Hartman: Carroll, Vikings were a missed connection

As the Vikings get ready to face the Seahawks on Sunday, it's worth remembering that Pete Carroll — who has a combined 34-24 record through four seasons in Seattle and has the best record in the NFC this year at 9-1 — nearly became the Vikings coach more than two decades ago.

In January 1992, it was looking more and more likely that the Vikings would name Carroll, then the New York Jets defensive coordinator, to replace the retiring Jerry Burns.

Around New Year's Day, Vikings President Roger Headrick received permission from the Jets to contact Carroll. "I don't discuss specifics," Headrick told the Star Tribune at the time, but Carroll was generally considered the most likely candidate to be hired.

Headrick will no doubt deny this, but he was telling certain people in the Vikings office there was a good chance Carroll would be the next coach. Carroll, a close friend of mine to this day, told me he thought he was going to get the job. He had impressed Vikings brass when he was the team's defensive backs coach from 1985 to '89.

Eventually the Vikings also looked at San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren, Louisville coach Howard Schnellenberger and Stanford coach Denny Green.

Schnellenbeger stayed at Louisville, Holmgren headed to the Green Bay Packers and the Vikings settled on Carroll and Green as their two finalists. Going into the last week before Headrick made his decision, Carroll was still the front-runner.

One late candidate also emerged when New York Giants coach Bill Parcells called to see if Headrick was still looking for candidates, but he said the team already was down to its final two choices.

Carroll remained with the Jets as a defensive coordinator for two more seasons, became head coach in 1994 and was fired after one 6-10 season. He spent two years with the 49ers as a defensive coordinator, three years as coach of the Patriots and eventually settled at Southern California, where he established a tremendous coaching record that landed him his current position with the Seahawks.

At the time, Carroll said he and Headrick were supposed to meet one last time, but it never happened.

"Roger Headrick and I were supposed to get together and talk it over one more time, but we had trouble connecting on how to get together," he told the Star Tribune. "We never got it arranged because they started to go the other way, I guess. He called me around 10:30 a.m. to tell me he made a verbal commitment to Dennis Green. I told him good luck and I'll see you later."

Adrian Peterson had a number of tremendous games last season on his way to 2,097 rushing yards, but his performance in Seattle, against a tremendous Seahawks defense, where he rushed for 182 yards on only 17 carries and scored two touchdowns, had to be one of the best.

Peterson was asked what he expects this year from a Seattle defense that has given up 111 rushing yards per game and only four rushing touchdowns on the season.

For Peterson to be successful, he said the Vikings will need quarterback Christian Ponder to play as well as he did in the last game against Washington, when he posted a 113.1 quarterback rating and completed 17 of 21 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns in the Vikings' second victory of the season.

"His play is very key to our offense and being balanced," said the 2012 NFL MVP. "We're going to need him to continue to perform well. His preparation, I'm sure that's what he's looking into doing — coming in making sure that he's crossing his T's and dotting his I's and making sure that he's prepared to go out there and play his role.

"We all have a role to play and we hold each other accountable, so hopefully we can get him playing the way he played last week."

Peterson said he also is looking forward to playing Seattle because he will be able to see a number of former teammates. The ex-Vikings on the Seahawks roster include Percy Harvin, Tarvaris Jackson, Heath Farwell and Sidney Rice, though Rice is on injured reserve. Also, Carroll's offensive coordinator is Darrell Bevell, Peterson's first offensive coordinator with the Vikings.

When Harvin was traded last offseason, Peterson was shocked by the move, and he said this week he always thought the two would have a long career together in Minnesota.

Jottings
• Apple Valley star Tyus Jones is the first Minnesota high school boys' basketball player to commit to Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski since Kris Humphries, who signed a letter of intent in 2002 but was released before he graduated from Hopkins, ending up with the Gophers for one season.
• Gophers football coach Jerry Kill recently said that the team's reaction to losses to Iowa and Michigan to start the Big Ten schedule was very telling to the coaching staff. "I think the big thing in that [Iowa] game is we had our opportunities and didn't take advantage of them," Kill said. "I think the big thing there is as a coaching staff is we put the film on and we knew we were getting better and the kids knew that we had a chance to be good. They just had to clean up their mistakes and learn from them. When you have a young team you're going to have some of that. But the kids, I think all through the season, have taken coaching."
• Heath Farwell was one of the best special teams players in recent history for the Vikings, accumulating 113 tackles and three forced fumbles over a five-year career here and making the Pro Bowl once. But in 2011 the Vikings released Farwell instead of meeting his contract demands, and he signed a one-year contract with Seattle. In 2012 he re-signed with Seattle on a three-year deal worth $4.5 million. He is now their special teams captain and has eight tackles and two forced fumbles this season.
• In the next two weeks, Major League Baseball and the Twins will announce ticket prices for the All-Star Game and related events scheduled for July at Target Field. Twins season-ticket holders will be given priority in purchasing tickets, which will only be sold in three-event strips. A yet-to-be-determined number of strips will be available to the general public through a random-draw process.