PHOENIX — Pete Carroll had a mission when he took over as coach in Seattle in 2010 — to prove that his large-and-in-charge coaching model could work in the NFL. It was not the way things operated during his three years in New England.

“This is a football game we play,” Carroll said Monday. “There is a business that goes along with it, but the football, I think, has to be run by football people. I thought this was an extraordinary opportunity from the day that I arrived in Seattle to prove that. We’ve set out to kind of show that this is the way organizations can be run.

“Look where we are. This has been the best format for me. Maybe it isn’t for other people, but it is for me.”

After two seasons of building, Seattle has three consecutive years of double-digit victories and will make a repeat Super Bowl appearance Sunday against the New England Patriots, the first team since the Patriots in the 2003-04 seasons to do that.

Officially, Carroll is the executive vice president in charge of football operations, and to best understand his pull and power, he was hired eight days before general manager John Schneider joined the team in January 2010.

After being fired in New England in 1999 despite no losing seasons in three years, Carroll found his niche at USC, where the Trojans won two national championships and were named Sports Illustrated’s team of the decade for the 2000s.

The contrast in job responsibilities at his NFL stops bracketing USC is striking — “entirely different,” he said.

The Seahawks’ job description “really came of the years at SC, where we had an athletic director and the football head,” Carroll said. “I had the opportunity there to make every decision, from recruiting, academics to everything. Responsible for all of that. I felt like that was really an opportunity for me to be at my best.

“When this opportunity came here, it was expressed and clearly laid out that I could have the same type of responsibility and the same kind of approach. It’s been really instrumental, because the way we do things is not the way a lot of other people do things.

“It’s done our way. We have our own language, our own control, our own decision-making process. I think it has made all the difference in the world. It’s what every coach needs, I think, to be at his best. The format and structure that is generally accepted in the league is not that. I understand why.”

Since dismissing Carroll, Patriots owner Robert Kraft seemingly has come to embrace that style as well. Bill Belichick, who replaced Carroll, is seen as the man who controls everything football in New England.

Carroll said he made that point with Kraft after he left. Belichick was hired shortly thereafter.

“Robert and I had a terrific relationship, and I didn’t hold back when we talked,” Carroll said. “I had one opportunity to say something to him about that and I thought it was really a unique hire, a special hire, and a guy who would really fit in well if he let him do what he was capable of doing.

“Bill is a very open, free thinker and a guy who needs that kind of control to be at his best. I don’t know they structured it, how they defined it, but it’s worked, historically, in extraordinary fashion. They have made a great statement over the last 10 years. Robert has really grown as well, obviously.”

–Carroll made it clear that cornerback Richard Sherman was speaking his own opinion Sunday when he implied that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Kraft were too close.

“Richard has an outlook that Richard owns, and he had an opinion about something,” Carroll said. “I don’t think he knows the commissioner and Mr. Kraft very well. I don’t think they have a longstanding relationship, but he has an opinion of that and he expressed it.”

Sherman said he did not believe the Patriots would be punished for the underinflated-footballs scandal because of the close relationship between Goodell and Kraft, who were together at Kraft’s home before the AFC Championship Game.

“I think perception is reality,” Sherman said. “It is what it is. Their resume speaks for itself. Their past is what their past is. Their present is what their present is. Will they be punished? Probably not. Not as long Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell are still taking pictures at their respective homes.

“Talk about conflict of interest. As long as that happens, it won’t affect them at all.”

Carroll said he will speak to Sherman.

“We actually talk about most everything that is spoken, so eventually that will come up,” Carroll said. “We won’t share with you how that comes out, but we will talk about stuff.”

–Seattle safety Kam Chancellor is ready for his matchup with New England tight end Rob Gronkowski.

“He definitely is a big, physical guy, but it’s just big on big. Just play big on big,” Chancellor said.

Chancellor is 6 feet 3 and 232 pounds. He had 11 tackles and a 90-yard interception for a touchdown in the Seahawks’ 31-17 victory over Carolina in the divisional round. He has been named to the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons but has missed the game the last two years because of Super Bowl commitments.

Gronkowski is 6-6, 265. Considered the most physical tight end in the league, he had 82 receptions for 1,124 yards and 12 touchdowns this season.

“I think he is pretty great,” Sherman said.

–We know the Legion of Boom. Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin is promoting the Pedestrians with Attitude, his motto for the Seahawks’ receiving corps, a group that lost Golden Tate in free agency in the offseason and Percy Harvin in a midseason trade. He has been on a no-respect kick for several weeks.

“I think we got the negativity and the disrespect in a different way, saying we miss Percy or we miss Golden or the no-names who are out here at receiver,” said Baldwin, who had 66 receptions for 885 yards this season, both career highs.

“We enjoy that. It adds some motivation. It adds some flair to it. We embrace it. I have a shirt underneath my sweatshirt that says, “Pedestrians with Attitude.” We enjoy the label because we embrace it.”