Pete Carroll’s surprise Seahawks rookie canoe time with Muckleshoot becomes quite a trip

They came for unique team building, and for fun.

“One heart and one mind,” Donny Stevenson, vice chair of the Muckleshoot Indian tribe, told them.

They left having gotten more than most of them bargained for.

Some were scared more than at any point yet in their new NFL careers.

Coach Pete Carroll led his Seahawks rookie players into Muckleshoot tribal canoes then paddling across Lake Washington Tuesday.

Yes, the 71-year-old head man surprised the rookies with canoeing following their next-to-last practice of the offseason. It was a team-bonding event like none Carroll had put on in his first 12 years running the Seahawks.

Which brings to mind: How many NFL team facilities have canoeing on lakes out their back doors?

Tuesday’s first-of-its-kind outing accomplished the coach’s objective: Bringing them together in an typically Carroll-unusual way while having them laugh.

Or almost cry.

The outing did not go exactly as Carroll — or any of his players — expected.

Assistants had told the rookies after practice, during another of what the team calls rookie readiness meetings, that they were going “outside, to the parking lot” behind team headquarters. But then they kept walking, another 150 feet or so to the dock behind the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Then they walked onto a narrow, concrete dock into what for some Seahawks was a terrifying experience on a cool, cloudy, 60-degree day.

The water was colder than that. Some of the players found that out more than they cared to — though let’s be clear that no canoe tipped over and no player went overboard.

“I don’t know about no canoe,” defensive back and sixth-round draft choice Jerrick Reed said, during a comical video of the event he posted on his social-media account.

“I wanted to get on, like, a yacht or something.”

‘Don’t get scared’

Waves of rookies wobbled, clambered and eventually made their shaky ways off the dock into three cedar and fiberglass canoes the Muckleshoot tribe uses to fish and for ceremonies.

The Muckleshoot guide for the first canoe, the one Carroll led, told the Seahawks as they clutched their wooden plank to sit on: “Whatever you do, don’t get scared and lean over onto your buddy.”

Not all of them followed that advice.

For most of the rookies, the hour or so on the water was a welcome break from their past weeks of meetings, practices and weight-room sessions.

For some, it was harrowing. Some players had never been on a canoe or aren’t exactly water people.

That was part of Carroll’s intent, too: To emphasize the need for teamwork and cooperation to conquer unfamiliar obstacles and concerns.

Mike Morris was a different kind of thrilled.

“This dude right here,” the defensive end and fifth-round pick said while safely ashore, pointing as a fellow rookie walked past, “panicking every (minute), twitching all the time.”

Morris playfully imitated a whimpering whine.

“No. Never again,” he said. “Not with him.

“Never again.”

As Morris colorfully described how it was a great experience but he never wants to do it again, he noticed the third canoe of rookies was still on the lake. He cackled as the canoe with 10 men weighing 250 to 300 pounds listed to one side, as if it might topple into the cold water.

“You see? That’s why,” Morris said.

“I’m off. God is good.”

Morris was asked to rate Tuesday as a team-bonding experience.

“Team-bonding experience? I rate this a zero,” he said.

Morris was in full joke mode now.

“Because I learned to trust none of my teammates,” he said. “None of them have my trust.

“I feel like ‘Spoon (top rookie draft pick Devon Witherspoon) was in the back trying to calm everybody down, so I’ll give him that. J-Reed was in the back doing the same thing. But everybody in the front?

“There was somebody who tried to stand up when I was in the boat,” Morris said. “The whole boat started shakin’. We were all about to attack him. Oh my gosh!

“Navy SEALS would be next on my boat.”

By the way, don’t call the Muckleshoots’ canoes “boats.”

Rookie free-agent nose tackle Jonah Tavai learned that. The hard way.

While on the dock awaiting boarding, Tavai called his craft a boat. Stevenson, the Muckleshoot vice chair, told him tribal tradition is if you call the canoe a “boat” you have to jump into the water before being able to board it.

It’s basically a canoe-appreciation custom.

Tavai, from San Diego State and Manhattan Beach, California, peered over the dock into the lake. He pointed into it.

“How deep is it right here?” he said.

Then he dutifully jumped in.

A moment later, two Seahawks staffers pulled him out back onto the dock for his voyage — wet in the canoe, not in the water.

‘One heart, one mind’

When they got back to shore, rookie edge rusher Derick Hall walked past Carroll.

Hall looked as though he appreciated solid ground more than he did about an hour earlier.

“It was tremendous to have Muckleshoot out here taking care of us and making this a really cool event for us,” said Carroll, who led the canoe Hall was in.

The coach then chuckled.

“It was a little more difficult than we thought,” he said. “We thought it was just going to be fun and games. We had to work at it. Fortunately, we had a great skipper out there. She took care of us.”

As usual, the coach smiled the entire time. It looked at some points, particularly when he and the players first boarded their canoe, like a nervous grin.

“I wasn’t so nervous. I was worried,” Carroll said. “I was worried about our guys.

“Some of our guys aren’t as comfortable in the water as others.

“They kind of expressed that as soon as we got away from the dock.”

Carroll laughed again.

“The whole time it was ‘We’ll get you back. We’ll get you back,’” he said.

“It was a lot of fun.”

The Muckleshoot reservation, east of Auburn in south King County, was founded in 1857 as a tribal successor to the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup bands from which the tribe’s membership descends. Its 28-year-old Muckleshoot Casino on Auburn Way South is well-known in the region as an entertainment destination.

In 2019 the Seahawks and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe announced a 10-year partnership. The deal includes the Seahawks providing tickets for and hosting up to 400 tribal members at games. The tribe has a suite at Lumen Field.

K.J. Wright, the retired former Seahawks Pro Bowl and Super Bowl-winning linebacker, spoke at a graduation ceremony at the Muckleshoot Tribal School a couple years ago.

There are 32 rookie players on the team’s 90-man offseason roster. None of the rookies are from the Seattle area. First-round pick Jaxon Smith-Njigba is from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Witherspoon is from Pensacola, Florida. Second-round pick Zach Charbonnet is from Camarillo, California. Morris is from Belle Glade, Florida, and so on.

They don’t know the Seahawks’ home stadium, Lumen Field in the SoDo district of Seattle, is on Duwamish tribal land. They aren’t as well-versed in native cultures being such a large part of Western Washington’s history and society.

Getting the rookies acquainted with that was another of Carroll’s aims Tuesday.

“It’s really good to be connected with them,” Carroll said of the Muckleshoot tribal members, “and to recognize how crucial this area has been to their history, and all of their traditions that we love and take part and support.”

Charbonnet, 22, was asked where Carroll’s impromptu canoe fun with the Seahawks rookies ranks with all the activities he’s had with his many coaches in sports since he was a tyke.

“This is definitely up there,” Charbonnet said, laughing.

“We had no idea what we were doing today, especially at first coming on out here. Definitely, the little surprises and the little team bondings, this is definitely up there.

“This was definitely a great time.”

Yes, the rookies noticed their head coach half a century older than they are was the first man down the dock. He was the first one to get into the first canoe. Carroll paddled from the bow, rows in front of Hall churning along with Carroll.

The team’s social-media account hailed Carroll as “our king” with photos of the coach paddling with his players.

“I really enjoyed it,” Hall said. “I’m really trying to put everything together. Like they say: ‘One team, one heartbeat.’

“Everybody’s got to pull in the same direction. There were a couple times we thought we were going to tip over. But it was pretty fun. Definitely enjoyable. ...especially him being the guy who is in the front, making sure that he is leading that ship.”

Hall was the first player Carroll greeted after their canoe docked back behind the team facility. The coach shook the hand of the rookie pass rusher from Auburn University. They smiled.

Hall appreciates his first NFL coach for his unique, personal leadership.

And for not just staying on shore as they paddled away.

“Really showing us, again, what kind of man and what kind of person that he is to be at the forefront,” Hall said.

“Today symbolized a lot for me, just in the aspect of we weren’t out there alone. He was there with us. He was in the fight with us.

“We were all trying to figure it out together, which is huge.”