Macdonald, Seahawks’ new head coach, is exactly half Pete’s age
It was a defensive-centric head coach that brought the Seattle Seahawks their only Super Bowl title.
The Seahawks are hoping a newer — albeit much younger — version can return them to the elite of the NFL.
The Seahawks are hiring Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald as their new head coach, a person informed of the decision told The Associated Press.
Macdonald, 36, will arrive in Seattle as the youngest head coach in the league and half the age of the man he’s replacing — Pete Carroll who was let go after 14 seasons in charge during the most successful run in franchise history.
Macdonald spent the past two years running Baltimore’s defense, including this past season when the Ravens finished with the NFL’s best regular-season record and reached the AFC championship game before losing to Kansas City.
This will be the first head coaching position at any level for Macdonald. But he’s been surrounded by successful coaches as he moved up the ranks, starting with an extended run on the staff of John Harbaugh in Baltimore before spending a season on now-Chargers’ coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff in college at Michigan.
Seattle made it clear that Macdonald was one of its top candidates when it didn’t move forward on a hire prior to the conference championship games. Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn seemed a clear front-runner because of his past connections to Seattle. But the longer the Seahawks went without moving ahead with Quinn, the more it became obvious there were other options being considered.
DONATIONS FOR JACKIE STATUE
Donations poured in Wednesday to replace a destroyed statue of Jackie Robinson on what would have been the 105th birthday of the first player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
Major League Baseball pledged support. And the total raised just through one online fundraiser surpassed $145,000, which is far in excess of the estimated $75,000 value of the bronze statue that was cut from its base last week at a park in Wichita, Kansas. Police are searching for those responsible.
Only the statue’s feet were left at McAdams Park, where about 600 children play in a youth baseball league called League 42, which is named after Robinson’ s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major leagues’ color barrier in 1947.
Fire crews found burned remnants of the statue Tuesday while responding to a trash can fire at another park about 7 miles (11.27 kilometers) away. A truck believed to be used in the theft previously was found abandoned, and police said the theft was captured on surveillance video.
TRAINER ACCUSED OF STRIKING HORSE
A harness racing trainer in upstate New York was accused of striking a horse and fracturing its skull, requiring the animal to be euthanized, authorities said.
Frederick Bourgault, 26, was arraigned Tuesday on two charges in connection with the death of a race horse named Finish Line last July at the Pine Bush Training Facility in Crawford, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of New York City, according to Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler.
Bourgault is accused of striking the horse with an unspecified hard object, causing a skull fracture that resulted in the animal being euthanized, according to a social media post from Hoovler.
Investigators later had the horse exhumed and examined by veterinary experts.
Bourgault was indicted in November on two felony charges, including second-degree criminal mischief. A judge on Tuesday ordered Bourgault, who is from Canada, to surrender his passport as the case proceeds.