 years or whatever it is I've been coaching. I think it's just another one."

Well, if he's trying to forget about it and he hopes Seahawks fans forget about it, too, I reminded Carroll that trading for Saints tight end Jimmy Graham might have been the perfect tonic to erase that unpleasant memory.

"I don't know," Carroll said. "It's a terrific opportunity for is. We're really excited about bringing him to our club and adding him to our team. But I don't think … Maybe. I don't know. We'll have to see what happens."

Honestly, I spent a quarter of an hour with Pete Carroll on Wednesday and I still don't understand what just happened.

Reach The Heat Index at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Monday at 5:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Radio with Roc and Manuch on AZ Sports Talk.