PHOENIX — Pete Carroll’s exit from the New England Patriots was strange.

As he left the field on Jan. 2, 2000, minutes after his New England Patriots croaked the Baltimore Ravens, 20-3, he flashed a big smile and waved to the fans as we walked toward the tunnel at Foxboro Stadium.

The fans, though, weren’t waving back. In fact most of them were cursing the soon-to-be fired coach. Three years after their Super Bowl loss to Green Bay, the Patriots finished their third straight season with one fewer win than the year before, this season at 8-8.

Then it got weirder.

Near the end of his press conference, when asked for his parting advice for the fans, he said, “Everybody needs to enjoy the fun of it all. Enjoy it. This is a fun game.”

Pats fans weren’t buying it.

Carroll was mocked for his upbeat messages, and Bob Kraft gave the fans what they wanted: A one-way ticket back to the West Coast for Carroll.

Some people said he was a rah-rah college coach, at best. Others (like me) said he simply wasn’t a leader of men.

Wrong. And wrong again.

The joke was on us, dour and demanding New Englanders that we are. It didn’t help that the 1990s had been one of the worst decades for Boston pro sports.

At USC after his firing, Carroll led the Trojans to two national titles and a top-four ranking an amazing seven times.

What he has done in Seattle since his hiring in 2010 is just as amazing, and as special as what Bill Belichick has done in Foxboro.

When he arrived back in the NFL, he developed a strategy to rebuild the Seahawks.

“Developing a really competitive roster, keeping it young, always trying to upgrade,” said Carroll. “That mentality is really pervading. It shows up everywhere.

“That style that we want to play, about being a physical team and running the football and playing defense,” said Carroll. “We tried to remain uncommonly consistent in that commitment. I think that’s the core of everything.”

In keeping with that philosophy, the Seahawks’ first major acquisition was Marshawn Lynch.

But what’s striking to observers back East has been how Carroll’s energetic, positive collegiate personality has worked at the professional level.

Punter Jon Ryan, who was a Seahawk two years before Carroll’s arrival, said the atmosphere changed the minute the new coach walked into the building.

“Football is a grind, by itself,” said Ryan, who started with the Green Bay Packers in 2006 before joining the Seahawks in 2008. “Pete comes in and practice is fun. He plays music sometimes. We have a basketball hoop and guys have shooting competitions.

“I know it sounds hokey, but it isn’t,” said Ryan. “Pete made it very loose around here. You just perform better, in my opinion that way. Of course, they went out and got guys like Marshawn, Earl (Thomas).”

Two 7-9 seasons later, the Seahawks added the key ingredient needed to reach the Super Bowl: a quarterback. Russell Wilson was the big, final missing piece.

Carroll’s Seahawks have since gone 11-5, 13-3 and 12-4 and competed with the best in every one of those seasons.

Longtime, 6-foot-8 defensive end Alfred Williams (1991-99) stopped by a Seahawks media session on Wednesday to hear Carroll’s morning press briefing. He played one year for Carroll, in 1995, when they were both with the San Francisco 49ers.

“My year with him was special,” said Williams of his former defensive coordinator. “He always was high-energy, always excited. But it was real. It wasn’t fake.

“Pete has a lot of confidence in himself and what he’s teaching,” said Williams. “If you are a head coach and don’t think you’re going to win a championship, you’re the wrong guy for the job. Pete’s a winner. And best of all, he’s a nice guy.”

The Carroll success story doesn’t sound familiar around here. We don’t see the smiles, hugs and “woo-hoos” that Carroll dispenses.

While the Seahawks don’t yet qualify as a dynasty, or even a consistent winner, they appear to be on the right path.

Just ask Pats coach Bill Belichick.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Seattle has done in the five years that Pete has been here, the way they’ve built the team,” he said on Wednesday. “I’ve tried to look at it and I’ve definitely taken some things from it, learned from what the organization has done.

“They’re consistent,” said Belichick. “They know what they want.”

While Carroll was overwhelmed in New England, following Bill Parcells and a Super Bowl berth, it doesn’t appear he had the support system in place, or the loyalty, with players going over his head to the general manager (Bobby Grier) and even the owner.

But his Seattle success has shown something to us New Englanders. Whatever you think of his rah-rah approach, Pete Carroll is a leader

You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.